Hidden Gems Near Edinburgh
Written by UK Hidden Gems Editorial
Updated 5 August 2026
The hidden gems near Edinburgh are Duddingston Loch, St Margaret's Loch & Ruined Chapel, Hunter's Bog, Corstorphine Hill Walled Garden & Tower, Redhall Walled Garden, Colinton Tunnel Art Walk, Inveresk Lodge Gardens and Aberlady Submarines.
Edinburgh hides a surprising amount within and just beyond the city, from lochs and walled gardens to a rusting pair of wartime submarines. In Holyrood Park lie the natural Duddingston Loch below Arthur's Seat, the man-made St Margaret's Loch under its ruined chapel, and the hidden valley of Hunter's Bog.
In the western suburbs are the wooded ridge and Scott Tower of Corstorphine Hill, the eighteenth-century Redhall Walled Garden on the Water of Leith, and the mural-lined Colinton Tunnel on the same walkway. Out on the East Lothian coast, the terraced Inveresk Lodge Gardens sit above Musselburgh and the rusted skeletons of two midget submarines lie on the sands at Aberlady Bay, a kilometre's walk out across the reserve.
Some are city lochs and gardens hidden in plain sight, others quiet gems tucked into the suburbs and the coast. Here are eight hidden gems to seek out near Edinburgh.
Duddingston Loch
Photo: Richard Webb via Geograph.org.uk
Duddingston Loch is a freshwater loch on the south side of Holyrood Park, tucked below Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, and the only natural loch the city has. Its open water, fringed by broad reedbeds, draws swans, ducks and geese along with a well-known heronry, and it has served as a bird sanctuary since 1925.
You can walk the north shore by Duddingston village and its old kirk, while the Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve on the south side is left to the wildlife. Arthur's Seat climbs straight up behind the water.
It is a calm, birdful spot on the city's edge.
St Margaret's Loch & Ruined Chapel
Photo: Euan Nelson via Geograph.org.uk
St Margaret’s Loch & Ruined Chapel High on a rocky crag stand the ruins of St Anthony's Chapel, a roofless medieval fragment of north wall and part of a tower that from below could pass for a small castle. Directly beneath it lies St Margaret's Loch, a shallow, man-made stretch of water dug in 1856 across former marshy ground as part of Prince Albert's improvements to Holyrood Park in Edinburgh, and now crowded with swans, ducks and geese.
Climb to the chapel and the reward is a wide view out over the loch toward Leith and the Firth of Forth. It sits in the park's north-eastern corner.
Hunter's Bog
Photo: N Chadwick via Geograph.org.uk
Hunter’s Bog Rushes and seasonal pools break up the wet valley floor here, a soft green trough sunk into the middle of Holyrood Park between Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat. A sixteenth-century loch once filled it, but the water had drained away by the 1700s, and since grazing stopped in the 1970s the ground has run wild into rough grassland and scrub.
A low path traces the bottom, joining the crags to the hill and keeping walkers clear of the busy park roads above. Few visitors think to drop down into it, which is precisely its appeal.
Corstorphine Hill Walled Garden & Tower
Photo: Richard Webb via Geograph.org.uk
Corstorphine Hill is a wooded ridge and nature reserve rising to 161 metres in western Edinburgh, the largest area of woodland within the city. On its western slope is a restored walled garden of around an acre, kept up by volunteers.
Higher on the hill stands Corstorphine Hill Tower, also called Clermiston or Scott Tower, a crenellated stone tower built in 1871 to mark the centenary of the writer Walter Scott's birth, with a spiral stair to a viewpoint over the city and the Firth of Forth. Paths for walking and birdwatching run through the woods.
Redhall Walled Garden
Photo: kim traynor via Geograph.org.uk
Redhall Walled Garden Behind brick-lined walls laid out around 1756, beside the Water of Leith in Colinton Dell, this Edinburgh garden does quiet, purposeful work. The Scottish Association for Mental Health runs it as a therapeutic project, where people recovering from mental-health difficulties tend the organic beds, and among them sit a reconstructed Iron Age roundhouse, ponds, a sunken garden and an old summerhouse.
