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"The old woman would come stumbling out of this doorway smelling of whiskey and swearing at passersby, so that no-one would go near her," the guide smirks as he tells his tale. "Little did they realise that under the big coat she wore, were bottles smuggled out from the illegal distillery below."

One of many tales from "under the bridge" in the late 18th century.

Our guide is taking us on a tour of the hidden historic vaults of Edinburgh beneath Southbridge, which was built in 1785. The vaults have only been open to tourists in recent times.

Dripping water from the roadway above meant that legitimate businesses only operated here for twelve years. Poor craftsmen, cobblers, metal smelters, dairy merchants and the like moved out.

Then the illegitimate ones moved in. Distillers of illicit whiskey, brothel-keepers, and body snatchers! When the average labourer earned £10 a year, and the university’s medical school would pay £10 for a cadaver, the incentive was clear.

Leaving this shadowy world of eerie passageways and ghostly figures, we’ve seen one side of this historic city where life was hard for the poor.

Then it’s out to the daylight world above to a place of wealth and privilege, the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The medieval abbey of Holyrood (or "holy cross") was founded in 1128 but only part of the building remains today, as the abbey fell into ruin once it was dissolved in the Reformation. But next to it James IV built a palace, which even now is the official residence of the Queen when she’s in Scotland.

The palace has a Throne Room with portraits and red carpet, a Royal Dining Room table seating twenty, and the Morning Drawing Room with its plaster ceiling featuring two lions and two unicorns representing England and Scotland.

Climb the 25 steps of the circular staircase to the one-time bedchamber of Mary Queen of Scots. Very different to the damp stone steps we took down to the vaults.

There is also a contrast between Edinburgh’s two "towns". The Old Town is best seen by walking along the Royal Mile, that famous cobbled street running from Holyrood Palace to Edinburgh Castle.

Ignoring for a moment the many offerings for tourists, from whiskey to shops selling colourful new kilts, look at the street itself and see tenements rising on either side. What an address this has always been.

And heading off from either side are mysterious medieval alleyways, the closes and wynds with colourful names. "Fleshmarket Close" had me wondering what they’d sold there, but a local assured me it was a street of butchers and slaughterhouses in times long past.

Old Playhouse Close took patrons to the theatre from 1747-1769, and the Old Tollbooth Wynd ran down the side of the tavern.

Then progress came. Late 18th century town planners set about developing the New Town on the other side of Princes Street Gardens. Here you’ll see the orderly layout of the streets, with buildings of more uniform height, in what is the largest area of Georgian architecture in Europe

There’s a very clear view of the symmetry of the New Town, when you look across from the battlements of the castle.

In this city listed as a World Heritage Site one place stands out. Edinburgh Castle attracts about one million visitors each year, and it hosts that famous annual event, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

With its strategic position on the Firth of Forth, and overlooking the city from a massive volcanic outcrop known as Castle Rock, this site has been fortified since at least the 6th century, and inhabited from much earlier.

In 1566 Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her son James here, he who would unite Scotland and England.

The main entrance to the citadel was through Foog’s Gate, where the perimeter wall is looped for both cannon and musketry. Everyone takes in the city view from the Argyle Gun Battery, with its cast iron muzzle front loaders from the 1730’s.

But the oldest building is a very plain one. This is the chapel of Saint Margaret, whose son, the Saxon King David I, dedicated it to her after she died in 1093.

This has indeed been a city of contrasts, the old and the new, the poor and the privileged, the vaults below and the castle towering above it all.

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