Leith spent two centuries as Edinburgh's working port and then a long stretch as the city's roughest postcode; now it's the part of town everyone wants to eat in. This walk follows the Water of Leith down to where it spills into the docks — warehouses turned bars, a swing bridge or two, and the Forth opening out at the end.
Start at the Foot of the Walk, where the new tram now lands you, and drop down to the Shore. This is the old quay, cobbled and curving with the river, lined with the converted warehouses that hold Leith's restaurants and whisky bars. Take it slowly. Off Water Street, find Lamb's House, a seventeenth-century merchant's house that somehow survived everything — then the columned Custom House on Commercial Street, which once took the tax off everything that floated in.
Cross the swing bridges at Sandport and look back along the warehouse line. Carry on to Ocean Terminal, where the Royal Yacht Britannia sits at her berth and the Forth runs wide and grey to Fife. End on the terrace with the wind off the water, and the tram is at the door.
