The moss-covered closes (walking streets) connect Edinburgh upper and lower towns.

A close is a narrow alley way.

As I read, a local woman approached.

"He was a real demon, that Beacon Brodie,” said the woman in a brogue thicker than the early morning mist hanging over the handsome monuments and churches lining the iconic Royal Mile.

“Deacon Brodie was actually the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” said the woman of the local legend who, according to the writing on the sign, “was a wealthy, pious citizen (he was even elected a councillor in 1781) during the day” but turned into a gambler, thief and eventually a killer at night.

Brodie, born in 1741, terrorized the closes - the term used to describe the narrow, linear alleys or walking streets that connect the upper Old Town with the lower portion of this volcanic city built on a lava flow - before being caught and executed in 1788.

Most closes have names attached.

“He was hung right over there, near St. Giles Close,” said the woman while pointing to an area behind the impressive High Court building across the street from the pub.

The woman, who noticed her double-decker bus fast approaching, told me to “keep walking down the Royal Mile and you’ll come across many other closes – there’s plenty along there for you to explore,” she said as the doors closed and the bus pulled away.

In fact, Edinburgh has about 60 closes and each bears the name of the prominent family who lived on the close or the business conducted on them. For instance, Advocate’s Close was where Lord Advocate Sir James Stewart lived and Old Fishmarket Close, well, that is pretty self explanatory.