Edinburgh Attractions

Venue: Royal Botanic Garden    When: Daily

The 31-hectare Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is open all year round, providing a perfect respite from the hustle and bustle of the city's busy streets.

Situated just north of the city centre in Inverleith, the garden houses ten magnificent temperature-controlled glasshouses, allowing each one to support a different kind of plant habitat, from an Amazonian rainforest to a Canary Island hillside.

It is also home to a spectacular rock garden (a speciality of Scottish horticulture), peat and woodland gardens, a mesmerising 165-metre herbaceous border in spring and summer and the world's most extensive collection of vireya rhododendrons. Even in winter there is something to see here, as the Winter Garden is planted with shrubs, bulbs and other perennials which are at their best in the coldest part of the year.

The garden also features a large Arboretum which has nearly 2000 different trees, as well as a Chinese landscaped garden planted with indigenous Oriental species. Many more of the beds feature species from particular geographic areas, including New Zealand, Japan and, on the highest mound, Scotland, from where there are spectacular views of the city.