Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and a city, steeped in history and world-renowned for its rich architectural heritage. With over 4,500 listed buildings, Edinburgh was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1995 thanks to the Old and New Town and is a popular tourist destination.
The Edinburgh World Heritage Trail podcasts make for fascinating listening whether you are sitting at home or exploring the city. Discover for yourself the fascinating history and stories behind many of the public spaces of the Old and New Towns by downloading the Heritage Trail and listening to the podcast for each location.
Author Geoff Holder has gathered together some of the most interesting facts about Edinburgh, why not share some of your favourite facts about 'Auld Reekie' in the comments below?
* The Royal Mile is 12% longer than a normal mile.
* There are no street names in Edinburgh beginning with the letter X.
* Inspector Rebus’ (and Ian Rankin’s) favourite pub, the Oxford Bar on Young Street, is ‘B’ listed, meaning it is of regional or local architectural importance.
* The ancient right of sanctuary around Holyrood Palace and Abbey has never been repealed, so theoretically a criminal could seek safety within the grounds.
* Edinburgh only became part of the nation of Scotland in the year 1020.
* Ronald Searle partly based his famously anarchic creation St Trinian’s on Edinburgh’s real-life St Trinnean’s School for Girls.
* The ‘biography’ of James Bond shows he was expelled from Edinburgh’s Fettes School.
* In 2010 British artist Antony Gormley installed six life-size figures in the Water of Leith. People quickly ‘pimped out’ the enigmatic sculptures with bikinis, woolly hats and underwear.
* In 1928 tug operators argued about who would guide the German battlecruiser Moltke to the scrapyard. Meanwhile the tow-rope broke, leaving 22,979 tons of upside-down armoured warship drifting out of control towards the Forth Bridge. Fortunately it sailed safely under the bridge, just missing the cantilever piers.
* Bylaws forbade early train drivers from grazing their horses while pulling trains.
* Trinity station had two booking windows. The second was reserved for the fisherwomen, whose fishscale-covered hands gave the woodwork (and everything else) an unshiftable patina of fish grease.
* In 1937 a fire killed hundreds of pigeons nesting in the vast glass canopy of Leith Central, littering the platforms and rails with smoke-asphyxiated birds.
* Passengers on the Queensferry Passage Ferry were charged 5d, the same fare as for a sheep or goat. Bulls cost four shillings, more than the fare for a small car.
* In 1941 Edinburgh’s buses introduced female conductors, who only worked on single-decker vehicles so their stockinged legs could not be ogled when going up the stairs of double-deckers.
* During a break in the Siege of Leith in 1560, French and English soldiers ate together on the beach. The English had beef, bacon, poultry, wine and beer, but the best the besieged French could manage was horse pie and roast rat.
* In 1679, during the Covenanting Wars, Edinburgh invented the concentration camp.
* During a siege of Edinburgh Castle in 1689, the defenders, hidden in deep shelters, asked the attackers for a pack of playing cards to help pass the time. The request was refused.
* Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, thought that Edinburgh was so delightful it would make a suitable summer capitol when Britain became part of Hitler’s empire.
* An inflatable Dalek lives in The Central Library. Dr Who’s enemy has illustrated various books and films, including Dalek Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Dalek with the Dragon Tattoo and The Good, the Bad and the Dalek.
* In 2011 some residents in Portobello thought an earthquake was shaking their houses - the vibrations were actually caused by the large vehicles shifting sand for a flood defence scheme.
* In 2008 urban foxes were seen fearlessly entering shops on Princes Street and the Royal Mile during daylight.
* Sir Nils Olav of Edinburgh Zoo is the only penguin in the world with a knighthood.
* Greyfriars Bobby was actually two dogs. When Bobby Mark I died in 1867, a substitute was brought in. The iconic statue, the subject of millions of tourist photographs, is of Greyfriars Bobby Mark II – the substitute dog.
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'The Little Book of Edinburgh' by Geoff Holder is a funny, fast-paced, fact-packed compendium of the most unusual crimes and punishments, eccentric inhabitants, famous sons and daughters and literally hundreds of wacky facts.