Corstorphine Hill: the wooded western brae and the old village
A wooded hill, Scott's tower, the Forth bridges, and a doocot in the old village. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Rest and Be Thankful path
Start up the old carriage path of that name from the Zoo end — the gradient is gentle and the name is a promise the Victorians kept. Oak and beech close over you within a few minutes; the city noise drops away faster than you expect.

2. Corstorphine Hill walled garden and donkey field
A small walled garden run by volunteers, tucked in the trees on the way up. You don't have to linger, but the benches here catch the afternoon sun and almost nobody else finds them.

3. Clermiston Tower (the Scott tower)
The square stone tower at the hill's high point, raised in 1871 for the centenary of Walter Scott's birth. It opens only on the odd summer afternoon — check before you climb for the door, but the view from its foot is reason enough.

4. The Forth bridges viewpoint
Find the gap in the trees on the north-west shoulder and the whole Firth of Forth opens up — the red cantilever of the rail bridge and the two road crossings strung beside it. The brae (the hill's slope) earns its keep right here.

5. Corstorphine Hill nature reserve and the quarry
Drop south through the reserve past the old quarry faces, where the rock that built half of west Edinburgh was cut. The path is dell-like (a wooded hollow) and shaded the whole way down.

6. Corstorphine Dovecot and the old village
Land at the 16th-century beehive doocot (dovecot), all that's left of the village's medieval manor, beside Corstorphine Old Parish Church. The bus 26 back into town is a short walk on St John's Road.

Corstorphine Hill: the wooded western brae and the old village