Continue away from The Royal Mile to find the statue of Greyfriars Bobby, with its shiny nose polished by good luck seekers, commemorating the Skye Terrier who may, or may not, depending on what story you believe, have sat by his master’s grave after his master died.

Back in the direction of the Castle, Castlehill is dominated by the former Tolbooth-Highland-St John’s Church, now the headquarters of the Edinburgh International Festival society – The Hub, on the north side by there are the Outlook Tower and Camera Obscura. The Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland is further down on the same side. The Scottish Parliament met in the Assembly Hall between 1999 and 2004.

The Esplanade, just in front of Edinburgh Castle, is the venue of the annual Edinburgh Military Tattoo, when specially designed temporary grandstands are erected. Cannonball House is notable for a cannonball lodged in the wall, which marks the elevation of Comiston Springs, three miles to the south of the Castle, which fed a cistern on Castlehill, one of the first piped water supplies in Scotland.

In less than a mile, I obtained a rich insight into the history of Edinburgh and into the lives of some of the influential people who have lived in the Scottish capital in the last 500 years.