Hobby trips

Choose a 90-minute stadium tour or a 60-minute Main Stand tour, covering the dressing rooms, tunnel, dugouts and media suite. Book online through the Hearts website.

Hibs run stadium tours of Easter Road, including the Legends Tour led by former players. Dates are listed on the club’s website.

The national football museum, open seven days, with stadium tours of Scotland’s national ground.

Four wartime hangars on East Fortune airfield, with Scotland’s only Concorde to board and a Vulcan bomber. From November to March it opens weekends only, 10:00–16:00.

Look up for the Hawk, Percy Pilcher’s 1896 glider and the oldest surviving British aircraft, in the science and technology galleries. Free, and open daily.

Edinburgh’s luxury address, home to Harvey Nichols and international houses off St Andrew Square.

Its Fashion and Style gallery covers 400 years of dress, and entry is free.

The curving Victoria Street and the Grassmarket below hold independent shops, Scottish knitwear and vintage clothing.

The old volcano in Holyrood Park, about 45 minutes up from the palace end; come down past Salisbury Crags for views over the Old Town.

Rolling hills and reservoirs just south of the city; Flotterstone has a visitor centre and well-marked loops for all levels.

A flat riverside path through Dean Village and Stockbridge, easy with children or a pushchair.

Enric Miralles’s building, opened in 2004: upturned-boat roofs, oak and concrete, and the “thinking pods” of the MSP offices. Free 45-minute guided tours run Monday, Friday and Saturday on sitting weeks, and Monday to Saturday in recess.

Robert Adam’s 1791 north side is one of the most admired Georgian palace-fronts in Europe.

Greek Revival on a hilltop: the reason Edinburgh was called the “Athens of the North”.

A Victorian Gothic spire to Sir Walter Scott in Princes Street Gardens; narrow stairs climb to the top.

Michael Hopkins’s tented roof beside the Parliament; inside, a science centre on the planet’s story.

A former milling village of stone and timber houses in a steep river gorge, minutes from the West End.

Scotland’s story from geology to Dolly the sheep, in a Victorian Grand Gallery joined to a sandstone 1990s wing. Free; go up to the roof terrace for the view.

Playfair’s temple of art on the Mound, with Raeburn, Titian and Vermeer, and newer Scottish galleries opening onto Princes Street Gardens. Free.

A red sandstone Gothic palace with a gilded frieze of Scottish history in its Great Hall. Free.

Two galleries facing each other across lawns, with sculpture in the grounds; a short walk from Dean Village. Free.

Medical history in Playfair’s 1832 building; fascinating but graphic in places.

Contemporary art in the restored City Observatory on top of Calton Hill.