Leith is the bit of Edinburgh that smells of the sea and means it. For centuries the city's port and proudly its own town, it's now where a decommissioned royal yacht sits moored behind a shopping centre — which tells you most of what you need to know about the place.
A little over four kilometres along the water, best on a clear afternoon. Start at Ocean Terminal, end of the new tram line, and walk through to the Royal Yacht Britannia behind it: 44 years of royal service, a million sea miles, now open deck by deck. Out along Western Harbour, where flats stand on water that was open dock a generation ago, then the breakwater and the Firth of Forth wide in front of you.
Loop west to Newhaven's old fishing harbour and its stub of a lighthouse, then back east past the working docks — cranes, container stacks, the 1874 swing bridge. This is still a port, and it doesn't pretend otherwise. End at the Shore, where the Water of Leith reaches the sea between cobbled quays. Bus 16 home.
