As we begin the countdown to tonight's epic fireworks finale to Edinburgh's Hogamanay celebrations, here's a few factoids to share with those around you on Princes Street as you wait for midnight.

Small 'countdown' displays will take place on the hour at 9pm, 10pm, 11pm before the climactic midnight display (at midnight!).

If all the fireworks in the midnight display were fired individually, instead of all at once, the display would last FOUR HOURS instead of just five minutes!

And if the combined height of all the fireworks were laid out end-to-end, the distance covered would reach from Edinburgh to Paris, nearly 700 miles!

Setting up the fireworks at Edinburgh Castle, Princes Street Gardens and Calton Hill takes a crew of 14 technicians from Titanium Fireworks more than five days on site...

The display itself features over 2,000 electrical cues to ignite over 11,000 fireworks in 18 different shades of colour. 

Midnight on Hogmanay marks the only time in the year when the clock on the Balmoral Hotel, above Waverley Station, tells the correct time - ordinarily it runs a couple of minutes fast as a service to ensure passengers heading for trains don't miss them.

Be sure to wrap up warm if you're out in town for the celebrations tonight, and enjoy the unique celebration of Edinburgh's Hogmanay, and have a very happy start to the new year!

Despite Edinburgh having several year-round Christmas shops, you could be forgiven for thinking that Scotland wasn't all that bothered about Christmas - after all, Hogmanay (the Scots celebration of the turning of the new year) is the biggest celebration in the Scottish calendar, with hundreds of thousands of people journeying to Scotland to celebrate in cities and towns across the country.

There are historical reasons for this shift of festive focus. Christmas was banned in Britain under the rule of Oliver Cromwell in the seventeenth-century, believing the celebration was a decadent indulge unbefitting of a puritan people. From 1643 Christmas celebrations were outlawed due to its popular excesses - drinking, dancing, over-eating, gift giving, singing - which were direct in contradiction of the ideals of the Puritan strand of Protestant faith.

In Scotland, celebrations were subtly adjusted to make the focus of festivities fall the following week, when the calendar marked a change of year. Thus the new year celebration - unrelated to the Christian calendar, and so outwith the purview of the puritan church - became the winter festival instead!

Despite the restoration of the monarchy, with an associated restoration of Christmas celebrations in 1660, Scots continued to mark the new year more fervently than the Christmas holidays. In fact, Christmas day was never a formal public holiday in Scotland until 1958, as many of the present older generation of Scots will attest. Working on Christmas Day was a common enough experience for centuries - and partly influenced Dickens' classic Christmas character, Ebenezer Scrooge - but Hogmanay was a festival that would be marked and celebrated fervently. 

A week today will be Christmas Eve - if you haven't already been enjoying the winter wonderland of attractions from Edinburgh's Christmas, there's still time to catch a ride on the big wheel or on the star-flyer (if your stomach allows it).

And in case you thought all the flashing lights and market stalls were a recent invention, an article from the Scotsman on 18th December 1923 celebrated that year's Waverley Market Carnival, proving that Edinburgh is no stranger to Christmas cheer:

"The cold, drab, prosaic aspect of the Market has vanished for the time being, as if by the waving of a fairy’s wand," the article says, "and the interior of the building presents an appearance of animation, brightness, and gaiety in keeping with the joyous spirit of the season."

Then, as now, there were stalls and sideshow attractions, including performing animals, which Edinburgh Council would scarcely countenance licensing today: "There are acts by dogs, which display wonderful cleverness; there are astonishing balancing feats by sea lions; there is a boxing pony...." 

The Waverley Market was not far from  the site of today's 'carnival', above Waverley Station. It was the city's principle fruit and vegetable market up until 1973, and the site also featured an exhibition space where a variety of shows were staged throughout the year, including dog shows, car shows, and a variety of circus and carnival attractions, such as the Christmas carnival. The market site was demolished and redeveloped as the modern shopping centre, today branded as Princes Mall, but previously retaining the Waverley name. 

"When one enters this atmosphere of dazzling delights, laughter, and music," the Scotsman reviewer wrote, in 1923, "even the most staid person feels constrained to enter into the fun of the fair." The same can easily said of the modern incarnation of this seasonal extravaganza, with two skating rinks - including a circular rink around the Melville Monument in St Andrew's Square - the big wheel, star flyer, children's Christmas tree maze and other family friendly rides, hot food and drink stalls, and with the Spiegeltent (usually seen during the Fringe in the summer months) providing hours of festive entertainment indoors too. 

Edinburgh's Christmas runs until 4th January, and if you're visiting Edinburgh over the festive period, why not book an Up-Close and Personal Tour to get to know the city better?

