Yes, the same Scotland Street that features in Alexander McCall Smith’s series (but there’s no number 44…). The tunnel which once connected the Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway to Waverley station is still there (inaccessible). Later (1868) connections rendered the tunnel redundant, though the depot at Scotland Street remained in use up to the 1960s. The last rails were removed from the northern part of the line in the mid-1980s. Much more recently, the route of the railway has been reopened (with lights through the tunnels) as a footpath and cycle track from Scotland Street to Trinity, on the Forth shore between Granton and Newhaven. It provided us with a very pleasant walking route on a windy Christmas Eve. (There are some super pictures of the railway on Peter Stubbs’s website “EdinPhoto”)

On reaching the shore, we made our way to Leith, where the King’s Wark proved to be an excellent choice for a late (-ish) lunch. We took the bus (needed to!) back to our starting point…