Morningside & Bruntsfield: the douce southern suburbs
Bruntsfield's cafés and delis, Church Hill's villas, and the genteel pleasures of the south side's smartest mile. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Bruntsfield Links
Start on the open common where golf was played centuries before the rules existed — a short-hole course still runs across it in summer, clubs hired by the round. Cut across the grass towards Bruntsfield Place; the southern suburbs begin where the Links end.

2. Bruntsfield Place delis and cafés
The first good eating of the walk — a tight run of independent delis, bakeries and coffee rooms along Bruntsfield Place. Buy something for later; the walk has plenty of bench. This stretch does the everyday douce thing Edinburgh excels at.

3. Holy Corner
The junction so thick with churches the city named it for them — four on the four corners, or near enough. Most are no longer kirks; one's a community hub, another served coffee for years. A quietly Edinburgh kind of landmark: piety, then property.

4. Church Hill
Climb the short rise into the grandest villas of the south side — detached Victorian houses behind stone walls and monkey-puzzle trees. This is where Morningside keeps its money. Read the gateposts; the names are half the pleasure.

5. Morningside Road
The long shopping spine — charity shops the city's smartest cast-offs land in, old-fashioned ironmongers, a clock that's been telling the wrong time for decades, locals say. Browse it slowly. Morningside shops the way it speaks: unhurried and well-spoken.

6. The Canny Man's
End at the pub that's resisted change since 1871 — wood-panelled snugs, walls hung with clutter, no photos at the bar and a reputation for being particular about it. Have a drink in one of the wee rooms. Buses run from Morningside Station back to town.

Morningside & Bruntsfield: the douce southern suburbs