Travel: Edinburgh Scotland

We traveled to Edinburgh Scotland at a weird time…the Queen passed away the day we arrived, September 8th 2022. The mood was pretty somber all over the city…we spoke to a few locals that were all mourning her loss. To us, it seemed like she was well loved in Scotland.

We had plans to tour Edinburgh Castle while we were there…a castle that sits on top of an ancient volcano looking over the city. And I wanted to check out St Giles Cathedral too. But everything closed down in the wake of the Queen’s passing, so we didn’t get to do any of that.

Honestly though, Edinburgh is such a beautiful, interesting city, with so much history…I didn’t mind spending our three days just walking around. The gothic style architecture and cobblestone streets in Old Town are stunning, and the little winding streets we found ourselves on revealed hidden shops, pubs, and restaurants. The Royal Mile, a bustling street that links the iconic Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, is lined with quaint shops, cute restaurants, and street performers.

Food

One of the best things about Edinburgh for me was how attentive they are to food allergies. I was amazed at how accommodating they were with my gluten allergy. Every single restaurant we went to asked us when we sat down if we had any allergies that they should be aware of. And almost all of the restaurants we went to had gluten free options.

Bella Italia

We went to Bella Italia on our first night in Edinburgh because it was very close to our hotel and we wanted something easy. We shared gluten free garlic flat bread and I had a gluten free pepperoni pizza. Both items came out with flags on them to show they were gluten free. The flatbread was just ok, but the gluten free pizza was actually pretty good.

Arcade Bar

Haggis is the national dish of Scotland…it’s normally made up of the following ingredients: a sheep’s ‘pluck’ (its heart, liver and lungs), minced with onions, oatmeal, suet, salt and spices, all mixed with a stock and traditionally boiled in the animal’s stomach for around an hour. Doesn’t sound particularly appetizing right? Oh, also, authentic Scottish haggis has been banned in the United States since 1971, when the US Department of Agriculture banned one of its key ingredients - sheep's lung.

We decided we had to try it.

I found a super cute restaurant called Arcade Bar that serves gluten free (and vegan!) haggis (only difference is gluten free oats are used instead of regular oats). We waited outside for a table for about 30 minutes. When we were seated we ordered some ciders and sat for quite awhile waiting for our Haggis…not knowing if it would be disgusting or delicious.

IT WAS DELICIOUS. My favorite meal in Scotland for sure, and one of my favorite meals of the whole trip. The Haggis was served with mashed potatoes and mashed turnips…also called “Haggis Neeps and Tatties.”

I highly recommend Arcade Bar for Haggis if you are in Edinburgh.

The Last Drop

The Last Drop is a pub that sits right in Edinburghs historic Grassmarket. Originally hundreds of years ago, it was a market where farmers would buy and sell horses and hay. Eventually in the 18th century Grassmarket became known for a more macabre reason…public executions. Supposedly The Last Drop is where men who had been sentenced were taken for their last meal while the gallows across the road were prepared for them. As they left the pub, they were given one last whiskey, referred to as ‘one for the road’. The name The Last Drop, refers to the last hanging in 1864.

My husband had beer and I had cider. I went to the bar to order some food and told the bartender I have a gluten allergy, and he told me he would be right back…he went to the kitchen and came back a minute later and told me the cook refused to serve me! He said because the kitchen is so small she was worried about cross contamination and wouldn’t want me to get sick. At first I was annoyed because I was hungry, but then I was really appreciative. Like I said before, Edinburgh really takes food allergies seriously and it was great to see every single restaurant we went to was so accomodating and concerned.

We liked this place though…there were some other tourists, but it seemed like a lot of locals frequent this place as well.

Grams

This place came up on my Find Me Gluten Free app…I wanted to check it out because Grams is what we called my grandma…even though the meaning here is measurement, the name of the place reminded me of her so I thought I would take a walk through New Town one morning to grab some breakfast.

Unfortunately Grams has closed since I was there in September, but it was a little cafe that served gluten free, dairy free, vegan, and refined sugar free foods. I had a green smoothie and a pastry to go. Both were delicious.

Vaults Tour

We did a really great walking tour of the haunted vaults hidden under the South Bridge in Old Town with Auld Reekie Tours. We were in a group of around 20 people, and had a really great guide named Frasier who made the tour a lot of fun.

These vaults were originally used by merchants as workshops and storage, but slowly descended into slums. Death, disease, crime, and corruption took over these vaults. There were stories of torture, murder, and hangings.

In recent years there has been paranormal activity witnessed in the vaults, and the TV show Ghost Adventures has filmed there. A Wiccan coven used one the vaults as their temple fairly recently as well, and there were still items in the vault left over from them that we were able to view.

It was a super interesting and fun tour…and a little creepy!

Holyroodhouse Palace

During our three days in Edinburgh, the city was working on shutting down roads for the Queen’s procession. They were bringing in her coffin from her Balmoral estate and driving through Edinburgh down the Royal Mile to her palace, Holyroodhouse, where she would be for one day. Then they would drive down the Royal Mile in a procession to St Giles Cathedral where she would be for people to pay respects for another day, before continuing on to London.

We walked down the Royal Mile to Holyroodhouse to see tons of people gathered, flowers, notes, gifts, and news cameras. We walked around for a bit and read some of the notes and just took in the scene. Some people were crying, and overall it was a pretty somber scene. It was interesting to witness this kind of history…a little weird for us being Americans, but still.

We left Edinburgh for Dublin the morning of the procession, but people were lining up on the streets before we left. It was an interesting time to be Edinburgh! We loved the city but being the roads were all shut down and some attractions were also shut down, it made out trip a little different than we had planned. We definitely plan to go back someday!