Katherine MacAlister attends one of Edinburgh’s brilliant annual festivals – a celebration of storytelling

We learnt about kelpies, brownies, selkies, the rescue of Joseph McIver, Gallipoli, princesses, daring rescues and gruesome ends, throughout our stay in Edinburgh.

All part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival, Edinburgh is immersed in stories, which soak through to the very fabric of its foundations, whether at Edinburgh Castle learning about Mary Queen Of Scots, the development of photography at Camera Obscura, the slums of The Real Mary Kings Close, tartans and heraldry at the Tartan Centre, the planting of The Royal Botanic Gardens, and of Edinburgh itself, pulsing as it is with life, music, history and tales aplenty.

I’d been before a decade ago, pre-children, and spent a Christmas weekend ice skating, dining in style, drinking in the high ceilinged pubs, shopping and then flying home. But I’d forgotten how vibrant Edinburgh is; how cultured, creative, busy and utterly captivating. How much there is to see and do and eat.

And although we spent three days from morn ’til night trying our hardest, and exploring the city far and wide, we still ran out of time.

We didn’t manage to climb Arthur’s Seat or get to Leith to see the Royal Britannia, but we did climb up to peruse the fine Georgian city from the ramparts of the castle, went underground to The Real Mary King Close – Edinburgh built right over the top of the slums to eliminate the plague – and viewed the city from the telescopes of the Camera Obscura.

We were stunned by the Royal Botanic Gardens’ extraordinary evening light show comprising music, film, water, lights and of course trees and plants. We spent a good few hours wandering around the imaginative and ambitious winter lights spectacular.

We stared in awe at Scotland’s pictorial offerings at the National Portrait Gallery, the small, neat collection, a great way to introduce art to younger ones, and we ate and drank around the capital to our hearts’ content.

Ale in The Beer Kitchen, traditional Scottish fare at The Ghillie Dhu where local mussels, steak and haggis were consumed until the juice ran down our chins.

We found the funkiest pizza joint in town at Civernos, mozzarella stretching across the table, and then classic French food at Les Amis. We had lunch everyday in the Storytelling Centre just because the cafe there was so good.

It was also where we met Tim Porteus, the first of our storytellers. He arrived kilted and booted to show us around, explain the Storytelling Festival, open up Europe’s only storytelling theatre and of course regale us with his tales.

The children were even allowed to sit in the storytelling throne and we resolved to return for the family day of crafts, theatre and of course more storytelling.

Our second storyteller met us at the Botanical Gardens clutching a large didgeridoo. Daniel Allison had travelled the world and bought all his stories back home to enthrall his audiences. And so we heard about the married couple in Peru who averted divorce and the princess who travelled to the far ends of the earth, as the children sat utterly spellbound, hanging onto his every word and note.

The annual Scottish International Storytelling Festival, is just one of Edinburgh’s 12 major festivals which turn the historical capital of Scotland into one of the most vibrant stages for global entertainment, debates and the performing arts.

Easy to reach, we took the train from Oxford, changing at Paddington for Kings Cross, our otherwise uninterrupted journey spent watching the English landscape flatten out, Durham Cathedral flashing past in all its splendour, arriving in Edinburgh via the beautiful, stark coastal route.

Staying in the highly recommended Brooks boutique hotel’s comfortable, central and tasteful accommodation, everything was in walking distance, and we embraced the city in all its glory, revelling in the story-telling daily schedule, which you can pick and choose from.

But with so many other festivals going on in Edinburgh, you’d better get planning.

Edinburgh’s 2017 festivals: International Science, April 1-16; Imaginate, May 27-June 4; International Film, June 21-July2; Jazz & Blues, July 14-23; Art, July 27 July-Aug 27; The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Aug 4-26; International Festival, Aug 4-28; Fringe Aug 4-28; International Book, Aug 12-28; Scottish International Storytelling, Oct 20-31; Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, Dec 30-Jan 1. edinburghfestivalcity.com, brooksedinburgh.com