Edinburgh

When to go

Travellers should note that Edinburgh becomes overwhelmingly crowded accommodation-wise during the main festival periods of high summer August to early September and Hogmanay around New Year's Day / 1 January. Visitors at these times should plan well ahead even more than a year in advance! for booking central accommodation and event tickets at these times.

Profile

Edinburgh is noted as a long-lived literary capital of the English-speaking world.

The great Scottish historical novelist Sir Walter Scott was born in the city and has his great monument on Princes Street. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was also a native of Edinburgh.

More recently, Edinburgh has variously been the home and inspiration for such well-known modern writers as Muriel Spark author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Irvine Welsh author of the 1993 novel Trainspotting, set in the gritty district of Leith, Ian Rankin a crime writer best known for the Inspector Rebus series, set in Edinburgh, Alexander McCall Smith The No. 1 Lady Detective's Agency and several novels set in the Scottish capital and J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame.

Understand

Edinburgh is on the east coast of Scotland's central Lowlands, situated on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. Edinburgh's landscape is the product of ancient volcanism both the Castle crag and Arthur's Seat are the eroded plugs of volcanoes and more recent glaciation carving out valleys south of the castle and the old Nor'Loch, presently the site of the Princes Street Gardens. Impress the locals by knowing that Princes Street is the correct spelling dedicated plurally and not possessively for King George III's sons - hence the absence of an apostrophe. Don't make the mistake of pronouncing it Princess Street - though many of the locals won't know the difference! And watch out for these two commonly mis-pronounced streets as well: Cockburn coe-burn and Buccleuch buh-clue are nearly always gotten wrong, to the amusement of the locals.

Climate

Climate	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Daily highs °C	6	7	9	11	14	17	19	19	16	13	9	7
Nightly lows °C	1	1	2	3	6	9	11	10	9	6	3	1
Precipitation mm	64	45	52	43	49	53	58	53	62	70	61	67
See the 5 day forecast for Edinburgh at the Met Office

Edinburgh's climate is most comfortable for the traveler from May to September. That said, the weather in Edinburgh is always changeable and visitors should expect both sunshine and rain, whatever the season. Edinburgh tends to get windy while it rains as well, so be sure to pack either a raincoat or a sturdy umbrella! Many a tourist has abandoned an inverted umbrella due to the persistent, whipping winds. Summer, the main festival season, combines long daylight hours with lengthy evenings being so far north, it rarely gets dark before 10 or 11 at night!. Winter can feel bitterly cold, with short daylight hours, however snow is rare and of a short duration, and most of Edinburgh's winter precipitation comes in the form of a chilly rain and sleet. Edinburgh has an abundance of indoor attractions and activities that make the cold winter days fly by. In other words, bring a coat big lad, will ya?Do not worry about being cold in winter, because like many modern countries all buildings including the old ones are warm, dry and insulated.

Orientation

Edinburgh's historic centre is bisected by Princes Street Gardens, a broad swathe of parkland in the heart of the city. Southwards of the gardens is the castle, perched on top of an extinct volcanic crag, and flanked by the medieval streets of the Old Town following the Royal Mile along the ridge to the east. To the north of Princes Street Gardens lies Princes Street itself - Edinburgh's main shopping boulevard - and the Georgian period New Town, built after 1766 on a regular grid plan.