Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and the seventh-largest city in the UK. The city attracts 1 million overseas visitors a year, making it the second most visited tourist destination in the United Kingdom, after London.

Culturally, Edinburgh is best known for the Edinburgh Festival, although this is in fact a series of separate events, which run from the end of July until early September each year. The longest established festival is the Edinburgh International Festival, which first ran in 1947. The International Festival centres on a programme of high-profile theatre productions and classical music performances, featuring international directors, conductors, theatre companies and orchestras.

The International Festival has since been taken over in both size and popularity by the Edinburgh Fringe. What began as a programme of marginal acts has become the largest arts festival in the whole world, with 1867 different shows being staged in 2006, in 261 venues. Comedy is now one of the mainstays of the Fringe, with numerous notable comedians getting their 'break' here. Edinburgh has a long literary tradition, going back to the Scottish Enlightenment. Edinburgh's Enlightenment produced philosopher David Hume and the pioneer of political economy, Adam Smith. Writers such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Sir Walter Scott all lived and worked in Edinburgh. J K Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novels, is a resident of Edinburgh. Consequently, Edinburgh has recently been declared the first UNESCO City of Literature.

The old part of the city has preserved its medieval plan and many Reformation-era buildings. The most famous old street is the ‘Royal Mile'. Minor streets lead downhill on either side of the main spine in a traditional pattern. The street layout is typical of the old quarters of many northern European cities, and where the castle perches on top of a rocky crag (the remnants of an extinct volcano) the Royal Mile runs down from this crag. Other parts of the city contain many impressive nineteenth century buildings.

However, if you come to Edinburgh, watch out! A cannon is fired at one o'clock every day from the castle.