Walking

Edinburgh is a compact, highly walkable city. Regular walking can improve your health, save you money and reduce your environmental impact.

Walking around Edinburgh

There are many interesting buildings, streets, shops, and green spaces to explore on foot.

The city centre has a number of green spaces such as Princes Street Gardens, The Meadows and Calton Hill. Edinburgh even has its own ancient volcano in Holyrood Park - the famous Arthur's Seat which sits 251m above sea level giving excellent view of the city. Historic Scotland have produced leaflets describing walks around Holyrood Park. 

The Hermitage of Braid and Blackford Hill Local Nature Reserve is close by to our King's Buildings campus. This lovely green oasis makes for a pleasant lunchtime escape.

Our hospital sites also have nearby green spaces. The BioQuarter has both Craigmillar Castle Park and Little France Park, and the Western General Hospital is close by to Inverleith Park.

For slightly more strenous walks, the Pentland Hills Regional Park is located to the south of Edinburgh. Information on the activities you can do in the Pentland Hills Regional Park are available on the Pentland Hills Regional Park website. Our Easter Bush campus is nestled at the foot of these hills.

Walking (and jogging) at the University 

Lunchtime walks To support and encourage staff to get more active during their working day, the University is supporting a number of lunchtime walking groups. These are organised by the Active Lives team in the University's Sport & Exercise service. These groups aren't competitive and walks are at a comfortable pace.

JogScotland Alternatively you may wish to up the pace and join one of the University's JogScotland groups! These groups offer a fun and supportive way of exercising and are suitable for all fitness levels.

The Active Lives teams also organise weekly Run For Fun sessions.

Planning a walk

There are many online route planning apps you can use. For example:

If you need more information on your destination at the University, our online campus map has a searchable list of University buildings as well as accessibility info and other useful details.

Campus Maps

The online campus map also has a feature which gives approximate travel times for walking. To access this, click on the "Layers" button, then scroll down and click on "Travel Times (Walking)".  You can then select an area of the University for which you want to see estimated walking times. The concentric circles show how far you can travel in approximately 5, 15, and 30 minutes of walking.

Campus maps

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