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Map of Edinburgh
Two cities face to face, separated by a valley of gardens. To the south, the medieval one, crammed onto a ridge running down from the castle; to the north, the Georgian one, on a grid so orderly it looks drawn with a ruler.
What you see on the map
The Old Town. The Royal Mile runs down the ridge from the castle to the Palace of Holyrood, and off it run the closes, narrow alleys like the bones of a fish. The map shows that shape.
The castle. On the rock of an extinct volcano, at the western end of the ridge, with the slopes cleared all around it.
The New Town. James Craig's plan of 1767: three parallel streets, Princes, George and Queen, closed by two squares, followed by more grids, crescents and ovals to the north. One of the finest Georgian ensembles in the world.
The gardens and Holyrood. Princes Street Gardens fills the valley of the drained loch, with the Waverley tracks below; to the east, Calton Hill and the great patch of Holyrood Park at the foot of Arthur's Seat.
Which scale and paper suit it
1:15,000 on a 30 cm square, as in the picture, covers 4 km: from the castle to Holyrood and from the New Town to the Meadows. Buildings can be made out one by one.
1:6,000 on A3 moves in on the Royal Mile with every close, or on the New Town with its squares and private gardens.
In black ink, as here, it looks like an engraving from the old city plans; in sepia, even more so.
Make it yours
Open the example and move the frame: the port of Leith, to the north, or the whole of Arthur's Seat, with its contour lines, deserve a map of their own.
Change all the colours at once with a theme (black ink, sepia, coral, night, blueprint) and download it as PNG. With a free account, also element by element, at 600 dpi, as vector PDF and as SVG.
