White Horse Close

This guide to White Horse Close in Edinburgh's Old Town opens with the five stone arches on Calton Road that once led to an underground stable and coach house, and traces the courtyard back to an inn built by Laurence Ord in the early 1600s. You'll hear how it grew into a coaching inn stocked with horses for the ride to London, and how it stacked up against two rival inns nearby, Boyd's and the George, each racing to run the fastest coach south with dozens of horses and their own scheduled runs. Stand under the crow-stepped gables above the arches as you listen.