Dean Village: the milling gorge and the Water of Leith
An old grain village in a gorge, the riverside walkway, St Bernard's Well, and the Dean Bridge above. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Bell's Brae
Drop into the village down the steep cobbled brae from the West End — a brae is a slope, and this one delivers you below the city into the gorge of the Water of Leith. The change of scale at the bottom is the whole point; the noise just stops.

2. Well Court
The red-sandstone courtyard with a clock tower, built in 1884 as model housing for mill workers and paid for by the owner of The Scotsman. It's the picture everyone takes of Dean Village, and it earns it. Stand in the middle and look up.

3. Water of Leith Walkway
Pick up the riverside path heading downstream (east). The water once drove eleven mills grinding the city's grain; now it's a green corridor of weirs and overhanging trees. Quiet on a weekday morning, just you and the dippers.

4. St Bernard's Well
A circular Roman-temple folly on the bank, built in 1789 over a mineral spring people once paid to drink from. The statue inside is Hygieia, goddess of health. You can't usually go in, but the pillared rotunda above the water is the surprise of the walk.

5. Dean Bridge (from below)
Look up: Thomas Telford's 1831 bridge carries the road a hundred feet over the gorge you're walking in. From the path the four arches are huge; from the road above you'd never guess the drop. Worth the crick in the neck.

6. Stockbridge
The walkway lifts you out of the gorge into Stockbridge, where the village feel keeps going. End here with a coffee or carry straight on; the bus back into town runs from the main street. A soft landing after the quiet of the water.

Dean Village: the milling gorge and the Water of Leith