Walking Arthur’s Seat – Map the Route

One of the most popular hikes in the country given its central location in the capital, Arthur’s Seat is an easy and stunningly rewarding walk. From Holyrood Park to the east of the city centre you’ll have panoramic views throughout. Look out for North Berwick Law, the Forth Bridges and, of course, the route up the Royal Mile to the Castle. It’s possible to take on this extinct volcanic mass year-round and it is particularly popular in summer, when tourists head up in droves. For first time visitors to Edinburgh in particular, I could not more emphatically endorse including this walk in your itinerary. Refer to my Arthur’s Seat walk map below to keep your right.

The below route is circular and takes in much of Holyrood Park as well. Look out for St Margaret’s Loch along the way and the picturesque ruin of St Anthony’s Chapel. You will see some spectacular angles of the surrounding Salisbury Crags along the higher areas of the walk and you may want to drift around a bit to explore good vantage angles. It’s hard to go too far wrong.

Height: 251 metres (823 feet).

Time Taken: Around 2 hours but take longer and have plenty of stops (and a picnic weather permitting).

Difficulty: Easy. Although there’s an obvious incline, the length of the hike and pretty obvious path network make this a straightforward and rewarding walk. Kids do it, people in flip flops do it, you can do it. That said, do please wear appropriate footwear, it’ll make your life much easier.

Arthur’s Seat Walk Map

You can trace the full route in the interactive map below. The route is a circular one, starting and ending at the Scottish Parliament building. You can tackle it in either direction, I would probably lean towards the clockwise option personally. Zoom in and out as needed and, to help guide you further, this map is built with geolocation incorporated into it. That means when you are physically there, you can use your mobile device to see where you are in relation to the route. Please note that your real time location marker may not be exact 100% of the time and is at the mercy of Google geolocation. You will also need to allow Location Services on your device for it to work – same as you would for a Google Map. Therefore, a good, old-fashioned map is still advisable for all rural walking routes.

Using the Map

Take note of the icons running vertically on the left of the map. From top to bottom you can:

• Zoom in and out of the map.
• Make the map fullscreen on your device (the square of arrows icon).
• See where you are by geolocation (the circular target dot on the left). You can switch this on and off with one press. Note my above points about geolocation and that geolocation can never be 100% accurate.
• Return the map to its starting position (the ‘house’ icon).

The map format has been pre-set to Street Map. You can, though, change the map appearance via the icon in the top right eg. to Terrain.