History junkies can easily overdose in Edinburgh with The Castle and Palace just the most obvious—and expensive—attractions. Down the Royal Mile, smaller museums like the Writer’s Museum (Makar’s Court, Lawnmarket) the Museum of Childhood (42 High Street), John Knox House (43 High Street) and The People’s Story (163 Canongate) all provide different views of the city and its inhabitants. They share a website run by the council at www.cac.org.uk. The Museum of Scotland and the Royal Museum (Chambers Street, Website: www.nms.ac.uk) give a Scottish perspective and have great views from the roof. Art-lovers have a small but succulent selection to choose from in the form of the National Gallery of Scotland complex on the Mound, the National Gallery of Modern Art, the sculpture-oriented Dean Gallery out at Belford Road, and the National Portrait Gallery on York Place. All are represented on ww.nationalgalleries.org. Getting away from it all is easy in Edinburgh. The Water of Leith Walkway runs from Roseburn, near Murrayfield Stadium in the West, past the back entrance to the Gallery of Modern Art, down through Dean Village and Stock-bridge, past the Botanical Gardens at Inverleith and on to The Shore at Leith. The walkway provides some particularly verdant points as it runs through the small gorge between Dean and Stock-bridge. Once in Leith, it is a short walk to where the Royal Yacht Britannia is permanently moored at Ocean Terminal; access is through the huge shopping mall there. Climbing Arthur’s Seat doesn’t take long, but by taking a more circuitous route you can reach parts of the park where nothing but mountain and sky are visible (if you’re lucky—it’s cloud all the way if you’re not). The walk under Salisbury Crags is shorter and also gives interesting views of the city. For sports fans, Murrayfield is the home of Scottish Rugby and many of the international home games are played there. It also plays host to Heart of Midlothian (www.heartsfc.co.uk), one of Edinburgh’s two Scottish Premier League football teams, when they are playing in Europe. Hearts’ home ground at Tynecastle is atmospheric, but too cramped to conform to UEFA regulations. City rivals Hibernian (www.hibs.co.uk) play at Easter Road.

Excursions
The Tourist Information Centre (3 Princes Street, located above the Princes Mall shopping centre, Tel: 473 3800, Website: www.edinburgh.org) is a good source of information about day trips and short breaks around central Scotland and beyond. Many of the leafl ets available there give good ideas for events and individual travel. The Visit Scotland website (www.visitscotland.com) is also packed full of information. Golf Scotland has some of the best links golf courses in the world, and several of these are in East Lothian, along the coast from Edinburgh. The ancient links of Old Musselburgh is widely accepted as the oldest golf course in the world. Visit www.visitscotland.com for information.

The Borders area to the south is full of historical references; Abbotsford was the home of the writer Sir Walter Scott. West of Edinburgh over the Firth of Forth heading to Fife, many small historical towns—such as Linlithgow, the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots, and Dunfermline where Robert the Bruce was buried—are easily accessible by train.