Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. Scotland is part of the United Kingdom.

The city is close to the sea, beside a wide river mouth called the Firth of Forth.

Edinburgh has been the capital of Scotland since the 15th century, UNESCO says. It stands on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, the wide estuary where the River Forth meets the sea.

Scotland's statistics office estimated that 531,370 people lived in the City of Edinburgh council area in mid-2025. The 2022 census counted 493,736 people in the Edinburgh locality, the city's main settlement. Its name comes from Gaelic words meaning 'fortified hill of Eidin'.

Universalis places Edinburgh on the southern shore of the Forth estuary and derives its name from the Gaelic Dùn Èideann, 'fortified hill of Eidin'; it calls it Scotland's second city after Glasgow.

National Records of Scotland's mid-year estimates (published 14 July 2026) give the City of Edinburgh council area 514,570 people in 2022 and 531,370 in mid-2025, slightly fewer than the 532,070 of mid-2024. Scotland's 2022 census counted 493,736 people in the Edinburgh locality and 514,543 in the council area.

Edinburgh Castle sits on top of a huge rock. The rock was made by a volcano long ago.

Kings and queens once lived in the castle.

Edinburgh Castle stands on Castle Rock, which is volcanic rock. Historic Environment Scotland, which looks after it, says it began as an Iron Age hill fort. Later it became a home of kings and queens, and in the 1400s and 1500s it was one of Scotland's main royal homes.

The oldest building still standing in the city is a chapel inside the castle walls, built around 1130 by King David I. Since 2022, solar panels on one castle building have made an average of 26,500 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year.

Historic Environment Scotland records that the castle began life as an Iron Age hill fort atop the volcanic Castle Rock and was among Scotland's chief royal residences in the 1400s and 1500s, when monarchs commissioned grand buildings and defenses. St Margaret's Chapel, built around 1130 by David I, is the oldest surviving building in the capital; it served as a gunpowder store in the 16th century and was restored in the 19th.

Since 2022 solar panels on the Scottish National War Memorial building have generated an average of 26,500 kWh a year. UNESCO describes the Old Town stretching along a ridge from the castle on its rock down to the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

Edinburgh has a tram that glides along rails in the street. It goes to the airport.

A bridge joins the old part of the city to the new part.

A valley separates Edinburgh's Old Town from its New Town. UNESCO explains that two crossings link them: the North Bridge, a viaduct over the valley, and the Mound.

Edinburgh's tram line opened on 31 May 2014, running from the airport to York Place. On 7 June 2023 it was extended 4.7 kilometers to Newhaven. UrbanRail gives the whole line as about 18.5 kilometers long.

UNESCO describes the Old and New Towns as linked across the Waverley Valley, Sir Walter Scott's 'great arena', by the urban viaduct of North Bridge and by the Mound. In the Old Town, narrow closes, wynds and courts lead off the High Street in a little-altered medieval street pattern.

UrbanRail records the tram's opening on 31 May 2014 between the airport and York Place (13.8 km), a stop added at Edinburgh Gateway in 2016, the closure of York Place in 2022 and the 4.7 km extension from St Andrew Square to Newhaven on 7 June 2023, for one line of about 18.5 km.

Edinburgh has a big park with a hill called Arthur's Seat. It is what is left of a very old volcano.

Water birds live on a loch, a lake, in the park.

Holyrood Park in Edinburgh has hills, crags and cliffs, and lochs, the Scottish word for lakes. The hill called Arthur's Seat and the nearby crags are the remains of a volcano that erupted about 340 million years ago. Glaciers later carved the cliffs and valleys. Water birds gather on St Margaret's Loch.

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh began in 1670 as a small garden of medicinal plants near Holyrood. It moved twice and began moving to its present site at Inverleith in 1820.

Historic Environment Scotland explains that Arthur's Seat and the crags of Holyrood Park are the remains of a volcano that erupted around 340 million years ago, later sculpted by glaciers; in the 18th century James Hutton studied the rocks of Salisbury Crags, observations that helped develop the idea of deep time. Flint tools show Stone Age visitors, and Bronze Age farming terraces survive on Arthur's Seat's eastern slopes.

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh was founded near Holyrood Abbey in 1670 as a physic garden; it moved in 1675 and 1763, began its move to Inverleith in 1820 and built its Tropical Palm House in 1834.