If your kids are a bit fed up with visiting ancient monuments and galleries, it’s time to take them to the Museum of Childhood on the Royal Mile.

In the early nineteen fifties, Patrick Murray, a member of the Edinburgh Council, realised that a lot of children weren’t very interested in the museums their parents took them to on cold, wet days. He began to think about a museum dedicated to children and everything that centres around kids – their education, their health and, of course, their toys and games. In this way he hoped to amuse and educate both children and adults. In 1955 he founded the Museum of Childhood.

It is really a great place for everyone; the exhibits are spread out in five galleries over five floors and deal, as Mr Murray hoped, with every aspect of childhood. In the Education section your children can learn about how schools were run between 1950 and the present day and see photos of classic classrooms. Different uniforms are on display as well as the famous “birch rod”, used to discipline unruly pupils.

There are wonderful hands-on activities with a dressing-up room and a puppet theatre. And of course, there are toys all over the place! The children will see and learn about the toys and games that kept you and your parents happy long before video games were ever thought of. They can play with dolls and teddy bears, tin soldiers with canons that fire match-sticks, numerous board games, train sets and other toys from all around the world.

The museum has a wonderful toy shop, where you’ll quickly find that your kids will be choosing a special toy to take home – and where you can perhaps buy a replacement for that favourite teddy you cuddled up with when you were a child.

On another, slightly chilling note for ghost hunters, the museum was built next to an ancient nursery, which was bricked up during the plague of 1645. Women and children in the nursery were left to starve to death and in the early hours of the morning, their cries can be heard echoing through the museum.

This sweetshop serves a fine selection of traditional sweets and assures high quality service and products. Its impressive range of sweets includes boiled sweets, bonbons, toffee, fudge, liquorice, lollipops, sherbet, coconut, aniseed and cinnamon, mints, rock, millions, chocolate, jelly beans, novelty sweets and old favorites. The clientèle is a delightful mix of locals, tourists and commuters that come here with a great desire for the tastes of childhood.

Scott Monument, built in 1840 in a Gothic style, stands about 61 meters high and contains 287 steps to reach its top. It was inaugurated in 1846 to commemorate the great Scottish novelist, Sir Walter Scott. The memorial dominates the view across Waverley Valley and Princes Street Gardens and is of great interest to passersby.

Between Edinburgh Castle and Princes Street, renowned for its superb shops, pubs and restaurants, lies the beautiful Princes Street Gardens, a haven of peace and beauty in the heart of the city.

110,000 years ago the area that is now the gardens was formed by glacial erosion, when the basalt bulk of Castle Rock caused a glacier to divide around it, forming a depression at the foot of the rock. For thousands of years this area was marshland and when man came to the region, it formed a natural defence at the foot of Castle Rock, which was inhabited since the 9th century BC.

King James III ordered the marsh to be flooded in 1460 to add to the defences of the Old Town and Edinburgh Castle. The flooded area was named Nor Loch and it dominated the area until it was drained in 1759, although the vicinity sometimes gets flooded even today.

When the New Town was under construction, millions of tons of earth were dumped in the former loch and this eventually became The Mound, upon which many prestigious buildings now stand. The gardens were created in 1820; on the east side of The Mound they cover an area of 8.5 acres and on the west side they take up 29 acres.

The most important monument in the gardens is the Scott Monument, and there are a lot of statues dedicated to John Wilson, David Livingstone and Allan Ramsey, among others. There is a play area for children, lush lawns and spreading trees, lots of benches, kiosks and a café.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas and into the New Year the park hosts fairground rides, the city’s main Christmas Market and an ice-skating rink.

Quicksilver is the source for genuine arcade fun. This amusement arcade has a wide range of slot machines and other games, including a coin drop. It is a fun place for the whole family and great for kids of all ages. Many customers stop by to play a few of their favorite video games.

This theater has a great reputation for the highest quality productions, staging many major new plays and encouraging the work of young writers. The theater was built in 1963, specializing in the development of puppetry and animation, where visitors can relax in the café while watching the show.