How far is Craigwell Cottage from Edinburgh Castle?

If you’re visiting Edinburgh and not sure where to stay, then you’ll find that Craigwell Cottage is right in the heart of Edinburgh, and an ideal location if you want to park the car (there’s a private parking space at the Cottage), and walk throughout the City Centre.

To test out how long it took me to walk from Craigwell Cottage to Edinburgh Castle, I set out this morning to walk up the Royal Mile. Leaving Craigwell Cottage at 10.30 am, I was up at Edinburgh Castle by 11 am. But you see the thing is, it’s just over a mile to walk - which should take less than half an hour, but I had to keep stopping to look at things. There’s just so much to see on the Royal Mile!

Even though I’ve lived in Edinburgh for many years, the sights and sounds of the historic heart of Edinburgh still stop me in my tracks, or pull me to investigate further.

Stepping out from Craigwell Cottage, I crossed Calton Road and headed up Campbell’s Close which leads directly to the Royal Mile.

I had to resist the temptation of stopping at Clarinda’s Tea Rooms because I couldn’t really justify having worked up an appetite in the two minutes it had taken me to reach the Royal Mile.

But once I was on the Royal Mile I started to make notes about things which I thought might be useful for the Craigwell Cottage Blog, and this was the first distraction which started to slow me down.

I noticed that there was a flat for sale by Gibson Kerr at 87/6 Canongate - must check it out on the ESPC Website.  (Did that when I got home - but I must confess that my real interest in the property lies in the possibility of taking a photograph of Craigwell Cottage from its balcony (I know, very rude of me!).  It’s one of the flats however that were designed by Sir Basil Spence, on whom there is a major retrospective running in Edinburgh right now at the Dean Gallery.  I’m surprised that the solicitors didn’t pick up on this in their sales particulars.

Turning right up the Royal Mile, I saw the Victorian Post Box on the opposite side of the road, and remembered that I had some letters to post.  It’s such a pretty place to post them!  When I spotted Starbuck’s a few yards further up I remembered that I’d been looking for Wi-Fi hotspots and Internet Access close to Craigwell Cottage, so I made a note that I should remember to add Starbucks at 116-118 Canongate to my posting about that - there’s a T-mobile Hotspot there.

Opposite Starbuck’s in the Canongate is Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe - somewhere to do your Christmas shopping all year round!

I walk past the Museum of Edinburgh, Canongate Kirk and The People’s Story.  This is of course supposed to be a blog about how long it takes to walk to Edinburgh Castle, so I didn’t dwell on these attractions- I’ll return to them later when I come to write up notes from recent visits there.

More to follow….

This entry was posted on 08/11/2007 at 12:34 am and is filed under FAQ - Answers, Visiting Edinburgh, Self-catering Cottage, Edinburgh Accommodation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.