The Rocks

The Rocks is the strip of sandstone shoreline below the Harbour Bridge where the first European settlement dug in, and where sailors, dockers and their families lived for a century and a half afterwards. Slum clearance and later demolition plans took much of it, but what survives is dense: Cadmans Cottage from 1816, the Argyle Cut hacked through solid rock by convict gangs, terraces on Playfair Street, and lanes with names like Suez Canal and Nurses Walk that are barely shoulder width. Weekend markets fill the main streets, and the pubs trade hard on their age. Walk the back lanes and the stairs climbing towards Observatory Hill to get clear of the souvenir trade.

What you actually see

• The Argyle Cut - the passage chiselled through the sandstone ridge by convict gangs.
• Cadmans Cottage - a small 1816 building on the old shoreline, among Sydney's oldest.
• Suez Canal and Nurses Walk - narrow lanes and stairs left from the pre-clearance street pattern.
• Susannah Place - a row of 1840s workers' terraces kept much as they were lived in.

When to go

Markets run on Saturdays and Sundays and turn the main streets into a slow shuffle; come on a weekday if you want the lanes to yourself. Early morning light on the sandstone is the best of the day, and the area walks well in any season. Summer afternoons trap heat between the walls, and cruise ship days add several thousand people.

Honest expectations

Much of the quarter is now given over to souvenir shops, tour desks and pubs charging harbour prices, and the market stalls repeat from week to week. Food and drink here run among the most expensive in the city. The genuinely old fabric is scattered rather than continuous, and you have to look for it. The area also sits directly under bridge traffic noise.

Nearby

Circular Quay, the Opera House and the climb to Observatory Hill are all minutes away.