“It’s the world’s biggest and most magnificent celebration of culture, by a royal mile – but, from the thousands of shows on offer at Edinburgh, how on earth to decide what to see?”

Water of Leith

“One of the most magical city walks imaginable, immortalised in Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, follows the bosky river for 12 miles from the village of Balerno down through Stockbridge to the Firth of Forth. If you drop down beside the bridge on Queensferry Road at the western end of the New Town and follow the path, it will also take you in 15 minutes to the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art.” RC, Rupert Christiansen

The Royal Mile

“Oh, how easy it is to scoff at the colourful loonies who descend like migrating wildebeest on to the Royal Mile come August, juggling ladders and eating badgers and pretending to be made of brass, or whatever. But would the festival be the same without them? Not at all. And what’s more (depending on your attitude to the collecting–hats that are sometimes passed round), it can all be completely free, and the children go bananas for them.” MM, Mark Monahan