Fountainbridge Edinburgh Scotland

When you step out of the Herald House Hotel into Grove Street you will be in the best possible place to explore four very different parts of Edinburgh.

If you turn to your left and walk down Grove Street – past Number 12 which was the former home of The Great William MacGonagall, the World’s Worst Poet ever - you reach Morrison Street.

Turn right to go up towards Lothian Road and Tollcross where there are two art house cinemas, one multiplex, and a mind-boggling selection of night clubs, bars and restaurants. Warning: the nightclubs on Lothian Road get pretty wild on weekend nights and are best avoided. Alternatively, turn left at Morrison Street and you will come to Haymarket which is a three way junction leading to either Princes Street, Gorgie (home of Heart of Midlothian Football Club), or out along the Glasgow Road to Murrayfield stadium and Corstorphine Zoo.

Turn right outside the Herald House Hotel and you come to a long road called Fountainbridge. This is the street where Sean Connery once delivered milk on a horse and cart, and where the great Edinburgh breweries were once situated. There is a real treat here.

To your left, just across the road, tucked in behind the fancy new buildings, is the posh new Edinburgh Quay development and the start of the Union Canal. This has a beautiful walk along a cycle path that goes all the way to Glasgow if you’re feeling energetic.

The beginning of the canal at Edinburgh Quay - the bars and restaurants are very trendy - is slowly turning into Edinburgh’s Little Amsterdam (minus the legalised decadence associated with that city, this is Edinburgh after all!).

Barge homes have begun to proliferate on the water, there are regular canal trips, and even a floating restaurant or two. This is the prefect place for a quiet stroll away from the noise and bustle of the city centre. It is well worth walking the two miles or so along the canal to cross Edinburgh’s massive 19th century stone aqueduct where the canal flows over Edinburgh’s only river, the Water of Leith. On the way you’ll encounter dog-walkers, picnic-ers, kayakers and barges, as well as mute swans, moorhens, mallard ducks and the occasional cormorant or goose. They don’t mind if you feed them.

Alternatively, turn right at Fountainbridge and you’re just five minutes away from the Fountain Park entertainment complex which is home to ten UGC multiplex cinema screens, a bowling alley, an amusement arcade, bars, restaurants, and a nightclub. If you are staying in the Herald House Hotel there is the added bonus at night of a very short walk home!