Royal Mile Edinburgh
The Royal Mile is the historic spine of Edinburgh's Old Town, a succession of streets connecting Edinburgh Castle at the top of the volcanic crag to the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the foot, descending approximately a mile in length and flanked throughout by a density of historic architecture, closes, courtyards and buildings that constitute one of the most concentrated collections of urban heritage in Europe. The streets of the Royal Mile, named from top to bottom the Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street and Canongate, together form the core of Edinburgh's UNESCO World Heritage Site and define the character and identity of one of the world's great historic cities.
The architecture along the Royal Mile reflects eight centuries of urban development within the extraordinary constraints of the ridge between the castle crag and the Palace. The medieval street pattern, in which the principal street was flanked by long narrow plots running back from the frontage on either side, encouraged the construction of tall, narrow tenements that rose to remarkable heights as the population grew and the available land within the town walls was fully occupied. By the seventeenth century Edinburgh had some of the tallest residential buildings in Europe, the model for the later tenement form of Scottish urban housing that characterises the cities of central Scotland to the present day.
The individual buildings along the Mile include John Knox House, the Writers' Museum, the Museum of Edinburgh in Huntly House, St Giles' Cathedral, the Mercat Cross and the Parliament House, all providing layers of historical and cultural association that make the Royal Mile far more than a tourist shopping street. The closes running off the main street on both sides, some preserved as heritage sites and others still in everyday use, provide glimpses into the layered history of the Old Town.
The Scottish Parliament building at the foot of the Mile, opened in 2004, provides a striking architectural contrast to its historic surroundings.