It is not a drop-in attraction, working mainly by referral, though it opens its gates to the public on occasional days. Catch one of those and you find a rare, restorative corner of the city.
Colinton Tunnel Art Walk
Photo: Anne Burgess via Geograph.org.uk
Colinton Tunnel Art Walk leads through a 140-metre disused railway tunnel on the Water of Leith Walkway at Colinton in Edinburgh, part of the old Balerno branch that lost its passenger trains in 1943. Its walls now wear a vast community mural, led by the artist Chris Rutterford and started in 2018, woven around Robert Louis Stevenson's poem 'From a Railway Carriage', since Stevenson spent some of his childhood in the village.
It stands among the largest murals in Scotland, and you can wander through it free at any hour. Take your time reading the walls as you pass.
Inveresk Lodge Gardens
Photo: James Denham via Geograph.org.uk
Inveresk Lodge Gardens sits on a terraced hillside in the East Lothian village of Inveresk, a short way south of Musselburgh, and has been cared for by the National Trust for Scotland since the late 1950s. The grounds fall into two moods.
Higher up, a walled enclosure gathers sloping lawns, herbaceous borders and old roses beside a restored Edwardian glasshouse with its aviary. Lower down, things turn wilder, with meadow, woodland and a wildlife pond fitted with a dipping platform.
The late-seventeenth-century lodge house that lends the garden its name stays closed to the public. Allow time to drift slowly between the two halves.
Aberlady Submarines
Photo: DD via Geograph.org.uk
Aberlady Submarines Towed onto these flats in 1946, two small submarines became target practice for aircraft testing their guns against the hulls, then were simply left where they settled. What remains are rusted skeletons stripped to their ribbed frames, XT-craft that trained crews for the midget submarines of the Second World War, each about fifteen metres long.
They lie low and dark on the pale sands of Aberlady Bay, within the nature reserve on the East Lothian coast, slowly rusting into the ground. Reaching them means crossing a long wooden footbridge over the Peffer Burn and walking out across marsh, dune and open sand, roughly a kilometre in all.
FAQs
Which hidden gems near Edinburgh are in Holyrood Park?
Holyrood Park holds three: Duddingston Loch, the only natural loch in the city, with its reedbeds and heronry below Arthur's Seat; St Margaret's Loch, a man-made loch overlooked by the ruined St Anthony's Chapel; and Hunter's Bog, a hidden grassy valley between Salisbury Crags and the hill. All are free to walk at any time.
How do you get to the Aberlady submarines near Edinburgh?
The two rusted midget submarines lie on the sands of Aberlady Bay on the East Lothian coast, reached on foot from the road: cross the long wooden footbridge over the Peffer Burn, then walk about a kilometre across marsh, dune and open sand. They are XT-craft training submarines towed here in 1946 for firing practice.
Where can you see a mural or a viewpoint tower near Edinburgh?
The Colinton Tunnel on the Water of Leith Walkway is lined with one of the largest murals in Scotland, built around a Robert Louis Stevenson poem and free to walk through. On Corstorphine Hill, the 1871 Scott Tower has a spiral stair up to a viewpoint over the city and the Firth of Forth.
Conclusion
Edinburgh hides a surprising amount within and just beyond the city, from lochs and walled gardens to a rusting pair of wartime submarines. In Holyrood Park lie the natural Duddingston Loch below Arthur's Seat, the man-made St Margaret's Loch under its ruined chapel, and the hidden valley of Hunter's Bog.
In the western suburbs are the wooded ridge and Scott Tower of Corstorphine Hill, the Redhall Walled Garden on the Water of Leith and the mural-lined Colinton Tunnel. Out on the East Lothian coast, the terraced Inveresk Lodge Gardens sit above Musselburgh and the midget submarines rust on the sands at Aberlady.
From the city's only natural loch to a pair of wartime wrecks, these are the hidden gems to seek out near Edinburgh.
