10 Mistakes People Make When Visiting Edinburgh

Mispronouncing place names is a common mistake in many places, and the same goes for Edinburgh. The city’s name is not pronounced as 'Edin-berg' or 'Edin-burrow'. It’s 'Edin-bura', or 'Edin-bra' if you say it fast enough. Getting this wrong will really get on the nerves of locals.

There are also some street names visitors often get wrong, which can cause some confusion when it comes to getting around. Princes Street is 'Prince’s Street' (not 'Princess Street'), Cockburn is 'Coe-burn' and Buccleuch is 'buh-clue'.

Scottish weather is notoriously unreliable, and not bringing a raincoat can really damper the holiday mood. It’s said that you shouldn’t trust either a blue sky or a cloudy one because you can never tell what it’s going to do.

Even if you’re visiting Edinburgh in the height of summer, it’s best to carry a good waterproof raincoat with you, or else risk a soaking. Don’t bother trying to manage with an umbrella as it won’t last long in the often-fierce winds.

It’s tempting to use the hop-on-hop-off buses to get around Edinburgh and not using the local bus service at all. However, Lothian Buses (the local municipal bus service) are arguably better and a fraction of the cost. They even have a mobile app you can use to find which buses you should board to get where you’re going. The only downside is that you need to have the exact change if you're paying with cash.

Of course, walking around is even cheaper, but Edinburgh is extremely hilly. If you want to avoid the exhaustion, researching the bus service is a must.

Scots are understandably proud of their whisky, and ordering a single malt whisky with ice is generally frowned upon. Generations of expertise and years of aging have gone into crafting a complex tipple as fine as any French wine.

If you order your single malt on the rocks, a discerning barkeep will strongly advise you to try it neat first (as it’s meant to be served) and maybe add a splash of water if necessary. Less discerning ones will put the ice in, but they’ll be judging you while they do. The judging will be that much more intense if you waste a perfectly good dram by ruining the flavour with Coke.

In a metropolitan city like Edinburgh, it’s quite easy to forget just how far north Scotland actually is, underestimating the long summer days and long winter nights. It’s not quite in the Arctic Circle, but it really isn’t that far off. You can even see the Northern Lights in some parts of the country. 

Being so far from the equator means that the length of the days changes a lot from season to season. Sunset can be as late as 10 pm in summer or as early as 3.40 pm in winter. In other words, don’t be surprised to find shops closing, people having dinner and the city’s nightlife kicking off well before it’s actually nighttime.

Only hitting the tourist bars can give you a skewed perspective of Edinburgh's vibrant pub culture. Scots are famously big drinkers and, if you want to really connect with the locals, the pub is the best place to start. However, the establishments on or around the main attractions and streets are mostly tourist joints, often shunned and avoided by Edinburghers.

The tourist bars are also usually extremely busy, so you might even struggle just to get served, let alone have an authentic local experience. Instead, look for the smaller places down unassuming side streets and listen for the sounds of Scottish folk music emanating from their doors.

You wouldn’t try to fake a Chinese or Indian accent so please don’t try to fake a Scottish accent either; you’ll just embarrass yourself and everyone around you. Claiming to be 1/16th Scottish doesn’t make it acceptable.

On that note, the immense amount of migration out of Scotland over the past few centuries means that a lot of people can claim to be a tiny fraction Scottish. Locals really don’t care if your grandmother’s cousin’s nephew’s step-sister was from the Highlands. They’ve heard it a million times and were just as unimpressed the other 999,999 times.

Rubbing the nose of Greyfriars Bobby is a tale of a Skye terrier so loyal to his owner that he sat waiting for him by his grave for 14 years. A statue was erected outside Greyfriars Kirk to commemorate this heart-warming story of canine loyalty.

Unfortunately, someone began the myth that rubbing the nose of the statue would bring good luck. Locals have never believed this and they actually get kind of frustrated with people doing it because they’re wearing down the bronze of the statue.

Many shops make bold claims about having the tartans of hundreds of different clans in stock, and buying your family’s traditional tartan may seem like the perfect souvenir. No matter how far from Scotland your home is, there’s almost certainly a tartan with your family name on it. The reality is that a very small number of Highland clans ever had their own pattern and most of the rest are just made up to help sales.

Incidentally, deciding to actually wear a kilt of that tartan around town is…well, not technically a mistake as increasingly more young Edinburghers are doing it, but it’s definitely brave. Those things are seriously draughty and the city’s climate will not be kind to you.

Being unprepared for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a significant oversight, as it’s one of the world’s largest cultural festivals. If you’re planning a simple, quiet visit to the city for the summer, you certainly won’t get that in August. Instead, you can expect the streets, hotels, public transportation, theatres and bars to be packed most days.

What if that’s what you’re coming for? Well, you’ll need to be prepared for the sheer scale of it. There can be over 53,000 performances spread across 300 venues. It’s physically impossible for you to see absolutely everything, so pick your priorities with care.