Forget Harry Potter: See the real Edinburgh via its sleepy backstreets and secret parks

Like those other great capitals (Rome, Athens, Lisbon) that claim to be built on seven hills, Edinburgh doesn’t immediately strike you as the best place to cycle around. Especially if, like me, you arrive in August, when the streets are thronging with festival traffic. Such commotion seems a world away, however, as we pedal along a canal path, birdsong imbuing the warm summer’s air, the views more village than urban. An idyllic spired church pokes above lushly-leaved trees, with pops of pink, yellow and blue colouring the tidy back gardens of canalside houses. Besides the invisible birds, the only real noise is of splashing water. There are geese and swans going about their business and a group of children taking a kayaking lesson.

“We are actually still in the city,” says Richard Farmer, leading this Ultimate Edinburgh Circular, a 32-kilometre loop of Scotland’s capital beyond the classic tourist sites. Richard and his wife, Leanne, both teachers by trade, set up tour operator A Wee Pedal after a stint in Hong Kong, and having ridden out the pandemic-stoked tourism slump, they’re glad to be guiding travellers back through Edinburgh’s mish-mash of dedicated bike lanes, off-road pathways, secret parks and sleepy backstreets.

Although the city’s cycling infrastructure is improving, it’s not quite Copenhagen-esque, so their expertise in knitting the scattered routes together is appreciated. They also steer you clear of those aforementioned hills, some extinct volcanoes. With temperatures topping 25C today (“It’s the hottest tour I’ve led,” remarks Richard), our legs and lungs are grateful.

While his Edinburgh anecdotes entertain - there are some good ones about Mary, Queen of Scots - it’s the contrasting scenery that’s enchanting. One moment we’re cycling towards the crags and greenery of Holyrood Park as a solitary grazing cow suddenly looks up towards us. Then we’re barrelling through the Innocent Railway Tunnel, a cool, graffiti-doused passage burrowing about 500 metres beneath a park that’s home to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the British monarch’s official residence in Scotland. Richard reveals this tunnel was once part of Edinburgh’s first railway line, opening in 1831, when horses began hauling carriages of coal and agricultural produce into the city. No-one really knows why it sports the “Innocent” moniker. Some say it harks back to a simpler age, before the steam engines came clattering in during the mid 19th century.

The railways’ rise heralded the demise of the Union Canal, a 1822-built waterway that has been revived in recent decades, yet remains unknown to most Edinburgh-bound tourists. We join the canal towpath at Fountainbridge, an inner-city district where Sir Sean Connery was born. Modern waterside apartments rise here, but the cityscape soon becomes more bucolic (with those swans and flower-filled gardens), before we reach the Slateford Aqueduct, a marvel of Georgian engineering that carries the canal over the Water of Leith, another Edinburgh stream that tends to elude tourists’ gazes.

Wheeling our bikes down to this river via a ramped stairway, we continue cycling on tree-shaded boardwalks and paths, weaving past verdant spaces, industrial units and suburban streets. We roll through Saughton Park & Gardens, where there’s a nice restored Edwardian band-stand. Richard points out Murrayfield, the home of Scottish rugby. After passing river-dwelling sculptures by the renowned English artist Antony Gormley, we stop at Dean Village, a gorgeous old milling enclave with fairytale stone buildings. Leaving the river at the seaport of Leith, we bike along clifftops, gazing down over the serene Firth of Forth, an inlet of the North Sea.

A few brave souls are swimming in the crisp blue waters as we reach Portobello, once a well-to-do Victorian bathing resort that remains a popular seaside escape for Edinburghians. Before becoming 007, Sean Connery was a lifeguard at Portobello’s open-air pool. That’s no longer here, but the pleasant long, sandy beach still is. Busy with sun-bathers today, it’s flanked by a promenade with pubs and tearooms. We’ll rest up for a bit, have an ice cream perhaps, then hop back on the saddle and complete this enlightening loop of Edinburgh.