Edinburgh Tour: City of Writers

Edinburgh is a city that can be read while walking. In this literary tour we discover how Scottish identity has been built through words, from the oral tradition of the bards to contemporary literature. Recognized as a UNESCO City of Literature, Edinburgh is a veritable open-air literary museum.

The tour begins at the statue of Wellington and takes us to key places such as the Café Royal, a historic meeting place for writers, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, where we meet figures such as Marie Maitland, one of the earliest and bravest female voices in European literature. We follow in the footsteps of Robert Burns, a national poet who turned the language of the people into universal poetry, and contemporary authors such as Jackie Kay, whose work explores identity, belonging and memory.

The walk crosses the New Town, the houses of Stevenson and Walter Scott, and enters the darkest Edinburgh in The Oxford Bar, literary setting of Ian Rankin and his Inspector Rebus. A journey through streets, pubs and squares where literature is not only studied: it is lived.