Charlotte Square

George Street ends here, and this is the New Town at its very best. Robert Adam — the most celebrated architect Britain produced in the eighteenth century — drew Charlotte Square in 1791 and died the following year, just as the first stones went down. He never saw it finished. Stand back and look at the north side: it isn't a terrace of houses at all, but a single palace front, columns and pediment and all, with separate homes hidden behind one face. That trick is why people come. Two of those doors are worth knowing. Number 6 is Bute House, the official residence of Scotland's First Minister — the black door behind every political announcement you've seen on the news. Next to it, number 7 is the Georgian House, restored by the National Trust for Scotland to how it looked in the 1790s, down to the kitchen and the wine cellar. The domed building filling the west side opened as St George's Church in 1814 and now holds national records. And the square was almost called St George's Square, until the city renamed it in 1786 after Queen Charlotte to stop it being confused with the other George Square across town. That's our tour. Look up the hill to your left: the castle esplanade where we started earlier today is about ten minutes' walk from this corner. You've been down the spine of the Old Town and underneath it, out to a palace and a volcano, through the graveyards and the museums, and back into the eighteenth century by the front door. Haste ye back — come back soon!