Edinburgh’s Literary New Town: Homes and Haunts of Scottish Writers

Edinburgh’s New Town was a grandiose architectural project that provided an important release valve for the overcrowded Old Town. But it was also a vivid expression of the rich culture and exquisite taste of the city in its heyday.

On this walking tour, you’ll find out how the city’s architectural splendour has served as an inspiration and backdrop for many of Scotland’s most important writers – from the man who invented the historical novel, to the creator of literature’s greatest detective.

The tour starts at the Scott Monument in East Princes Street Gardens, a Gothic tribute to Sir Walter Scott, where you’ll find out how his novels humanised Highland culture and shaped Scottish identity after the Jacobite rebellions.

You’ll walk through elegant Georgian streets where David Hume hosted Benjamin Franklin for tea. I’ll point out Kenneth Grahame’s birthplace on Castle Street, where the author of The Wind in the Willows spent his first year before family tragedy sent him south to England.

You’ll discover where Robert Louis Stevenson grew up in privilege at 17 Heriot Row and stand on Scotland Street, the fictional address that inspired Alexander McCall Smith’s gentle novels about Edinburgh life. There’s also an opportunity to visit the legendary Rose Street pubs where Hugh MacDiarmid and the Scottish Renaissance poets debated politics and literature over pints. The tour ends at the Sherlock Holmes statue at Picardy Place, near where Arthur Conan Doyle was born and raised.

On this 90-minute tour, you’ll have a chance to:

• Get a sense of why Scotland owes such a debt to Sir Walter Scott
• See the New Town residences of half a dozen famous names from Scottish literature
• Find out why David Hume’s former street is allegedly named after a joke at his expense
• Take a tipple at the unassuming Oxford Bar, immortalised as Inspector Rebus’s favourite pub by Ian Rankin
• Learn how RM Ballantyne’s adventure stories influenced two of Scotland’s most famous authors
• Hear the tragic story of JM Barrie and learn about the melancholy behind the magic of Peter Pan

Edinburgh has produced such a plethora of talented writers across the centuries that it can’t be mere coincidence. Could it be something in the water?

Test the theory yourself with an optional pub crawl at the watering holes mentioned on the tour, or simply follow its meandering route through the heart of this elegant Georgian neighbourhood and see if you can’t stumble upon some inspiration yourself.