Visit Edinburgh Old Town a UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Old Town of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has preserved its medieval plan and many Reformation-era buildings. Serviced City Pads reservation team on 0844 335 8866.One end is closed by the castle and the main artery, the Royal Mile, actually made up of several distinct streets, leads away from it, down the now-ruined Holyrood Abbey. Narrow closes (alleyways), often no more than a few feet wide, lead downhill on either side of the main spine in a herringbone pattern. Large squares mark the location of markets or surrond major public buildings such as in front of the Tron Kirk, and surrounding St Giles Cathedral and the supreme courts.Short and long stay accommodation in Edinburgh through Serviced City Pads.Other notable places inlcude the Scottish Parliament Building, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland, the Royal Museum of Scotland, Surgeons Hall, the University of Edinburgh, and numerous underground streets and vaults, relics of previous phases of contruction. The street layout, typical of old quarters of many northern European cities, is made especially picturesque in Edinburgh, where the castle on top of a rocky crag, the remnants of an extinct volcano, and the main street runs down the creast of the ridge from it.

The topography for the city is known as ‘crag and tail’ and was created during the last ice age when receding glaciers scored across the land pushing soft soil aside being split by harder crags of volcanic rock. The hilltop crag was the earliest part of the city to be develop, becoming fortified and eventually developing into the current Edinburgh Castle. The rest of the city grew slowly down the tail of land from Castle Rock. This was an easily defended spot with marshland on the south and a loch on the North. Access up the main road to the settlement was therefore restricted by means of various gates and a City Wall, of which only fragmentary sections remain.Serviced Apartments in Edinburgh through Serviced City Pads.Due to the space restrictions imposed by the narrowness of the ‘tail’ the Old Town became home to some of the earliest ‘high rise’ residential buildings. Multi-story dwelling were the norm from the 16th century onwards. During the 18th century the Old Town has a population of about 80,000 residents. However, in more modern times it had declined dramatically to just 4,000 residents. There are currently approximatley 20,000 residents in various parts of the Old Town. As the population was for a long time reluctant to build outside the defensive wall, the need for housing grew and hence the buildings became higher and higher. Tragically, many of these buildings were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1824; the rebuilding of these on the original foundations led to changes in the ground level and the creation of many passages and vaults under the Old Town.

On December 7, 2002 another major fire in the Old Town engulfed part of Cowgate. It destroyed the famous comedy club,The Guilded Balloon, and much of the Informatics Department of thr University of Edinburgh, including the comprehensive A1 Library.Serviced City Pads.