An independent burgh until 1920 that never quite agreed to it, and now the part of Edinburgh with the best food and the fewest tourists.
Leith is the port, two miles north of the castle at the mouth of the Water of Leith, and for most of its history it was a separate town that happened to serve Edinburgh. It had its own council, its own football club and its own strong opinion of itself.
In 1920 it was merged into Edinburgh by act of parliament, having voted against amalgamation by about five to one. Leithers have not entirely let this go, and the distinction is still made in conversation a century later.
The decline and the turn
The docks declined through the twentieth century. By the 1980s Leith had heavy unemployment, a heroin problem that gave Edinburgh the unwanted title of Britain’s AIDS capital, and a reputation that Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting fixed in the public mind in 1993.
What happened next was the usual sequence — cheap property, artists, restaurants, developers — but with a longer tail than most, because the district had enough of its own identity to absorb it. Leith now has three Michelin stars, a Georgian shore, and streets where the pubs have not changed.
What to see
The Shore is the old harbour front and the eating district.
Leith Walk, the long straight road up to the city centre, is the district’s spine: Polish delis, Italian grocers, barbers, secondhand shops, tattoo studios and a genuinely mixed population. It was dug up for years for the tram extension and has recently got itself back.
Ocean Terminal at the western end holds the Royal Yacht Britannia, which is a better museum than it sounds — the crew’s quarters and the engine room are what make it.
Newhaven, one stop further on the tram, is a fishing village with a lighthouse and a harbour, absorbed into the city but still looking like itself.
The Water of Leith Walkway runs from here upstream through Stockbridge and Dean Village.
The tram
The line from the airport through the city centre to Newhaven opened in 2023 after a construction saga that ran years late and hundreds of millions over budget, and became a byword in Edinburgh for civic incompetence. It now works well and has genuinely changed Leith’s relationship with the rest of the city.
Practicalities
Fifteen to twenty minutes from Princes Street by tram or bus. Safe, ordinary and residential. Restaurants at the Shore need booking; almost nothing else does.
