Exploring Edinburgh: Scotland’s Dramatic Capital of Castles, Folklore & Food

From a castle that dates back a thousand years and seems to grow directly out of a rock all the way down the Royal Mile.

Scotland's capital is one of the most dramatic cities in the world.

This week we're talking about Edinburgh.

David, how you doing?

I'm doing great.

Edinburgh is a place I have not spent a ton of time at, but definitely hate.

Had a great trip when I was there.

Really interesting, very moody city.

I would say it's a place known for its history, its folklore, its ghosts.

And you could feel that as you were traveling around the city.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And from what I understand, if we were to go back 100 years in time, it would be even more moody because there were so many wood fired, coal fired ovens and stoves and the soot apparently used to be almost overwhelming.

And it's still, it is, it is very moody.

It is very dramatic.

And I just, I don't know, it does feel a little.

We were talking before we started recording about movies that were recorded there.

It almost feels like you're stepping onto a movie set of maybe a darker movie.

But it is also a place where you can eat one of maybe the world's most divisive foods.

So I thought a good place to start this one is to talk about haggis.

Do you have thoughts on haggis?

I think there's nothing divisive about haggis, but I am Scottish by origin and some family history in Edinburgh, which I'll talk a little bit about when we get to our camp.

Miss.

But so for me, haggis was second nature.

I love it.

I had some deep fried haggis when I was there.

I tried a wide variety, but.

How about you?

What did you think of it?

Yeah, I'm with you on that, David.

I actually really like haggis.

On my very first trip to Edinburgh, I think it was 16 years ago, I went into my first plate of haggis with fear and trembling.

I'd heard so many perhaps negative comments about it.

And it is an acquired taste.

And definitely, definitely when you think about where this food is actually coming from and how it was created, you know, there, there, you know, you might have some second thoughts, but, but I enjoyed it and I've had it.

You know, I had haggis balls.

I've had haggis, you know, in various different forms.

And if we dive right into some of our favorite places to eat, I'm going to go with a very simple one to start with.

It's part of the, the Scottish Storytelling center, which is A museum I'm going to talk about a little bit later, but it's called the Haggis Box and it's a counter serve restaurant, part of the museum.

The owners are usually right there on site to, you know, allay any fears that you may have about trying haggis.

But it's a nice low pressure situation where you can talk to them about haggis.

Go get your haggis, sit down and just eat it at, at one of the tables.

Not expensive.

And you can get it with neeps and natties, which I understand are turnips and potatoes.

So I, when I was there the last time I, I got my haggis with neeps and natties and I enjoyed all of it.

So yeah, yeah, so that, that was my haggis experience.

I will mention, I know we're going to dive into a couple places that you love.

One other place I want to mention and I'm sure they also serve haggis is, is a pub, kind of a gas.

Gastropub, an upscale Scottish pub called the Ox.

And their focus is, in addition to Scottish beers and Scotch is hearty food.

So it's a very community oriented place.

It's a place where you can take your, even your pets, but also your kids.

And they serve venison, they serve fish stew, they serve a twice cooked ox cheek.

And that is, I'm gonna mention that just as my second place to eat in Edinburgh.

Where do you like to tuck into a good meal?

Well, I'll call it two places and I'm sure as we get into things to do in Edinburgh, we're going to talk a bit about the Royal Mile, which is really kind of the center of tourist activity in the city.

Some of the most well known cultural and historic landmarks.

And the two restaurants that I'm going to mention are on opposite ends of the Royal Mile and on opposite ends of the price spectrum as well.

Up on the top end of the Royal Mile is a place called the Witchery by the Cat Castle.

You know, one of, one of the better fine dining sort of famous spots in town.

No one for sort of candlelight dinners, romantic dinners right next to the castle, stunning views, a very, you know, historic building.

So if you're looking for kind of an iconic Edinburgh spot, I would, I would say that's, that's a great one to seek out.

