Auld Reekie
You may hear locals refer to their capital city as ‘Auld Reekie,’ which is Scots for ‘Old Smoky.’ The name derives from the days when toxic clouds of coal smoke filled the sky and blocked the view of the Old Town from the countryside. In Walter Scott’s 1820 novel The Abbot, a character states, “Yonder stands Auld Reekie — you may see the smoke hover over her at twenty miles’ distance.”

Athens of the North
The Scottish Enlightenment was influenced by Ancient Greek philosophy. This period ushered in a more humanist and rationalist outlook for the city’s intellectuals. The movement influenced how the city was designed architecturally. As a result, since the early nineteenth century, Edinburgh has been called the ‘Athens of the North.’ The similarities between the two cities are topographical as well as intellectual.
The design of the National Monument of Scotland is a copy of the Parthenon. Many visitors are reminded of the Athenian Acropolis when they see Edinburgh’s Castle Rock.

Edina
Scottish poets Robert Burns and Robert Fergusson branded Edinburgh ‘Edina’ in the late eighteenth century.