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Photo: Photograph by Stuart Yeates, from en:Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Extensive ruin of a medieval castle, built from the 14th century and abandoned in the 18th. Here was hatched the plot to murder Lord Darnley, the inconvenient husband of Mary Queen of Scots. He was blown up at Kirk O'Field (now the site of the university Old College) and when that didn't do the job he was smothered.
Craigmillar Castle is a ruined medieval castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is three miles (4.8 km) south-east of the city centre, on a low hill to the south of the modern suburb of Craigmillar. The Preston family of Craigmillar, the local feudal barons, began building the castle in the late 14th century and building works continued through the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1660, the castle was sold to Sir John Gilmour, Lord President of the Court of Session, who breathed new life into the ageing castle. The Gilmours left Craigmillar in the 18th century for a more modern residence, nearby Inch House, and the castle fell into ruin. It is now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument, and is open to the public.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
The pool was built for the Commonwealth Games in 1970, and was used again for the 1986 and 2014 games.
This opened in 1896 to replace the observatory on Calton Hill in New Town (which remained active to 2009 but is now an art exhibition space). The ROE is owned by the Science and Technology Facilities Council and houses the University of Edinburgh's Institute for Astronomy. Public evenings in winter are on Tuesday (booking essential) with talks and tours of the site.
Contemporary art exhibitions and event venue in a confident Edwardian building, home of Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies from 1916. In 2011 the vets moved out to Easter Bush campus, birthplace of Dolly the Sheep. See below for the distillery, brewery and pub within Summerhall.
Performance space for musical events across all genres. The neo-classical building was a chapel from 1824 and converted to a concert hall in 1979, with a capacity of 900.
Small gallery of local artists' work.
This has a main slope of 400 m, a loop alongside, 3 nursery slopes, a chairlift and 2 tows. Equipment hire is available or bring your own. Wear long trousers, long sleeves and gloves as the dendrex matting will skin you when you fall. Some disruption as a restaurant and other facilities are being built, and limited parking.