Scotland Fact File

Edinburgh: Stories in Stone

Stories in Stone: the history of Edinburgh's s literature and architecture

Welcome to Edinburgh - a City of Literature and a World Heritage Site - a place where authors and architects have built a city of words and wonders.

This unique 'built' heritage of Edinburgh, its architectural quality and diversity of design led to the Old and New Town being jointly recognised by the world's largest cultural organisation, UNESCO, as a World Heritage Site. Where else on such a scale can be found their contradictions of old and new: the crooked, crowded romance of the one, cheek-by-jowl with the formal classicism of the other?

Moreover, Edinburgh has been 'a hotbed of genius'; sprouting philosophers, economists, artists, scientists, publishers, printers... and writers. It is this history, allied to today's vibrant literary scene, which saw Edinburgh become the world's first UNESCO City of Literature in 2004.

From the dark closes came dark tales, and from the dazzling spires and monuments, the inspiration for stories that have lasted through the centuries. So take a step-by-step journey through the literature and landscape of Edinburgh and discover a city ‘built on books’ as well as stone.

Calton Hill

Start your literary tour of Edinburgh from the place with the best view of the city, according to Robert Louis Stevenson. See the Old and New Towns symbolic of the two sides of Edinburgh epitomised in Stevenson's famous characters Jekyll and Hyde.
The Mound

Worried cats, drowned dogs, two sphinxes and wild beast shows - all this, and a Gothic space rocket. Find out why Charlotte Bronte thought Edinburgh was just great, and what George IV wore under his kilt.
Hanover Street

In contrast to the untamed jumble of the Old Town, Edinburgh's New Town was all about classical elegance, 'beauty and regularity', but behind the facade not all was so orderly - drinking, snobbery and poets that grew on trees.
Heriot Row

Deep in the New Town, Heriot Row became one of the great Edinburgh streets. It was the home of a certain young Robert Louis Stevenson, whose Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde lurked in the dark shadows of this venerable address.
Lawnmarket

The 'Auld Reekie' may have been a bit on the wiffy side, but its cramped closes and towering tenements housed a hotbed of creativity and a host of famous names in the fields of philosophy and poetry.
The Netherbow

The storytelling tradition lives on in Edinburgh's literature quarter where John Know resided in a fairytale house designed by Mary Queen of Scots' architects... and Daniel Defoe got rubbish thrown at him.
Canongate

Find out the story of poor poet Robert Fegusson, who captured the spirit of Edinburgh in his strident Scots verse. You can see him forever striding down the Royal Mile, his statue outside Canongate Church.
The University & the Enlightenment

With a prestigious list of alumni including David Hume, Charles Darwin, Thomas Carlyle and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it is no wonder Tobias Smollett called Edinburgh University a 'hot-bed of genius.
Victoria Street & the Grassmarket

Descend the curve of Victoria Street to Edinburgh's dark underbelly - the Grassmarket - where hangings were the entertainment of the day, and mass murderers Burke and Hare did a nice line in bodies.
Charlotte Square

Even the chimney stacks have a dignified air in Robert Adam's Charlotte Square, a major achievement in European civic architecture, and now the setting for the Edinburgh International Book Festival.