Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
A zoo on the hillside.
An introduction to the setting of Edinburgh Zoo, on the slopes of Corstorphine Hill in the west of the city.
On this page
Read the hill
Edinburgh Zoo’s 82 acres lie on the south-facing slopes of Corstorphine Hill, entered from Corstorphine Road in the west of Edinburgh.
A guide can give context without turning a place into a backdrop. Notice how the paths climb the hill, how the enclosures use its slopes and woodland, and how the views open out as you go higher.
A designed landscape
Patrick Geddes and Frank Mears were largely responsible for the zoo’s original design, and the stone gate lodge on Corstorphine Road still marks the way in.
Begin with a detail and ask who built it, who used it and how it has changed. A photograph alone cannot tell you that.
A wild chapter
The zoo shows one side of Edinburgh: a city whose green hills hold penguins, chimpanzees and big cats.
Look at the meeting of the two: the suburban road outside the gates, and the woodland enclosures climbing the hill behind them.
Make room for context
Pair this reading with the zoo’s history and the Journal. This is an introduction for visitors, not a claim that our team manages these places or represents the people who run them.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
