SeeHistoric siteOld Town

Dunbar's Close Garden

This close was re-modelled in the 1970s to recreate a 17th-century physic and knot garden, a hidden quiet place in the busy city.

Location and details from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.

Also listed in Overture Maps open data.

Updated 27 Sept 2026. Something wrong? Tell us.

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SeePublic art
The Last Chimera
SeeMonument
Canongate Mercat Cross
SeeOld Town
Canongate Kirk
In 1687 James VII (II of England) chucked the Protestants out of Holyrood to convert it to a royal Roman Catholic chapel, the sort of behaviour that got him ousted from the monarchy the following year. The congregation moved to Infirmary St then to this building on its completion in 1691. From 1952 Queen Elizabeth II regularly attended when at Holyrood, and in 2011 her granddaughter Zara Phillips married former England rugby captain Mike Tindall here. Notables in its graveyard include George Drummond (1788-1866) co-founder of the New Town, poet Robert Fergusson (1750–1774), and economist Adam Smith (1723-90). Memorials also commemorate soldiers dying at Edinburgh Castle, for which this was the graveyard, and coachmen of the London-Edinburgh stagecoach, which had its terminus here.
Open Sun afternoon, otherwise erratic; Services Sun 10:30 · Free
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Studio 24
24 Calton Road