Dean Village: the Belford gorge and the modern-art galleries
Two galleries of modern art, a wooded river gorge, the Dean Cemetery, and the old milling village below. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Modern One
Start at the first of the two modern-art galleries, set back from Belford Road in its own grounds. Charles Jencks landscaped the front lawn into great grass ramparts; the building behind holds the Scottish moderns. Free to enter, and the grounds are worth it even if you skip the rooms.

2. Modern Two
Cross the road to its twin — the old orphanage that now holds the Paolozzi gift, including the reconstruction of his London studio, a glorious chaos of casts and clutter. The two galleries are a single visit pretending to be two. Take both.

3. Dean Cemetery
East along Belford Road to the great Victorian cemetery on the gorge's edge — the resting place of half of intellectual Edinburgh, under cedars and grand monuments. Wander the upper terraces for the views down into the Water of Leith. Sombre, beautiful, and almost always empty.

4. Dean Bridge
Telford threw this bridge across the gorge in 1831, over a hundred feet up — lean over the parapet and the river is a thread far below. The drop is genuinely vertiginous. Cross it, or drop down before it on the steep path into the village.

5. Dean Village
Down in the gorge, the old milling village where Edinburgh ground its grain for centuries — Well Court's red-tiled tenement court is the picture everyone comes for. It's tiny, so it gets crowded; come midweek or late afternoon and have it more to yourself.

6. Water of Leith Walkway
Follow the river path downstream out of the village — past St Bernard's Well, a little domed temple over a mineral spring, on towards Stockbridge. The water does the navigating. End in Stockbridge for a drink; buses run from there back to town.

Dean Village: the Belford gorge and the modern-art galleries