Mary King's

Time to catch up on a bit of the blogging again now. Last week I returned from a 4 day short holiday to a rather wet and windswept Edinburgh. I've been before, but it's the first time I've had the chance to do all the proper touristy things. Apart from doing the Castle and Holyrood and having a mooch around the new Scottish Parliament building (great on the inside, utterly baffling on the outside) I went down here - The Real Mary King's Close.

I can honestly say this was the absolute highlight of my visit. Fascinating, fun, scary, dark, funny - all that and I'm not even on commission.

For those who don't know - the ridge that Edinburgh old-town's Royal Mile is built on had hundreds of very steep and narrow streets (closes) running perpendicular to it away and down-hill. In an 18th Century act of regeneration a swathe of streets opposite St Giles Cathedral were compulsorily purchased so that a new Royal Exchange (now the City Chambers) could be built. They demolished all the houses from the level of the Royal Mile's street and up, but that left all those parts of the buildings down the slope which were below the Royal Mile street level. They simply bricked up the edges and used the walls of these streets and houses as foundation for the Royal Exchange on top.

So what you're left with, 250 years later, are a maze of (now) underground streets, and houses which have been preserved time-capsule like. One or two houses even have their original wallpaper, plastering or wood-block printing on the walls.

Anyone close-by or planning on heading that way should give it a go. The costumed guides are more than just fluff and failed to be stumped by the questions. They know their stuff. It's also good to go in the winter months as, for one thing, it's dry down there and for another, a group of 8 in very dark, uneven, underground street which can be only a metre or two wide is far preferable than the groups of 21 they squeeze down at the height of the summer season.