Once, there was a castle on a hill. And there was a king, who lived in the castle on a hill. The king had a mother, a very pious woman (she became a veritable saint after she died), who would regularly go on a pilgrimage. One day, she brought back with her a sacred relic – a piece of cross on which Jesus died. Such a relic deserved its own shrine, so the king built a whole abbey devoted to it. The cross was known as Holyrood (Holy Cross), so the sanctuary has become known as Holyrood Abbey. The king was very devout, like his mother, so he travelled to his newly-founded abbey quite often. The abbey was located in the woods surrounding the hill, about one mile from the castle, so a road was built to make the king’s trips more comfortable.
Eventually, the road became quite busy, with a lot of people settling along it (it was always safer to be in close proximity to a castle and a king in those turbulent times). So, a town started to grow between the castle and the abbey. The town was named after the castle it was attached to – Edinburgh, and the road between the castle and the abbey became its main thoroughfare. After some time, one of the successive kings got tired of living in the old palace in the castle (it was quite drafty, you know), and built himself a new, better palace right next to the abbey. (That palace turned out so good that it serves as Edinburgh’s official royal residence until this very day). The road between the two royal residences became known as the Royal Mile. It’s a must-visit when in Edinburgh, so we are going there now, right after we visited the castle.