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Location Information:
The
Royal Mile is a succession of
streets which form the main
thoroughfare of the Old Town of the
city of Edinburgh in Scotland.
As the
name suggests, the Royal Mile is
approximately one Scots mile long,
and runs between two foci of history
in Scotland, from Edinburgh Castle
at the top of the Castle Rock down
to Holyrood Abbey. The streets which
make up the Royal Mile are (west to
east) Castle Esplanade, Castlehill,
Lawnmarket, High Street, Canongate
and Abbey Strand. The Royal Mile is
Edinburgh Old Town's busiest tourist
street, rivalled only by Princes
Street in the New Town. During the
annual Edinburgh Festival, the High
Street becomes the city's central
focus, and is crowded with tourists,
entertainers and buskers. On the
left is the High Court of Justiciary,
Scotland's supreme criminal court.
On the right, about one-third of the
way down from the Castle toward the
Palace is Parliament Square, named
after the old Parliament House which
housed both the law courts and the
old Parliament of Scotland between
the 1630s and 1707 (when it was
adjourned by the Act of Union)
Parliament House is now the home of
the Court of Session, Scotland's
supreme civil court. St Giles
Cathedral, the High Kirk of
Edinburgh, also stands in Parliament
Square.
By the West Door of St Giles is the
Heart of Midlothian, a heart-shaped
pattern built into the setted road,
marking the site of the former
Tolbooth (prison). From the point of
its demolition, locals used to spit
on the site of the prison. The
prison had been described by Sir
Walter Scott as the "Heart of
Midlothian", and soon after
demolition it occurred to the city
fathers to place a heart on the
site. Locals still spit on the Heart
(aiming very specifically for the
centre). The legend has been
"cleaned up" by tourist guides who
claim the spitting is for good luck,
but it is really the same as it was,
a good old-fashioned disrespect for
authority. On the left, opposite St
Giles', is Edinburgh City Chambers,
where the City of Edinburgh Council
meets. On the right, just past the
High Kirk, is the Mercat Cross from
which royal proclamations are read,
and election results announced.
The
central focus of the Royal Mile is a
major intersection with The Bridges.
North Bridge runs left (north) to
the New Town's Princes Street across
Waverley station. To the right South
Bridge (which appears from above to
be simply a road with shops on
either side: and even from below,
only one arch is visible) spans
across the Cowgate, a street many
storeys below, and continues as
Nicolson Street past the Old College
building of the University of
Edinburgh.
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