About
A field guide to Edinburgh and Southeast Scotland for people who already live here — and want the city to feel enormous again.
Photo: Unsplash
The idea
Every city has two maps. The first one is everywhere — the Royal Mile, Arthur's Seat, the Castle. The second map is harder to find. It's the city underneath the tourist layer: the Firth of Forth estuary walk nobody mentions, the mining town twenty minutes from the city centre that's never had a visitor, the abandoned paper mill ruins in a gorge that most locals have no idea exist.
Kiez Traveller Edinburgh is the second map. 20 locations that don't appear on the first one. 90% of this guide happens outside the Old Town, New Town, and Royal Mile.
The bigger picture
Most people who live in Edinburgh see about 2 kilometres of it. The same commute, the same streets, the same walk to the pub. Kiez Traveller exists to fix that. It's a field guide for people who already live here and want to actually know the region — Portobello beach, the Pentland Hills, the East Lothian coast, Midlothian's country parks, the Firth of Forth crossing.
You don't need to take a day off. You don't need to spend money. You don't need to plan anything beyond the packed lunch the night before. Every episode gives you the character, the history, and the context — the discovery is yours.
The guide is structured around two episodes per week. Monday is nature — the coast, the hills, the glens, the estuaries. Friday is urban — post-industrial towns, working communities, overlooked high streets, places that have survived every plan made for them.
Monday episodes are free. Friday episodes give you access to deeper content for subscribers. But the labels describe the type of episode, not the day you're allowed to go. Do both on a Sunday if that works better. The city isn't going anywhere.
Every episode includes an approximate travel time from Edinburgh city centre. ScotRail trains run regularly to East Lothian (North Berwick, Dunbar, Musselburgh, Prestonpans) and to Fife (Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline) and to Linlithgow and Falkirk. Lothian Buses cover the inner city and most outer areas. Most locations in this guide are reachable in under an hour.
For the Pentland Hills: Bus 4 or 15 to Hillend. For South Queensferry: Bus 40 or 43. For Midlothian (Roslin, Dalkeith, Penicuik): Lothian Country buses.
The only rule
The challenge is 20 locations. Not 20 locations in 10 weeks. However long it takes — 10 weeks, six months, a year — when you finish, you'll have explored a corner of Scotland that most people who live here have never seen properly. Pick it back up whenever life allows. The next episode is always there.