To close out January I took a little trip to Edinburgh. I love visiting this city, its so beautiful all year round.

Every good Edinburgh trip starts with visiting a local café! The Wall Coffee & Design House is a small café located on Cockburn Street and has easily become one of my favourite brunch/lunch spots. I got the Salmon and Avocado bagel with a latte. Look at the cute latte art the barista did!

I then went up to the castle to get some good views of the city and to watch the 1 o’clock gun firing. If you’ve never been before, the 1 o’clock gun is fired every day (except Sunday), this began in 1861. It was historically used to signal the time to ships transiting the Firth of Forth, so they could set their clocks correctly. I’ve walked around the castle 4 times now, though this was definitely the quietest visit. If you’re not a fan of crowds I’d definitely avoid visiting in the summer. This time I didn’t go into all the inside exhibitions as they remained unchanged since my last visit. I bought a coffee and a slice of coffee loaf cake from the castle café and walked around the battlements, taking in the views of the city.

After the castle it was time for some book shopping. The day before my trip one of my favourite authors, William Hussey, posted on his Instagram that he’d just been to several Edinburgh bookshops to sign copies of his latest book The Boy I love. Naturally I made it a priority to find one of these and buy it. I found one in the Waterstones on Princes Street.

I’ve been to quite a few secondhand book shops around Edinburgh already but still stumbled on a new one this time. Near Grassmarket there’s a book shop called Edinburgh Books, which boasts to be the largest secondhand book shop in Edinburgh. They also sell sheet music for all the musicians out there.

The Bernard Cornwell selection at Edinburgh Books was pretty decent. I’m a fan of Bernard Cornwell and am (slowly) working my way through his books. Secondhand bookshops are usually ideal for finding his books for cheap – similarly to Stephen King, all his novels are bestsellers so there’s an abundance of used copies floating around. I lucked out and found two first edition hardbacks for books on my TBR – The Last Kingdom and The Fort. They’re both in such good condition, despite being 10-20 years old! The pages are still white with no tears on the dustjackets. Both were £10, though I only paid £18 for the pair as the shop offers 10% student discount.

I’m sure you’ve heard of The Last Kingdom. I’ve read the first two books and started watching the show while it was still a BBC production, before they cancelled it after series 2, later selling it to Netflix (which I’ll forever be thankful for). To be honest I’m sick of falling in love with BBC shows only for them to cancel them after a couple seasons. The Fort is a historical fiction set in New England during America’s war against Britain for independence, following characters from both sides.

After all that walking I went back to my hotel to chill out and rest my feet. Edinburgh is a wonderful place to visit but if you’re not used to hours of walking on uneven, hilly, cobbled roads (or if you use some form of walking aid or wheelchair) you’ll probably struggle to get around. If you’re thinking of visiting and need to factor in accessibility I’ve linked an article by Forever Edinburgh that might be useful for you. TikTok is also a great place to find accessibility guides and experiences from disabled tourists that have visited the city already.

As the evening approached I went to Umi Japanese Cuisine to get some ramen. This was my first time at this restaurant and it was delicious! Definitely glad to have booked ahead, it was very busy. The food was amazing and the prices were pretty reasonable. After dinner I did a little bit of bar hopping. Banshees Labyrinth is one of my favourite pubs, its just off the Royal Mile, built into the underground tunnels. Ended the night at The Devil’s Advocate Whiskey Bar. It took me a little while to find it as I’d visited before but couldn’t remember the name of it, and only vaguely remembered where it was. 😅 10 minutes later I had found it and had a dram of Clydeside Napier single malt in my hands – the perfect end to a lovely day trip.

Have you been to Edinburgh? I’ve been plenty of times now so if you’re thinking about visiting feel free to ask any questions, hopefully I can answer them. I should be making another trip as the weather gets a little better – specifically to make some dedicated bookish blog posts. In fact, I’ll be at V.E. Schwab’s Edinburgh stop for her book tour of Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil in June.

Happy reading 📚