Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Old Town Royal Mile Walk (5/5 - Castle Views)

 

The target of our Royal Mile walk was to reach Edinburgh Castle. You know how you research a place before you visit, but is never confident how it would turn out unless you're really there in person? So this walk for me was like finding my footing in this city, knowing the length of the Mile, the location of things, and how easy it was to get anywhere. So it was exciting when I finally reached my end point and see the sun set at the castle :)  We were due to visit it the next day at 930am :) 

But here and now, it was just time for us to explore the grounds outside the castle. It was basically just an empty concrete square. But at the side of it, there are some monuments to be seen. Like this one for Scottish Horse. Why horse? Well the next photo has more information on it.

It was nice seeing how people honour the animals that serves them.

Above is the view opposite of the castle entrance. It was a very huge square. Just at the left of that photo was the Witches' Well. I forgot about it the first time I was there, but went again the next day to properly took a photo of it. Witches, something very much mysterious yet cruel in Scottish history. 

We walked around the edges of the square. Since the castle was on top of a hill, from there you could look down on the whole of Edinburgh. Facing the castle, above is the view at the left side of the square. We did eventually visit the below area when we went to visit Castle Terace the next morning. 

Here is a further view of the area looking more towards the Museum area. 

And above is the view to the right of the square, overlooking residential areas, the New Town, and sea. This was where we walked on Sunday when we visited Dean's Village and Stockbridge area. Through out our stay in Edinburgh, we walked everywhere. We only took public transport once, which was our last day when we took the bus to the airport. We also took a Uber to Castle Terrace to meet up with our tour guide for our trip to Isle, and that was it. I've yet to visit Leith side of Edinburgh. And I just feel that I would visit again even after our 2026 trip.... 

Leaving you with a selfie of us on our first day in Edinburgh as we stood outside Edinburgh Castle.