Inspired by an entry in Michael TRB Turnbull's The Edinburgh Book of Days. 

Crossing the World's End junction, you would previously be leaving Edinburgh and entering Canongate, a separate burgh owned by the abbey (and its canons) at Holyrood. 

The name Canongate has nothing to do with weapons; it derives from the route taken by the canons of St Giles' as they would walk from their lodgings at Holyrood Abbey - 'the canon's gait' is also reflected in the name of a pub along this stretch of the Royal Mile. 

Down here you will find two free museums, the People's Story and the Museum of Edinburgh, both providing a fascinating insight into life in the old city. The People's Story is housed in the distinctive building of the old Canongate tollbooth, built in the sixteenth century. Adjacent to this building, on the north side of the street, is the Canongate Kirk, bearing the royal insignia of Holyrood as it is the Queen's official house of worship when in residence at Holyrood. 

Walking down from the junction with Bank Street you're still technically on Lawnmarket - you'll pass a statue of David Hume and the relatively modern building of the High Court, before High Street begins.

You can't miss the imposing High Kirk of St Giles (for Edinburgh's patron saint) on the south side of the street. This building, with its distinctive crown-shaped bell tower, is sometimes referred to as St Giles' Cathedral. Although the building was technically a cathedral (that is, housing bishops) for two short periods during the seventeenth century, outside of these times, under the presbyterian Church of Scotland, as it is today, sans bishops, it is more properly referred to as the High Kirk. 

Behind the High Kirk are the buildings of Parliament House, where the Scottish parliament sat prior to the union with England in 1707. You'll also find the Heart of Midlothian marked in the pavement near here, famed for denoting the doorway of the old debtors' prison which stood on this site. Visitors often spit on the ground here, as those released from the prison would have done, to indicate their contempt for the justice system. 

Down a lane on the north side of High Street, immediately adjacent to the High Kirk, you'll find Mary King's Close, a fascinating guided excursion through the so-called 'underground city', an old Edinburgh street which was built over but remained intact and stands as an informative and entertaining insight into life in old Edinburgh. You'll also pass the City Chambers, housing departments of Edinburgh Council.

On High Street you'll find the box office for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a colourful building on the south side of the road. In the summer the queue for tickets here can be immense, so book your tickets online in advance, and join the (much shorter) queue to pick them up from the collection machines instead.

Past the next crossroads, marked by another former church, that of the Tron Kirk, you'll find buildings such as John Knox's House, reputed to be the home of the infamous religious reformer, as well as the Museum of Childhood, a free museum that is not especially child-friendly, but may appeal more to adults seeking to relive experiences from their own youth. 

When you reach the next junction, on the south western corner of the crossroads is the World's End pub. For a long time, this junction marked the formal city boundary - Edinburgh reached only from the Castle to this junction, and all land beyond it was outside the city. At this junction once stood the main city gate, the Netherbow Port. This was the route which most people entering or leave the city would have taken, whether they were traders, visitors or invading armies. Crossing through the Netherbow required payment of a toll, so for many of the impoverished locals, paying the toll was more than they could have afforded, and consequently many of them were never able to physically leave the city as they could not have paid the price to get back in. This junction, for many people, was technically the end of the world, hence the pub. The outline of the Netherbow Port is marked in brass bricks in the roadway where it once stood.

You're now technically leaving the old burgh of Edinburgh, and the Royal Mile continues as Canongate.

Explore the Royal Mile in more detail with a Royal Mile walking tour, or a customised Edinburgh tour! 

Immediately after the small roundabout at the junction of Johnston Terrace, you're into the Lawnmarket section of the Royal Mile. Originally a market area specialising in cloth or linen, the name Lawnmarket likely derives from a corruption of the French translation of linen, 'lin', or possibly from the Scots pronunciation of 'land', 'laun'. 

On the north side of the Lawnmarket you'll find the restored 15th century tenement building of Gladstone's Land, which gives a fascinating insight into life inside the buildings of Old Edinburgh. These properties would have housed families from right across the social spectrum, from shop keepers and merchants to noblemen and their families, and quickly became overcrowded. 

Notice the lanes leading off the Royal Mile on either side of the road. Take time to explore these alleys, known as closes, wynds or courts, each of them named for a wealthy or significant occupant of one of the houses here, or for the tradesman or artisan workers who lived there. The closes originally would have had a gate on the street to close them off at night; the wynds would have led down the hill to backstreets; and courts generally opened up into small courtyards, providing access to a range of buildings. 

​These alleys are a key part of Edinburgh history and heritage, and no visit to the Royal Mile would be complete without an exploration of them. You may be surprised to find pavement cafes, restaurants, bars, gardens, museums and a range of shops all nestled down these alleys, and each has a different character.

