Greyfriars: the kirkyard, the wall, and the school
Greyfriars Bobby, the Covenanters' Prison, the Flodden Wall, and George Heriot's turrets. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Greyfriars Bobby statue
Start at the small bronze terrier on Candlemaker Row, his nose rubbed gold by visitors who didn't read the sign asking them not to. The dog who supposedly guarded his master's grave for fourteen years. Sentimental, possibly embroidered, entirely Edinburgh. Then through the gate behind him into the kirkyard.

2. Greyfriars Kirkyard
One of the great burial grounds — terraced, table-tombed, leaning. Wander without a plan first; the through-routes give long views to the castle. Near the back, find the grave of Thomas Riddell, the name J.K. Rowling lifted for Voldemort. The kirkyard quietly seeds half the Potter names; Heriot's is over the wall.

3. The Covenanters' Prison
At the south-east end, a locked gated section of vaults where over a thousand Covenanters were held in the open through the winter of 1679 after Bothwell Brig. Most died. It's the darkest corner of a dark place — read the plaque through the railings. You can usually only enter on a tour.

4. The Flodden Wall
The kirkyard's south boundary runs along a surviving stretch of the Flodden Wall — the city defence thrown up in a panic after the Scots disaster at Flodden in 1513. Edinburgh's medieval edge, mossed and solid. Follow it; it tells you exactly how small the walled city once was.

5. George Heriot's School
Through the kirkyard's western edge you look straight onto Heriot's — turreted, towered, and routinely cited as a Hogwarts source, though the school is too polite to confirm it. Founded by 'Jinglin' Geordie', goldsmith to James VI, to school fatherless boys. You can't go in; the view over the wall is the stop.

6. Castle Esplanade
Leave by Forrest Road and the Grassmarket steps, climbing to the top of the Mile and the Esplanade. After an afternoon among the dead and the defences, end on the high open ground with the city laid out below. Trams and Waverley are the downhill walk home.

Greyfriars: the kirkyard, the wall, and the school