Edinburgh: the city of festivals

Edinburgh at last – after week of travelling, I arrive in this city of festivals. The city is alive with crowds that surge and push forward down the winding streets and sometimes into hidden passageways. This is a medieval city: a world to explore and get lost as well as disappear into. Street performances entertain the crowds. People stand listening to a piper, watching him slowly turn to the music of his own bagpipes. Tourist buses swing their way down the Royal Mile and on top of Camera Obscura, you can look across the city and take in the sights. This is a city that you return to.

A snapshot of Edinburgh:

If you have ever been tempted to go the whole nine yards, Hector Russell will be happy to join you. Nine yards being the traditional length of a kilt.

Hector Russell is the renowned specialist in Scottish attire and as with all things to do with their national identity, the Scots take their fabric very seriously. This store will locate your tartan (if you are in any doubt as to which clan you belong to).
Staff will assist with the ordering of cloth and advise you on how to wear your outfit and the traditions around it. (For women, only the Queen and the wife of Clan Chief wear their plaid shawls over their left shoulder; for everyone else it is their right. It’s important to get the etiquette right. You’ll never know when you’ll find yourself face-to-face dressed in a kilt being introduced to Her Majesty.) Suppliers to regimental bands, pipers, dancers and men in search of a hired kilt come to Hector Russell. It’s worth visiting just to see the display of semi-dress and formal sporrans and the tartan – modern, dress, hunting, muted, ancient and weather.

If you like tartan but don’t feel inclined to wear it, go to Anta. Annie Stewart utilises traditional Scottish designs in her contemporary range of home wares and apparel. The muted hues of the Scottish landscape are the inspiration for her soft spun wraps, shawls and carpets and stoneware. Ness offers a more colourful range of funky clothes based on tartans and cloth from the Outer Hebrides. You can buy tartan Wellingtons, bags, jackets and even brooches and key rings: all made from Harris Tweed.

Close to Anta on Victoria Street, you find yourself peering through the window at MacKenzie Leathergoods. Makers of bags, cases and portmanteaux, these luxury goods will last a lifetime (like your earlier purchase of a kilt). The bags are made upstairs and are beautifully crafted. They also stock bags by I Medici and Braun Buffel.

Close by is Cuttea Sark, a store named after the tea clipper and immoralised in the poetry of Robert Burns. This is a place for serious coffee-lovers. You won’t find fancy tourist tea or coffee (not a tartan ribbon in sight) but familiar roasts and blends. It is a local’s favourite. Drop into Iain. J. Mellis, specialist in farmhouse cheeses, two stores down. You’ll discover cheese from across the United Kingdom as well as Europe. All cheese must come from single herd to be included in the Mellis store.

No trip to Edinburgh would be complete with a trip to the famed Plaisir du chocolate. This is a place for all chocolate (and would be) aficionados. This is a place that understands chocolate and by this, I mean good chocolate. Ordering hot chocolates requires consultation and study with over thirteen chocolates on offer. You can opt for the indulgent (perhaps over indulgent) such as the Fete au Chocolat – a delirious and heady concoction of hot chocolate with Contreau topped with Chantilly cream. I select the chocolate chaud, preferring style over fashion. My chocolate arrives with a spoon of spices - clove, cinnamon and nutmeg. The taste is wonderfully warming, like drinking silk. The spices are aromatic and enticing. The setting itself is worthy of description – it is reminiscent of the belle époque. So rich and opulent. For reasons of pure research, I select two chocolates to accompany my chocolate chaud. I am lured by their filigrees of gold and jewel hues and the promise of sweetness and the mystery of their names. I savour the tastes of Casablanca (Chinese tea with fresh mint) or the Arabesque (white chocolate filling with rosebuds). The perfect time to visit is afternoon tea served between 3.30 – 5.30pm.

For a less opulent but no less old-fashioned tea, Forthym’s Tea Room, down one of the many lanes off the Royal Mile is worth a visit. It reminds me of the Ceylon Tearoom that my grandmother used to take me to when I was a girl. My memories of the tearoom are a little hazy – it was somewhere near The Block Arcade off Collins Street in Melbourne. The Forthym Tea Room has a similar appeal. There is nothing really remarkable about this tearoom expect nostalgia but maybe that’s why it continues to remain open.

Valvona & Crolla is the must-see deli in Edinburgh. Established in 1934 this family-run store is both delicatessen and wine merchant. Within its walls, you’ll find a vast range of continental produce from fresh chanterelle mushrooms to Amedei chocolate from Tuscany. “We need one of these in London” is just one of the comments I heard as I meander looking at things I have only read about. At the end of a series of corridors lined from floor to ceiling with produce, you’ll find the unpretentious café. It’s the perfect place for an expresso and brioche after a morning of sight-seeing. Beware the inauspicious frontage of this store, which can make it hard to find. The first time I tried to find it, I couldn’t. I returned the next day and did.

On the way back to the Royal Mile, walk along George Street – a somewhat long detour, admittedly. Dinner at Centrotre will keep you in the family business – it’s owned by another branch of the Valvona & Crolla store. Despite there being no links between the stores, the food is good. As the logo of the store says – “there are four beautiful things in the world: family, money, sleep and good food.”

The perfect conclusion to my stay in Edinburgh is lunch at Witchery by the Castle, close to (no surprises) Edinburgh Castle. Medieval in stylising: tapestries hang from the ceiling, small pitches of flowers adorn tables and topiary in large stone urns completes the look. I am here for lunch – a set menu. Lunch begins with a 134 page wine volume and a selection of bread – white or grain. I select an Alsace Riesling having decided to order the smoked organic salmon and samphire salad for entrée and the Witchery fish pie. This restaurant is a favourite of celebrities who come to dine and stay here (£295.00 a night). The closest I get to the famous is a Catherine Zeta-Jones look-alike. Nonetheless, lunch provides delightful, simple and perfect for a midday rest. The fish pies arrived in a cast-iron dish with golden-crisped potato. The fish is sweet with the subtle favouring of chives and parsley. My own complaint is that you can’t get to the bottom of the dish to finish off the sauce. A good lunch.

Next stop, London.

Centrotre, 103 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 3ES
The Witchery by the Castle, Castlehill, The Royal Mile, Edinburgh EH1 2NF Camera Obscura, Castlehill, The Royal Mile, Edinburgh EH1 2NF
MacKenzie Leathergoods, 34 Victoria Street, Edinbrugh EH1 2JW
Plaisir du Chocolat, 251-253 Canongate, Edinburgh EH8 8BQ
Hector Russell, 137-141 High Street, Edinburgh EH2 2ER
Anta, Crocket’s Land, 91-93 West Bow, Victoria Street, Edinburgh EH1 2JP
Ness, 367 High Street, Edinburgh