Down Lady Stair's Close, off the Lawnmarket on the north side, you will find the Writer's Museum, a free exhibition of artefacts relating to three of Edinburgh's finest literary figures, Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson and Robert Burns. ​

The Royal Mile is the heart of Edinburgh's Old Town, being the main street along which the city originally developed. Stretching from the castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse it is a little over a mile long, and is broken into five separately named stretches, each with its own unique character, attractions and history. 

The route of the Royal Mile follows the ridge of volcanic rock which once flowed from the nearby volcano, and was shaped by the passage of a glacier which swept across the area during the last ice age, approximately 10,000 years ago. The force of the glacier wore away softer rock, but couldn't erode the volcanic plug of what is today the Castle Rock. As it moved eastwards, the glacier drew out the 'spine' of the lava flow. This feature is known geologically as a crag and tail formation, and the Royal Mile follows the line of this 'tail'.

Immediately outside the Castle, as soon as you leave the open area of the Esplanade, you're onto the cobbled street of the Royal Mile - this is Castlehill. 

On the north side of the street is the Tartan Weaving Mill and gift shop, with an active tartan weaving manufacturer in the basement. The building itself was formerly a purpose-built reservoir to store and supply water to the Old Town, piping water from the Pentland Hills, a few miles to the south of the city. Across the road from it is Cannonball House, now opened as a cafe, restaurant and ice cream shop, named for the two cannonballs lodged in the western wall, facing the castle. These balls were deliberately inserted into the wall to mark the water level of the distant spring which fed water to the reservoir.

You'll also find the Camera Obscura and World of Illusions, a great indoors attraction with an outdoor viewing platform for views across the city, and the Scotch Whisky Experience, offering an insight into the processes of making Scotland's national drink, as well as an extensive shop and restaurant. Next door is the famous Witchery restaurant, a fine dining (and reputedly haunted) restaurant named for the people executed as witches on the Castlehill during the 16th and 17th centuries, with boutique hotel rooms which frequently house celebrities. 

During the summer Castlehill is largely pedestrianised, and is often populated with a variety of street performers and buskers, including bagpipers and William Wallace (aka Braveheart), who will happily have his photo taken with you, wielding a variety of authentic weapons, in exchange for a charitable donation.

​Castlehill runs down to the junction with the church building with the highest spire in the city (c.240ft) - formerly St John's Highland Tollbooth church it was one of very few churches which provided services in Gaelic. Today the building is the administrative centre of (and box office for) the Edinburgh International Festival. 

At the junction with Johnston Terrace, notice the small lane of Upper Bow. This steep and narrow lane was for a long time the primary road up to this part of Edinburgh from the outer Grassmarket area, accessible today via a short staircase to Victoria Street. 

The Royal Mile continues down the road, over the junction, as Lawnmarket. 

Explore the Royal Mile in more detail with my Royal Mile walking tour, or book a fully customised Edinburgh tour!

Scotland and Edinburgh were not always regarded as such attractive places to visit as they are today. Samuel Johnson was a particular critic, once asking: "What enemy would invade Scotland, where there is nothing to be got?" 

Happily we have enjoyed the favours of many people who have championed the country, and Edinburgh in particular, and foremost among them was Sir Walter Scott.

​Scott may be best regarded today as one of Scotland's foremost romantic novelists for books such as Rob Roy and Ivanhoe, but he was also a judge and a lawyer, as well as being Edinburgh's great cultural ambassador. For were it not for Scott's efforts in the nineteenth century the tourist industry in Scotland may have taken rather longer to become established.

In 1818 Scott led a group of men who sought out the Scottish crown jewels, which had been hidden away in Edinburgh Castle after the union with England in 1707. By the turn of the nineteenth century the Honours of Scotland (as they would become known) were known only through fables and national legends - no one knew for sure whether they still existed, never mind where they might be.

The jewels were discovered by Scott and his men in the bowels of Edinburgh Castle, having been locked inside a sturdy chest for over a hundred years. After their rediscovery, the jewels were put on display in Edinburgh Castle, and quickly became a popular attraction for locals and those visitors to the city, who would pay handsomely to view them (entry to the castle itself being free at this point!). 

Perhaps capitalising on this newfound attraction, and conscious that Edinburgh hadn't received a royal visit from a reigning monarch since 1650, Scott invited King George IV to visit the city. This event took place with a great deal of pomp and circumstance, with a grand ball at the Assembly Rooms on George Street.

It was reputedly Scott also who suggested the king might like to wear a kilt, made of Scottish plaid or tartan material - prior to this few people still wore the kilt, considering it old-fashioned and outmoded, and also having been illegal to wear - punishable by six months in prison - after the union with England.

