The Royal Mile () is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W. M. Gilbert's Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century (1901), describing the city "with its Castle and Palace and the royal mile between", and was further popularised as the title of a guidebook by R. T. Skinner published in 1920, "The Royal Mile (Edinburgh) Castle to Holyrood(house)".
The Royal Mile runs between two significant locations in the royal history of Scotland: Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace. The name derives from it being the traditional processional route of monarchs, with a total length of approximately one Scottish mile, an obsolete unit equal to 1.8072576 km. The streets which make up the Royal Mile are (west to east) Castlehill, the Lawnmarket, the High Street, the Canongate and Abbey Strand. The Royal Mile is the busiest tourist street in the Old Town, rivalled only by Princes Street in the New Town.
Geography
Retreating ice sheets, many millennia ago, deposited their glacial debris behind the hard volcanic plug of the castle rock on which Edinburgh Castle stands, resulting in a distinctive crag and tail formation. Running eastwards from the crag on which the castle sits, the Royal Mile sits upon the ridge of the tail which slopes gently down to Holyrood Palace. Steep closes (or alleyways) run between the many tall lands (or tenement buildings) off the main thoroughfare. The route runs from an elevation of above sea level at the palace to at the castle, giving an average gradient of 4.1%.
Castle Esplanade and Castlehill
The Castle Esplanade was laid out as a parade ground, in 1753, using spoil from the building of the Royal Exchange (now the City Chambers). It was formalised in 1816 when it was widened and provided with decorative railings and walls. The Esplanade with its several monuments has been A-listed by Historic Scotland. It is the venue of the annual Edinburgh Military Tattoo at which time specially designed temporary grandstands are erected. Cannonball House has a cannonball lodged in the wall, often said to have been accidentally fired from the Castle but which actually marks the elevation of Comiston Springs, three miles to the south of the Castle, which fed a cistern on Castlehill, one of the first piped water supplies in Scotland.
From the Castle Esplanade, the short section of road entitled Castlehill is dominated by the former Tolbooth-Highland-St John's Church (on the south side at the foot of this section), now the headquarters of the Edinburgh International Festival society – The Hub, and on the north side by the Outlook Tower and Camera Obscura. The Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland and New College are further down on the same side. The Scottish Parliament met in the Assembly Hall between 1999 and 2004.
Lawnmarket
The Lawnmarket is a separately named part of the High Street. Addresses are a continuation of the High Street numbers. It runs from the West Bow to St Giles Street.
A charter of 1477 designated this part of the High Street as the market-place for what was called "inland merchandise" – items such as yarn, stockings, coarse cloth and other similar articles. In later years, linen was the main product sold. As a result, it became known as the Land Market which was later corrupted to Lawn Market. Located in a close on the south side, Riddle's Court is the well-preserved 16th-century house of a merchant John MacMorran, who was shot by rioting schoolboys in 1595.
Today, the majority of shops in the street are aimed at tourists. On the north side is the preserved 17th century merchant's townhouse Gladstone's Land owned by the National Trust for Scotland. The lower end of the Lawnmarket is intersected by George IV Bridge on the right (south) and Bank Street on the left (north), leading to The Mound and the New Town. The view down Bank Street is closed by the baroque headquarters of the Bank of Scotland.
On the south-west corner of this intersection, with its entrance on George IV Bridge, is a modern hotel, replacing the former Lothian Regional Council offices. This building is of controversial design, winning both best building awards and the Carbuncle Cup in 2009–10.
Between Bank Street and St Giles Street, marking the end of the Lawnmarket, the High Court of Justiciary, Scotland's supreme criminal court, is housed in the Justiciary Building.