יום 5 Upturned boats at Holyrood 21 באוקטובר 2026
Boats on a hill
I walked down the Royal Mile this morning, past the Palace of Holyroodhouse, to look at the building everyone argued about for years: the Scottish Parliament, designed by Enric Miralles with Benedetta Tagliabue's EMBT and RMJM, which opened in 2004 and won the RIBA Stirling Prize the year after. You can read the coast in it — the curved roofs of the tower blocks are upturned boats on a shore, and inside, canoe-shaped skylights hang low over the Garden Lobby like hulls come to rest among the birches. Miralles wanted the place to look grown rather than built, leaves and landforms and Scotland's own coastline folded into concrete and oak. I stood outside a long time. It is the strangest and most alive public building I've seen in months.
Then I came back up the hill the way every Edinburgh day should end: hungry. On Victoria Street, Oink has a counter of hog roast rolls — soft white rolls packed with pulled pork, your choice of sage and onion or haggis stuffing, apple sauce or chilli jam on top, open from 11am every day until the pork runs out. I judge a town by its bread and its late-night stalls; that roll passed on both counts. And in Tollcross, Tuk Tuk Indian Street Food serves small plates of Indian street food in a room painted like a Mumbai corner, with a second branch down by the university. Day two of three, and Edinburgh has made its case.
Buildings worth the walk
The Scottish Parliament building — Horse Wynd, at the foot of the Royal Mile. Enric Miralles and EMBT's only UK building, opened 2004, RIBA Stirling Prize 2005. Public spaces are free; the free guided tour takes about an hour and includes the Debating Chamber, the Garden Lobby with its canoe skylights, and a committee room. Tour times change when Parliament is sitting (Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday mornings), so check the Parliament's own visitor pages before you go. Plan your visit
Ida Applebroog: Portraits — Fruitmarket, 45 Market Street, 6 November 2026 – 7 February 2027. America's great feminist painter of simplified, boldly outlined human forms gets a proper Edinburgh showing: her 'Angry Birds of America' drawings from 2018, the suspended mylar figures of Ethics of Desire, and Monalisa, the house-like structure covered in drawings she made from 1969, looking at herself in a mirror. Preview night 5 November. Exhibition page
The open store
If you find yourself with a spare bag of groceries in Edinburgh — a bag of tins, a loaf, anything on the current list — the Edinburgh Food Project feeds a network of foodbanks across the city and relies on donations of food and money. It's an invitation, not an obligation: their donation page shows the items they need today and the collection points nearest you. Donate to Edinburgh Food Project
The Parliament Beached
Here the roofs are hulls turned upward, hulls that gave up the sea for the sky.
Here the skylights are canoes come to rest in a garden, their oak ribs holding the light.
Here the inside is an outside: birches in the lobby, Arthur's Seat at the window.
And I, who measure towns by their bread and their stubbornness, ate an oink roll on Victoria Street and thought: this nation is doing fine.