Edinburgh Castle has been a Hillfort for over 2000 years. Once an active volcano, the colloquially known “castle hill” now holds a wondrous presence in the Scottish Capital.The Royal Mile starts at the Castle entrance, and runs to the gates of Holyrood Palace. The Royal Mile is made up by a series of connecting streets including  Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street, Cannongate, and Abbey Strand.

This Historic Thoroughfare is flanked by Elegant Town Houses and Living Quarters and between these old dwellings you will find a flurry of Traditional and Modern outlets. Famous Kiltmakers vie with well-known outlets for woollen goods; boutique stores lay out a shop front window that entices you in to explore; bakeries, restaurants and cafes exude a plethora of wonderous scents and sounds that have you torn between yourself as you try to choose one.

Guided tours will explain the castle area has been a hillfort for over 2000 years, and has been occupied for more than 7000 years. The name Edinburgh comes from the Scot’s Gaelic "Dun Eidyn" which means 'hillfort on the sloping ridge'. The Royal Mile is actually more than a mile by 107 yards.  It was in 1124 when King David I saw the hillfort and the village (which supplied goods to the noblemen, soldiers, and monks in the fort). I was immediately inspired to remodel the town and granted trading rights to the township and the Lawnmarket became an open air trading market. He then went about setting out the High Street which then was locally known as Via Regis which means the Way of the King. It is possible that this is where the name Royal Mile originates.

Grand timber buildings were constructed and named after the landowners and this tradition can still be seen today on the present Royal Mile. The gaps between the buildings are called closes after the 'dividing enclosures'. The enclosures had large gardens which housed livestock. This medieval garden city was destroyed, its houses burned in 1544 by the English, during the period called the Rough Wooing. Henry VIII of England ordered its destruction because he was trying to force the Scots to allow his son to marry the infant Mary (Queen of Scots). By 1591 the houses were mostly made of stone but the overcrowding conditions were becoming worse, although within the Cannongate the nobility were living in grand mansions with grand gardens.

By 1645, the situation became much worse as the number of people living within the Royal Mile reached almost 70,000. Some buildings were fourteen stories high and there could be up to three hundred people living in one block, sometimes with ten people sharing a single room. It wasn't until the end of the 18th century that street cleaning was organised.

The publisher and Lord Provost William Chambers in 1865 began to change this and extensive modern restorations were carried out. He built the new tenements on Blackfriars Street and St Mary's Street. The Old West Bow was demolished, and Cockburn Street cut through a maze of buildings joining it to the train station. Further work was carried out in the 1880's by Patrick Geddes, town planner and Botanist, who remodelled the Cannongate section and the top of the Mound. He designed courtyards and gardens which were reminisant of what the Royal Mile had looked like 500 years earlier.

If you have time be sure to read up and various sites and maybe take a tour of the Royal Mile to truly soak up this famous piece of Scottish culture.