Being modelled (albeit badly, according to contemporary accounts) on King George IV helped to reintroduce the kilt to popular fashion, and indeed to the tourist trade. Everyone visiting Scotland wanted to be seen wearing the striking apparel that the king himself had championed! And so the kilt became a staple feature of 'Scottishness', thanks in large part to Walter Scott.

Scott died in 1832, and in 1844 the monument dedicated to him was opened in Edinburgh's by-then thriving New Town.

​Sited in Princes Street gardens, directly across the road from Jenners department store, you cannot miss seeing the Scott Monument on any visit to the city. It is the world's tallest monument to a writer, standing at 200ft and 6 inches high. The monument was designed by George Meikle Kemp, and bears a larger-than-life-size portrait of Scott sculpted by Sir John  Steell, as well as likenesses of around 60 characters from Scott's novels cast in the sandstone columns around the monument. On a clear day, you can climb the monument's 287 internal steps to enjoy panoramic views across the city. 

Further tribute to Scott is found in the naming of Edinburgh's main railway station, named Waverley after the historical novel written by Scott (but published anonymously at first) in 1814.

​Waverley station stands today as the only railway station in the world named after a book, and those emerging from the station are greeted not only by Scott's imposing monument, but the world-class city that he helped to popularise. 

Explore more of Edinburgh with my private city walking tours!

For all you royal watchers out there, Edinburgh offers an unparalleled opportunity to follow in the footsteps of monarchs - here's a rundown to my top five regal sites in the city.

1) Birthroom of King James VI& I
The first monarch to jointly reign over Scotland and England, following the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, James was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots (Elizabeth's cousin). He acceded to the Scottish throne at just 13 months old, following his mother's forced abdication, and in 1603 acquired both England and Wales as the nearest successor to the childless Elizabeth, becoming both James VI of Scotland, and also James I of England. He was born in 1566 in a small chamber adjacent to Mary's bedroom during one of her stays at Edinburgh Castle. This modest room in the former royal apartments is accessed as part of a general admission visit to Edinburgh Castle. 

2) The Palace of Holyroodhouse
Holyrood is HRH the Queen's official residence in Scotland, and the Palace plays host to the royal family on all official and state visits.

​Every July Edinburgh celebrates a Royal Week, during which the Queen hosts a garden party at Holyrood, and attends a number of events across the city. The Palace is open for public visits whenever it isn't functioning as an official residence, so check with the venue online before planning a visit. 

3) The Royal Yacht Britannia
Between 1954 and 1997, the Royal Yacht Britannia transported the Queen and her family around the globe on state visits. With exquisite decorations through its formal state rooms, the yacht resembles a floating palace, and was even intended to become the Queen's formal residence in the event of a nuclear war!

Decommissioned in 1997, the yacht is now permanently moored as a visitor attraction at Ocean Terminal, on the coast to the north of Edinburgh. Visits include an audio guided tour through public and state rooms. 

Edinburgh's airport to city centre tram service opened in May 2014 after a long and controversial period of construction. Today the line provides efficient access into town for those arriving at Scotland's busiest airport, but the original tram service around Edinburgh was more extensive. It may not have been any less controversial, however, as this letter published in the Scotsman on this day, 3rd December, in 1897 suggests.

The letter begins: “Sir, Last night I happened to be coming down the Mound about nine o’clock, and there saw an exhibition of cruelty the like of which I have never seen before...”

Horse drawn trams operated in the city between 1871 and 1907. By 1892 there was approximately 18 miles of track, for a service which at that time linked Bernard Street in Leith with Haymarket, and each tram car was drawn by two or three horses. (You can still see a small remainder of the original tram lives at the junction of Waterloo Place and Princes Street, where a short section of old track has been left in situ in the middle of the road.)

The tram witnessed by the outraged letter writer, just before the turn of the twentieth century, was “crammed inside and out with women and males (I cannot call them men)” and the horses pulling the vehicle were struggling up the Mound's incline, slipping on the frozen ground as they struggled with a vehicle overloaded with passengers.

“The ‘bus stopped, and would never have started again if a number of so-called ‘roughs’ had not shoved bravely behind; these poor men had far better hearts than the people who lolled on the ‘bus, and they had pity on the wretched animals...”

The letter writer signs him(or her)self 'A Lover of Animals' and calls for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (founded in Edinburgh in 1839) to intervene in the matter. Whatever local objections to the modern tramworks may persist, at least Transport for Edinburgh can (presumably) claim that no animals have been harmed in the provision of their current service....

Inspired by an entry in Michael TRB Turnbull's Edinburgh Book of Days.