The Royal Mile is the spine; the closes and wynds are the ribs. Off the main street, dozens of alleys drop away north and south — some named for a long-dead merchant, some sealed underground, most ignored by the crowd ten feet away. This walk leaves the Mile almost entirely and works the gaps.
Come up from St Andrew Square and start at Advocate's Close, where the steps down toward Cockburn Street frame the Scott Monument between two black walls. Stand over the Real Mary King's Close — a whole street buried alive under the City Chambers in the 1750s. Duck into Riddle's Court, a 1590s merchant's house off the Lawnmarket, and Lady Stair's Close next door, with its free Writers' Museum and quotations set into the paving. Then go down: the southern wynds plunge in worn stone steps toward the Cowgate canyon, narrow and usually empty.
Climb the far side and land back at the Esplanade, the open top of the Mile. After an hour in the shadowed gaps, the long view down the street is the reward — and the trams are downhill from there.
