Edinburgh, the Lothians & the Borders
The capital on its rock — and the hills, loch-side palace and border road around it.
The capital and the country around it — the hills that ring Edinburgh, the loch-side palace where Mary, Queen of Scots was born, and the long road south to the very first village over the border. For a great many visitors this is where Scotland begins: you arrive at Gretna, or fly into Edinburgh, and everything opens out from here. Below are the stops we’d make on the way in or out, with the capital itself as the centrepiece.
Edinburgh
Edinburgh needs little selling — one of the great cities of Europe, built across a set of volcanic ridges so that the whole place rises and falls in cliffs and crags. The castle on its rock looks down the Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyroodhouse; the medieval Old Town and the Georgian New Town together make a UNESCO World Heritage Site; and you can climb a proper hill — Arthur’s Seat — from the middle of the city. Come in August and the whole place becomes the world’s largest arts festival; come in winter for a quieter, moodier version that’s just as good. Give it two or three days if you can — our full city-break guide breaks down how we’d spend them. A definite visit, and for many the highlight of the whole trip.
The Pentland Hills
Right on the city’s southern doorstep, the Pentland Hills are Edinburgh’s great escape — a rolling range of green tops, reservoirs and heather moor that feels a hundred miles from the capital but starts barely twenty minutes from Princes Street. Robert Louis Stevenson walked here as a boy and never forgot them. Start from Flotterstone (there’s a car park and a good inn), follow the track up past the Glencorse Reservoir, and you’ve got everything from an easy loch-side stroll to the stiff climb up Scald Law, the highest of the range. It’s the perfect leg-stretch to balance a couple of days in the city.
Linlithgow
West of the city, the old royal burgh of Linlithgow is well worth the short detour. Its magnificent palace stands right on the edge of its own loch — a great roofless Renaissance shell that was the birthplace of both James V and his daughter Mary, Queen of Scots. Alongside it, the crown-spired church of St Michael’s completes one of the finest historic set-pieces in central Scotland, and a flat, easy path circles the loch beneath it. Combine it with the Falkirk Kelpies and the Forth bridges and you have a cracking day out of Edinburgh.
The road south to the Border
Head south and every road eventually funnels toward England — and the first (or last) place in Scotland on the main western route is Gretna Green. For more than two centuries runaway English couples raced here to marry over the blacksmith’s anvil, exploiting Scotland’s looser marriage laws, and the little village has been trading on romance ever since — anvils, love-locks and all. It’s an unashamedly touristy stop, but a cheerful one, and a fitting place to cross the border. From here the roads lead up into the Borders proper — the abbeys and mill towns of the Tweed — a quieter Scotland we’ll be adding more of in time.
Why Edinburgh & the south?
Because it centres on one of the great cities of Europe — and rings it with proper hills, a loch-side royal palace and the storied road to the border. Give Edinburgh itself two or three days, then let the Pentlands, Linlithgow and the run south add the breathing space and history around it. As an arrival point or a grand finale to a Scottish trip it’s a definite yes — with more of the Borders still to come.
Explore more: Lochs · Castles · Clans · Standing Stones · Kirks & Abbeys.
Whisky nearby: Over the hills in Hawick: The Borders Distillery, the first in the region for 180 years.