With the Edinburgh Festival fast approaching this August, there’s no better time for a weekend escape to Scotland’s cultured capital. Anna Selby discovers the charm, character, and culinary surprises of the city with the delightfully sounding sobriquet, ‘Auld Reekie’…
Fancy a weekend in Scotland’s most elegant city? Edinburgh is around five hours away on the train and, if you leave around lunchtime, there’s plenty of time to get there and enjoy a Friday night out in the city. I was staying at the Resident Hotel in Edinburgh’s West End, just moments from Princes Street.
Newly opened, it’s not perhaps the first building you might immediately associate with Edinburgh with its grand stone terraces and crescents. Housed in a modern building (once an outpost of HMRC) it has been transformed into a delightful space with many of the rooms having views of the castle, particularly glorious when it’s lit up at night – I’d recommend the junior suites on the top floor for the best views.
By the time I’d checked in, I discovered the Resident had a particularly happy “Happy Hour” – it includes free wine for all the guests! Thus fortified, I asked the staff for recommendations for dinner and accordingly found myself at the Voyage of Buck, a lovely old Victorian pub with an excellent cocktail list and an extensive food menu offering far from standard pub food – such as Lindisfarne oysters, roast rabbit and a “hash brown” made from black pudding.
As Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh is the home of many festivals (notably the massive summer arts festival but there are many others – including a great Christmas market in Princes Gardens). There are lots of museums and galleries – all free – and, of course, the Castle that stands in pride of place on an extinct volcano watching over the streets below.
It’s a city with lots of districts, too. The two most famous are the medieval Old Town with its narrow closes, wynds and courts and the elegant New Town built in the 18th century, an unrivalled exercise in town planning with beautiful gardens and neo-classical architecture.
There are others, too, albeit lesser known and only gradually coming into their own. One such is Leith, a once neglected and unattractive shoreline that has undergone significant regeneration and is now the setting for a major Ocean Terminal for visiting cruise ships. On a rather smaller scale is the retired royal yacht Britannia, now a museum and left very much as the royal family left it when it was decommissioned in 1997.
The Queen’s Bedroom, Royal Yacht Britannia (photo courtesy of royalyachtbritannia.co.uk)
You may be surprised initially that this was (according to Trip Adviser) the UK’s No 1 visitor attraction last year – you’ll be less surprised once on board because it’s full of surprises. If you imagine a royal yacht, you probably picture something very sleek, rather flashy and boasting several pools and a helipad. Britannia has none of these. It’s all narrow single beds, chintzy furniture and you’re more likely to find a game of Scrabble than an underwater scooter.
You can look down on Britannia while you have lunch on the top floor of the Port of Leith distillery. As I sat down I was given a cocktail – their “house” whisky with a tot of sherry in it. An unlikely and surprisingly delicious combination. You can take a tour of the distillery, admire the vast whisky bar or try a flight of whisky with your meal (wine and beer are available, however, if that sounds a bit daunting). Expect Scottish fare with a contemporary twist – I had some delicious mackerel paté with tiny Arran oatcakes, followed by North Sea crab on a blini.
In fact, I didn’t do the whisky tour – I did the gin tour instead. The sister distillery of Lind and Lime gives a great insight into the history of gin and its making – you get to touch, sniff and occasionally taste all of the botanicals that can be used and, at the end, bottle and label your own miniature and make a gimlet to take home. As you come through the door, you’re handed a large gin and tonic. You can see a bit of a pattern emerging here…
By now, it’s getting on for dinner time and I head to Tipo, more Scottish produce but with a decidedly Italian accent. There’s a mixture of small and large plates and it’s ideal for sharing. You can sit on a stool at the bar and chat to the staff, book a table in the main restaurant or, if there are five or more people, there’s a private room, too. There’s a fine wine list, often featuring smaller, lesser known houses, and a menu that embraces everything from Marsh pig salumi to crab pappardelle as well as some very tempting sweets (vanilla and rhubarb soft serve).
Waking on a sunny Sunday back at the Resident, I have a fridge in my room stocked with a very healthy breakfast (berries, juice and smoothie, yoghurt, granola) setting the tone for a lazy morning. Time for a walk, maybe? Close by is the beautiful area of Dean Village, a peaceful corner surrounding the Water of Leith, a stream used for centuries to power Edinburgh’s mills.
All cobblestone lanes and waterside gardens, it’s full of charming stone buildings, a rather glorious hotchpotch of styles and periods from early mills to the glorious Arts & Crafts Well Court. It’s also conveniently close to Lannan’s Bakery, a patisserie so popular, queues form an hour before it opens. Enormous croissants, Viennoiserie and a custard slice with rhubarb that could only mean one thing: a second breakfast.
Is a weekend enough? Not really. There are gardens and galleries, museums and, of course the castle itself to explore – but over a weekend you will at least scratch the surface and, no doubt, be tempted to come back for more.
Offering 164 elegant rooms, ranging from Standard Rooms to Junior Suites, beat the crowds for Edingburgh’s Festival and plan your stay at The Resident. For more information, please visit www.residenthotels.com.
The Edinburgh International Festival, featuring an array of artistic events across music and arts, runs from 1st-24th August 2025. For more information, visit www.eif.co.uk. Running concurrently is the Edinburgh International Book Festival, from the 9th-24th, and, of course, the famous Edinburgh Fringe, with street performers and shows across the city. For a full line up of acts and venues, please visit www.edfringe.com.
