Edinburgh, Scotland - travel review

When it comes to Hogmanay everyone knows there’s no better place than Edinburgh to ring in the new year.

But recently the city has been boosting its attractions across the whole festive period and these days it offers a Christmas Market to rival any in the UK.

Now some may feel that Edinburgh is ‘too far and too cold’ when it comes to city breaks, particularly at this time of year. But my wife and I were in for a pleasant surprise when we took in a two-day break to Auld Reekie earlier this month.

Rail is probably the easiest way of getting there: you can fly but you’ll be hanging around and the city is not especially car friendly, with a real dearth of parking. In any case, the days of spending half a day schlepping up the west coast main line and trying to remember which portion of the train to sit in before it splits at Carstairs are long gone. It now takes just three hours 40 minutes to reach Edinburgh from Wolverhampton.

Sure, you can get to London more quickly and cheaply but you won’t find all the attractions within a few minutes’ walk of each other. In fact, one of the best things about the Scottish capital is exploring its many nooks and crannies on foot. And whenever you need a break from sight-seeing or shopping you’re never too far from a welcoming hostelry or a pleasant café.

We arrived at Haymarket, the smaller of the city’s two rail stations, wrapped up like the Michelin Man and his wife, only to find the sun shining and the temperature above that in the West Midlands. Our base for the trip was the Haymarket Hub, a modern no-frills hotel in the heart of the city’s bustling West End – and in a particularly convenient location, right opposite Haymarket Station. Rooms are small but clean and with good hi-tech features.The hotel even offers guests the free use of a mobile phone, though this will probably appeal more to international visitors. I thought the room prices, which start at under £50 for two, were reasonable but they do depend on when you want to go. Breakfast is extra; but a ‘full Scottish’ fry-up of eggs, Lorne sausage, mushrooms, tomato, bacon, potato cake, black pudding, toast and, of course, haggis costs under £7 and will sustain you for the best part of a day.

With our bags dropped off at the hotel we set off on the short walk to the city centre to join in the Christmas festivities. The market itself is set out on three levels on the east side of Princes Street Gardens. There’s lots for kids to do with attractions ranging from a Christmas tree maze to an ice climbing wall and Santa’s grotto. There are rides a-plenty, including some fairly hairy-looking ones where you will certainly need to have a head for heights. We opted for the more sedate Forth1 Big Wheel which offers spectacular views across the city skyline to the Firth of Forth. Much the same views are available year-round from the nearby Scott Monument, which also cheaper to get in, but you will have to climb (and descend) 287 steps to the viewing area.

We strolled round the market perusing the range of stalls offering everything from mulled wine and crepes to knitwear and novelty presents. I succumbed to temptation and bought a ‘See You Jimmy’ hat.

We then proceeded to survive ice-skating under the Melville Monument in St Andrew’s Square unscathed, before moving on to the Ice Adventure in George Street. This is a frozen world of fantastic ice sculptures which are kept chilled down to -10c to ensure they do not melt. With the temperature this low, it is perhaps just as well that the tour is short but there’s plenty to marvel at along the way. We took the opportunity to sample an ‘Antarctic hot toddy’ at the end of the tour featuring a whisky named in honour of the polar explorer Shackleton – but still needed to warm up further, so set off in search of a pub with a real fire. Nearby Teuchters, in trendy William Street, had its gas burner going full pelt. Close enough. We perched next to it and ordered mugs of haggis, tatties and neeps with whisky cream dressing for under a fiver. These were washed down with a glass of what used to be called ’heavy’ and now comes as ‘craft beer’.

The main event for the night was a visit to La Clique Noel, a burlesque circus cabaret with a variety of turns accompanied by an excellent singer and top band. The acts were a bit of a mixed bag; young gymnast Tim Kriegler gave an outstanding display of aerialism while Heather Holliday showed why she is regarded as one of the world’s top sword-swallowers and fire-breathers. Some of the comedic elements fell a little flat but overall it’s a fun night out, though definitely not for the prudish.

On the second day we decided to explore the West End, again on foot. You can download three West End Sound Walks (from edinburgh-westend.co.uk) which offer a running commentary on the area. We took in St Mary’s in Palmerston Place, one of Edinburgh’s three cathedrals. There are two St Mary's cathedrals in Edinburgh, rather confusingly, and we were at the Episcopalian, rather than the Catholic one. The impressive three-tiered kirk enjoys the most imposing location of the ‘big three’ but head instead to its Presbyterian rival St Giles, just off the Royal Mile, for its interior, ambience and history.

Just along the road from St Mary’s is the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre, an elegant town house, once the residence of the brewer Williams McEwan and now dedicated to spiritualism. It turns out Doyle was an enthusiastic advocate of spiritualism when he wasn’t writing his Sherlock Holmes books. The centre offers courses in things like trance healing and progressive mediumship and also houses a café dedicated to Sherlock Holmes.

Having by now (almost) walked off our breakfast we headed towards the Royal Mile for an upmarket lunch at Wedgwood in Canongate. This is a small restaurant offering outstanding cooking and superb, welcoming service to a mixed clientele of tourists and locals. For starters we chose thick-cut smoked salmon that had been cured by the restaurant’s own staff and a savoury bread and butter pudding with cheese and fennel ice cream, which sounds like it shouldn’t work, but did. We were recommended a glass of Vermentino from Corsica - a new wine for me - and it matched our fish mains perfectly.

Lunch at Wedgwood’s costs £28 for the three-course Christmas menu. The regular lunch menu is even better value at around a tenner less.

It was now getting dark and there was just time to take in a few more of the city’s nooks and crannies before heading back to the station.