Walking up Arthurs Seat

Walking to the top of Arthur’s Seat is a must do when in Edinburgh and was on the top of our to do list, especially as we love to walk.

Its crazy that in the middle of a city is a beautiful hill to climb where you feel like you’re in the countryside and a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of Edinburgh city centre. It’s nice to break up the craziness of a city break with a long walk with breath-taking views.

The climb may be tricky and sometimes hard on foot, but it is definitely worth it once you hit the summit.


We strongly recommend you wear shoes with a good grip especially for when walking back down as its very easy to stumble and fall (we were both in trainers and both fell over in style much to the amusements of passers-by!).
We also recommend you start early as it gets very busy. We went early, and it was still busy at the top. Next time we would love to be at the top for sunrise or sunset.

You can tackle this hill from many different angles depending on where you are coming from. We started our hike from……. Park but came down a different route as we were heading back into the city centre. As long as you have a map you will be fine working your way to the top and bottom.

You also do not necessarily have to just hike to the seat and back there are many other routes around and you could very easily make a day of it. If the weather is nice how about bringing a picnic and doing a long hike which involves Arthurs Seat too.

There are also lots of car parks if you have a car with you so you can drive to the base of the hill. We are crazy and we walked from our hotel all the way to the base, however there is lots of public transport in Edinburgh so its not hard to get to at all.

We also noticed lots of people cycling or running to the summit which we think was very brave but if you fancy the challenge we are sure it would be great.

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