Edinburgh · Self-guided audio walk

Leith and the Shore

Leith ran its own affairs until 1920, and the harbour still behaves like a town of its own: a royal yacht, a nine-storey distillery, a swing bridge, and a waterfront of bars.

6Stops
1.9 kmDistance
30+ minTime

Photo by Stuart Hay on Unsplash

Leith was a burgh in its own right until November 1920, when it was joined to Edinburgh. Walk the harbour and you can still feel the older town underneath: the crown's arsenal stood on the Shore, the merchant guilds built their own church, and the port paid for its own bridges.

This walk starts at the Royal Yacht Britannia, entered from the second floor of Ocean Terminal and worth about two hours aboard, then calls in at the Port of Leith Distillery, nine storeys of whisky-making on Whisky Quay, with a bar at the top and tours from £25.

From there you cross the Victoria Swing Bridge, the largest swing bridge in the United Kingdom when it opened in 1874 and now a footpath, and follow the water to the Shore, Lamb's House and the church the trade guilds built around 1483.

Hear it on the street

Get the turn-by-turn audio guide in the app. The narration plays itself as you reach each stop, hands-free and offline.

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

Stop by stop

The route

Interactive map of the route. The full stop list below works without it.

Must see

Photo by David Martin on Wikimedia Commons

Royal Yacht Britannia

0:00

Enter from Ocean Terminal's second floor; allow about two hours aboard.

The Royal Yacht Britannia lies at Ocean Drive, two miles from Edinburgh's city centre and a world away from it. Your visit starts on the second floor of the Ocean Terminal shopping centre, where an exhibition covers the royal yachts back to 1660, before you step aboard the last British royal yacht. Five decks are open, and the onboard tour takes you from the engine room and the crew's quarters up to the state rooms and the sun deck. Britannia sailed more than a million nautical miles in royal service.

Allow about two hours; you go at your own pace, and the tearoom on the royal deck is there if you want to sit a while longer. The ship is the reason most visitors come to Leith at all. It also sits in a harbour the town built and paid for itself, long before Edinburgh took Leith over in November 1920, and that older, self-ruling port is what the rest of this walk is about.

Open in Google Maps

≈2 min walk to the next stop

Local pick

Photo by E Mens on Unsplash

Port of Leith Distillery

0:00

Nine storeys of whisky-making on the quay, with a bar on top.

The Port of Leith Distillery stands at 11 Whisky Quay, a short walk from Ocean Terminal, and it is the first vertical distillery built in the United Kingdom. Nine storeys, one above the other: malt in at the top, stills at the bottom, and a bar on the top floor with a view back over the docks you just walked past. Building upwards was the answer to a site with no room to spread out, which is a very Leith problem. Distillery tours with a tasting start at 25 pounds, run about 90 minutes, take you down through the floors and end with samples of new make spirit, port, sherry and their Leith Bond whisky, and you fill and label a miniature bottle of your own. The company began with two friends from Edinburgh who liked whisky and had a plan. Whether you tour or just ride the lift to the top, the drink up there comes with the whole harbour laid out below.

Open in Google Maps

≈9 min walk to the next stop

Local pick

Photo by Jim Barton on Wikimedia Commons

Victoria Swing Bridge

0:00

The largest swing bridge in the United Kingdom when it opened in 1874.

The Victoria Swing Bridge was built between 1871 and 1874 to move road traffic and two lines of dock railway between the east and west sides of the port, and when it opened it was the largest swing bridge in the United Kingdom. The span is 120 feet, the whole bridge 212 feet, and it weighs around 620 tonnes, most of that wrought iron, with a counterweight heavy enough to balance the deck as it turned. It was powered by water, from a hydraulic power station just to the north, and it swung that way, which is why the turning platform on the north side is so wide. The rails and the roadway are gone. What's left is a timber deck open to pedestrians only, restored in 2024, with the docks on one side and the old harbour on the other. Stand at the middle and look upstream: that's the last stretch of the Water of Leith before it becomes docks.

Open in Google Maps

≈4 min walk to the next stop

Free preview ends here · stops 4 to 6 continue in the app

The Shore

Leith's old harbour street, with the King's Wark and its bars.

in app

Lamb's House

A merchant's townhouse from around 1610, with Dutch pantiles on the roof.

in app

South Leith Parish Church

The town's own church, built by its trade guilds around 1483.

in app

Good to know

Before you go

How do I get to Leith and the Shore?

Leith sits on the city's bus and tram routes, so you can ride out from the centre; the Royal Yacht Britannia is berthed at Ocean Terminal, entered from the second floor of the shopping centre.

SourceThe Royal Yacht Britannia: official site

How long should I allow aboard Britannia?

Allow about two hours aboard. Tickets are sold by date and time and come with an audio guide, and the visit is entered from the second floor of Ocean Terminal.

SourceThe Royal Yacht Britannia: official site

What else does the Leith walk pass?

The Leith walk passes the Port of Leith Distillery, nine storeys of whisky-making on Whisky Quay with tours from £25.00 and a bar at the top; the Victoria Swing Bridge, the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom when it opened in 1874; the Shore and the King's Wark; Lamb's House, a merchant's townhouse from around 1610; and South Leith Parish Church, built by the town's trade guilds around 1483.

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Provenance · last verified September 26, 2026

Built from the Wayside route itself: the stops, their order, and the walk between them.

Photo by Stuart Hay on Unsplash

Photo by David Martin on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0

Photo by E Mens on Unsplash

Photo by Jim Barton on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0

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