The Scotch Whisky Experience, Edinburgh

The Scotch Whisky Experience occupies a former Victorian school building on Castlehill, beside Edinburgh Castle’s esplanade. It is a visitor attraction devoted to Scotch whisky, with a guided tour exploring the drink’s history. Since May 2009, its standout collection has been the Diageo Claive Vidiz Whisky Collection, housed in a glass-and-marble vault and containing 3,384 sealed bottles.

The lower two floors hold Amber Restaurant & Whisky Bar, where traditional Scottish food accompanies a whisky offering drawn from across Scotland. The building began life as Castlehill School, formally opened on 3 May 1889. Architect Robert Wilson designed it in Scots Baronial style, using red Corncockle sandstone brought from Lochmaben.

A detail you can see in the building itself is its paired stairway arrangement: the school kept boys and girls apart by giving them separate stairways, and that feature remains. The attraction opened here on 5 May 1988 as the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre, created to give visitors an Edinburgh introduction to whisky without requiring travel to Highland distilleries. Its original tour used mock barrels and theatrical scenes; the current experience has three areas called Origins, The Art of Whisky Making and Maturation, opened in November 2023 after a £3 million renewal.