And then at the other end of the Royal Mile and at the other end of the price spectrum, a place called Oink, which is legendary for their sort of pulled pork sandwiches or pork Sandwiches.

I think it might only be open for lunch, but it was jam packed when we were there.

Super delicious.

And another great spot as well.

Fantastic, fantastic.

And yeah, the Royal Mile.

I mean, moving into some of the best things to do, I definitely had that on my list.

And just walking, just walking the Royal Mile.

I'd recommend for people to start at the Edinburgh Castle and walk down because then you're descending down from the castle, which is on the high point in the city, and you really.

And it connects the Edinburgh Castle with Holyrood Castle and you really see the whole city here.

You know, you're going to see bagpipers, you're going to see street performers, you see people out doing their Sunday shopping.

There's churches and pubs side by side.

And so, you know, in a very short amount of time you can see a lot of the city.

And one of the places that I love to, I've been there a couple times is right up at the top of the Royal Mile, right near the Edinburgh Castle.

And it's called the Scottish Whiskey Experience.

And I have never, you know, I've done distillery tours, I've done winery tours, I've done brewery tours.

I'm not sure I've ever been to a place quite like this.

So they start out with an immersive theme style, theme park style ride that takes you through the process of distilling whiskey.

So you actually get like a Disney World.

You know, you actually get into like a car that's on a track and it actually takes you through the process of distilling.

And they have these big screens and you're turning, you're going through and then after that it's quite good actually.

It's very interesting.

And then afterwards they spend a little bit of time in a, in a large room that is, has glass cases everywhere and it's one of the largest Scotch whiskey, probably the largest Scotch whiskey collections in the world.

And some of these bottles date back, you know, more than a hundred years.

Some of them, you know, even though they're, they're corked or they're sealed, you know, they have had some of it dissipate and, you know, or they're not fully full even though they've never been opened.

And that's interesting.

And then you finish with, you know, a tasting of Scotch.

So, you know, an interesting way to experience this very, you know, trademark drink that you experience when you're in Scotland.

That sounds amazing.

And the Royal Mile, I mean, as you mentioned, this really is the historic heart of the city.

And this is where you're going to find the vast majority of kind of tourist traffic and tourist attractions in the city.

The two, the two ends, I mean Edinburgh Castle, really this, this incredible fortress.

But also I think what Edinburgh Castle really stands out for is just incredible views of the city.

Right you're right up at the top of the Royal Mile and at the top of this hill that provides a stunning vista of the city.

And then down at the other end, which is probably, if I remember correctly, it's probably about a 20 minute walk or so, maybe a little longer between the two ends you get down to the palace of Holly Holyrood, which is the official Scottish residence of the British monarch.

And when the British Royal family is visiting still somewhere where they come spend time but when they're not there, you know, that's open to the public and a ton of history there and excellent, excellent tours there with both.

I found both had great audio tours.

So even if you, there were a lot of people there on prepackaged or official tours, but if you're exploring independently, those audio tours were great and a great way to see both of those kind of iconic attractions.

Where do you like to stay?

Any spots that jump out for you in terms of places to stay in Edinburgh?

Yeah, I have a couple.

I have a couple.

So the first one is the Balmoral Hotel.

You know, this is the Grand Dam.

This is probably the most famous hotel in the city.

Opened as a railway hotel.

Beautiful, beautiful, Neo Renaissance style.

So one of the most enviable addresses in the whole city.

It's worth it even just to go walk in the lobby and, and see, you know, even if you're not staying there.

And then, then the second one is very different from that.

It's called 100 Princes street and it is, you know, the Balmoral is this iconic, you know, very well known hotel.

This is a 100 Princess street, very luxurious.

It's part of the red carnation family, which is South African brand.

And it's almost like a speakeasy of a hotel.

You know, if you had a luxury hotel that's a speakeasy, there isn't even a sign outside, they just have a flag that says 100 on it, you know, and if you know, you know, you know, as the kids are saying these days, and it's 30 rooms spread over five floors, really personal service, you know, very upscale accommodations obviously and a lot of cool tailor made experiences.

