Best Hidden Gems in Edinburgh & the Lothians
Written by UK Hidden Gems Editorial
Updated 5 August 2026
The best hidden gems in Edinburgh & the Lothians are Spylaw Park, Harlaw Woodland Loop, St Margaret’s Loch & Ruined Chapel, Longniddry Bents, Inveresk Lodge Gardens, Colinton Tunnel Art Walk, Duddingston Loch and Aberlady Submarines.
Edinburgh and the Lothians pack a wide range of scenery into a small corner of Scotland, from the volcanic crags of Holyrood Park to the sweeping shore of the Firth of Forth. Beyond the castle and the Royal Mile lie quieter places that reward a little curiosity, whether you follow the Water of Leith through Colinton, walk out onto the Pentland Hills, or head east along the coast into East Lothian.
In the city you can find the reed-fringed calm of Duddingston Loch, the ruined chapel above St Margaret's Loch and the vast community mural of the Colinton Tunnel Art Walk. Out of town there are gardens at Inveresk Lodge, easy woodland circuits at Harlaw, riverside grass at Spylaw Park and the wildlife-rich sands of Longniddry Bents.
Strangest of all are the rusting Aberlady submarines, reached across the tidal flats. Each one offers something different, from history and art to birds, water and open sky.
Here are eight of the best hidden gems to seek out in Edinburgh & the Lothians.
Spylaw Park
Photo: Richard Webb via Geograph.org.uk
Spylaw Park is a public park by the Water of Leith in the village of Colinton in Edinburgh, set beside Spylaw House, a grand mansion of 1773 that was once the home of the snuff manufacturer James Gillespie and is now flats. The park lies on the Water of Leith Walkway near the western end of the Colinton Tunnel, with riverside paths and open grass.
A village community project has been working to make more of the park and house. Seek it out as a green pause on a walk along the river.
Harlaw Woodland Loop
Photo: M J Richardson via Geograph.org.uk
Harlaw Woodland Loop is an easy, flat circular walk of about two miles around Harlaw Reservoir near Balerno, in the Pentland Hills Regional Park. Waymarked through mixed woodland, it gives views of the reservoir through the trees and out to the hills of Black Hill and the West Kip.
It starts from Harlaw House, a council-run visitor centre with a wildlife garden, and links on to Threipmuir Reservoir and Bavelaw Marsh for longer walks. Seek it out for a gentle loop with the Pentlands as a backdrop.
St Margaret’s Loch & Ruined Chapel
Photo: Euan Nelson via Geograph.org.uk
St Margaret’s Loch & Ruined Chapel sits in the northeastern corner of Holyrood Park in Edinburgh, a shallow man-made loch created in 1856 on former marshy ground as part of Prince Albert's improvements to the park, now busy with swans, ducks and geese. On the rocky crag directly above it stand the ruins of St Anthony's Chapel, a roofless medieval fragment of a north wall and part of a tower, looking almost like a small castle.
From the chapel there are wide views over the loch toward Leith and the Firth of Forth. Seek it out for a short climb and a long view.
Longniddry Bents
Photo: Richard Webb via Geograph.org.uk
Longniddry Bents is a managed stretch of the East Lothian coast on the Firth of Forth, a couple of miles of sandy and rocky shore backed by dune grassland and wildflowers. It runs from Gosford Bay in the east to the rockier Seton Sands in the west, with wartime concrete anti-tank blocks still sitting in the dunes and long views across the Forth to the bridges and Edinburgh.
The John Muir Way passes through. Three car parks with toilets serve the shore, and it is popular for windsurfing, kayaking, horse riding and dog walking, with grey seals often hauled out at the western end.
Seek it out for a breezy coastal wander.
Inveresk Lodge Gardens
Photo: James Denham via Geograph.org.uk
Inveresk Lodge Gardens is a terraced hillside garden run by the National Trust for Scotland in the village of Inveresk, just south of Musselburgh in East Lothian. It falls in two parts: an upper walled garden of sloping lawns, herbaceous borders, old roses and a restored Edwardian glasshouse with an aviary, and a lower, wilder area of meadow, woodland and a wildlife pond with a dipping platform.
The late-17th-century lodge house itself is not open. It was given to the Trust in the late 1950s.
Seek it out for a quiet, well-tended garden away from the crowds.
Colinton Tunnel Art Walk
Photo: Anne Burgess via Geograph.org.uk
Colinton Tunnel Art Walk follows a 140-metre disused railway tunnel on the Water of Leith Walkway at Colinton in Edinburgh, on the line of the old Balerno branch that closed to passengers in 1943. Its walls are now covered by a large community mural, led by the artist Chris Rutterford and begun in 2018, built around Robert Louis Stevenson's poem 'From a Railway Carriage', as Stevenson spent part of his childhood in the village.
It is free to walk through at any time, and it is one of the largest murals in Scotland. Seek it out for a burst of colour underground.
Duddingston Loch
Photo: Richard Webb via Geograph.org.uk
Duddingston Loch is a freshwater loch on the south side of Holyrood Park, below Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, the only natural loch in the city. Open water fringed by large reedbeds draws swans, ducks, geese and a well-known heronry, and it has been a bird sanctuary since 1925.
The north shore, by Duddingston village and its old kirk, is open to walk, while the Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve on the south shore is kept for wildlife. Arthur's Seat rises straight up behind it.
Seek it out for birdlife beneath the city's own mountain.
Aberlady Submarines
Photo: DD via Geograph.org.uk
Aberlady Submarines lie out on the sands of Aberlady Bay, in the nature reserve on the East Lothian coast, the rusted skeletons of two small submarines. They are XT-craft, the training version of the midget submarines built during the Second World War, each around fifteen metres long and now stripped back to their ribbed frames.
To reach them you cross the reserve on a long wooden footbridge over the Peffer Burn, then walk out across marsh, dune and open sand, roughly a kilometre in all. Towed here in 1946 and used for firing practice, they were left where they lay.
Seek them out at low tide, dark against the pale sand.
FAQs
When is the best time to see the Aberlady submarines?
Aim for low tide. The two hulls sit low on the flats of Aberlady Bay, and you reach them across the reserve on a footbridge and then a walk of roughly a kilometre over marsh, dune and sand. Check the tide before setting out.
Are any of these Edinburgh hidden gems free to visit?
Yes, several are. The Colinton Tunnel Art Walk is free to walk through at any time, and open spaces like Duddingston Loch, Spylaw Park and the Harlaw Woodland Loop can be enjoyed freely.
How do you reach the Colinton Tunnel Art Walk?
It sits on the Water of Leith Walkway at Colinton, on the line of the old Balerno railway branch. You simply walk through the 140-metre tunnel, which is open at any time.
Conclusion
From the reedbeds of Duddingston Loch to the rusting hulls out on Aberlady Bay, Edinburgh and the Lothians hold far more than the sights of the Old Town. Some of these places are a gentle stroll from a car park, like Spylaw Park or the Harlaw Woodland Loop, while others ask for a climb to a ruined chapel or a long walk across tidal sands to the submarines, best timed for low water.
Between them you can find gardens, murals, coastline and quiet lochs, each with its own history and wildlife. Take a good map and check the tide before heading out onto the flats, and give yourself time to linger.
Wander them in whatever order suits your day, but for reward, variety and quiet corners, these are the best hidden gems to seek out in Edinburgh & the Lothians.