One that I noted was fishing on the river Tweed.

So you don't think about necessarily about going to Edinburgh, Scotland to go fishing.

But they can arrange a fishing trip out on the River Tweed for you.

So those would be the two that come to mind for me.

What about you?

Oh, two.

I mean we, when we were there, we actually stayed at an Airbnb right on the Royal Mile, which was, was super convenient.

Right.

Because then, then you really are in the heart of all of the tourist attractions in the city and there are quite a few along the, along the road there.

So that, that's definitely one thing I would suggest checking out.

But then also I see just recently the W chain, one of my favorite hotel chains around the world, has opened up one of the newest luxury hotels in the city.

The W Edinburgh looks like very sleek, modern design, great rooftop terrace, great views.

So it looks like it would be a great, great property to check out as well.

In terms of camp Mrs.

I've got one that's maybe a little related to family history.

Why don't I jump into that, Tim?

And then I know you've got a cool one that you want to talk about as well.

There was a place called A Bit of a Story.

Deacon Brodie, who is well known in Scottish history, same last name as me, as far as I know.

I'm not a direct descendant.

But he is the guy who actually Dr.

Jekyll and Mr.

Hyde, the famous story was based upon he this very well respected, well known member of sort of Edinburgh society.

Well, one of the things he was known for was for designing their gallows where people would be hanged and he ended up being hanged in his own gallows where they discovered his double life and what he had done.

And there was a famous tavern right near Edinburgh Castle named after him, Deacon Brody's Tavern.

Popular spot.

So for me, that would be one of my camp misses.

How about for you?

For me, I referenced it earlier.

It's the Scottish Storytelling Center.

So Scotland, I don't have Scottish heritage, but on one of my trips there to Edinburgh, we went to this museum of storytelling essentially.

So there is this long history of oral traditions in, in, in Edinburgh and in Scotland as a whole.

And they're, I don't know if it's their motto, but one of the things they talk about is eye to eye, mind to mind and heart to heart.

So you actually can go and sit down and have someone tell you, tell you a story.

And whenever I go there and they do the storytelling, I try to sort of close my eyes and think that I'm in the Highlands 500 years ago.

Obviously there's no Netflix.

Obviously there's no even radio.

There's nothing else.

But there is somebody in your house to tell you a story.

And the wind is whistling outside, the fog is rolling in, and the fire is crackling, and the, you know, and I'm hearing this tall tale and I always, you know, it's not just the story, it's the history of storytelling.

And for me, imagining that I'm in this place in history, hearing, hearing this story and how I would have received it.

So that's a great place to get just a little bit of a taste of that.

Now I'm disappointed I missed your can't miss.

We didn't see that one there.

That sounds super cool.

You can't miss it when you go back.

Yeah, there you go.

One other tip I would throw out there is that a lot of people travel to Scotland for genealogy and family history and things like that.

One of the things that we discovered when we were there is a lot of the libraries in local villages have these genealogy centers where for free, they'll do a lot of the family research and history for you.

So we pulled up into one in Glasgow, and I'd sort of given them about a week's notice that we were going to be coming, some information on the few descendants that I knew that had lived in the area.

And when we arrived, they had all these newspaper articles.

We discovered a Brody park that we didn't know about that one of our great grandfathers had given to the city.

And we all this family history and information that they had spent the week digging up and presenting to us when we were there.

And, you know, a lot of the museums across or libraries and museums across Scotland will do that for you.

So something that if people are going over, you might want to research a little bit in advance as well.

It's definitely worthwhile, certainly.

I'm sure a lot of our listeners have Scottish heritage, so that's really a very valuable tip.

All right.

Well, as always, Tim, super great to talk to you and get your recommendations on places around the world and looking forward to connecting with you again next week.

Same.

David, always great to chat with you.

See you next week.

Thanks very much.