Top Edinburgh Walking Tours

Step off the tourist trail and explore the Scottish capital’s hidden secrets on this underground walking tour in Edinburgh. Follow a guide from the South Bridge in Edinburgh Old Town down below street level, where a series of ancient vaults lie. As you explore the dark passageways, learn why the vaults were built, hear of the poor souls who sought refuge in the depths and discover a hidden witchcraft temple. Gain insight into city life during the 18th century, and learn of the deadly diseases which threatened Edinburgh’s inhabitants.

This walking tour of Edinburgh is a great choice for first-time visitors who want to get their bearings of the city and learn more about its history. By exploring the city with a guide, you’ll be able to stop looking at a map and focus on enjoying the sites around you. Your guide will teach you about secret places locals love, as well as the Old Town’s most famous sites. Highlights include St. Giles’ Cathedral, the Mercat Cross, Edinburgh Castle, and much more. 

Explore famous landmarks and hidden secrets in Edinburgh on this walking tour. Explore Edinburgh’s famous Royal Mile with a guide, and gain insight into famous writers and inventors who have called the city home. Hear tales of Scotland's national bard—Robert Burns—and discover top landmarks such as St. Giles’ Cathedral and the National Galleries of Scotland. Capture Edinburgh through the eye of your camera as you go, and find out what makes this ancient city tick.

Entrance to the castle is included. Scotland’s second-most-popular tourist attraction as you learn about the bloody history including stories of the kings and queens who lived in this castle. There is evidence of a fort here for almost 3000 years, and it has been a royal castle since at least King David I’s reign in the 12th century. The Scottish monarchs continued to use it until 1633, and even saw the birth of King James VI within its walls. Your tour will begin on the esplanade of the castle as you hear your guide talking about the origins of the castle and its sieges. Once inside Edinburgh Castle, the guide will take you through the different parts of the fortress and tell you its fascinating history, including Scotland’s kings and queens. Inside the complex you will find three museums, two prisons, a canine cemetery, the Chapel of Saint Margaret, the National Monument to the fallen of Scotland, the Great Hall and a Royal Palace. (not accessible during the tour).

Journey through Edinburgh’s grisliest tales on a haunted walking tour. Experience the ghastly histories of monsters, madness, and murder that cast a dark shadow on the capital city. Discover the stories and sites of witch trials, pagan rituals, and executions, and hear about local monsters that live in urban myth. Then visit the chilling Old Calton Burial Ground or Canongate Kirkyard cemetery to learn about body-snatching and some of the infamous interred.

Edinburgh is known for its dark past, and this evening walking tour is the original one to showcase the city's historically sinister and spooky side. Discover the hidden ‘wynds’ (alleys) and closes of the Old Town as you learn their mysteries and horrors; visit the ghost-ridden Greyfriars Kirkyard; and explore the city’s underground vaults to uncover their spirits and secrets. Your tour is led by a creepily costumed guide.

Experience the magic of the world’s most famous wizard on a 2-hour Harry Potter walking tour of Edinburgh, perfect for families with kids. Alongside your Potter-mad guide, you’ll explore the winding streets and mysterious alleys that inspired J. K. Rowling to create the iconic wizarding world, and see filming locations featured in the movies. Plus, tick off top Edinburgh attractions such as the Royal Mile, Edinburgh Castle, and Princes Street.

See the best of medieval yet modern Edinburgh on this walking tour with optional skip-the-line access to Edinburgh Castle. As you walk, listen as your guide shares the history of this formidable city with ancient Roman roots and UNESCO-listed pockets. Explore atmospheric cobbled walkways along the Royal Mile, breeze into Edinburgh Castle to witness royal opulence (if option selected), and pass iconic locations like St. Giles Cathedral, Parliament Square, and John Knox House.

Get an in-depth perspective on Edinburgh on this guided tour that goes deeper than most. Usually led by a guide with a PhD in Scottish history, this tour offers a journey through Edinburgh’s medieval Old Town from the main thoroughfares to the hidden closes (alleyways) and courtyards. Your guide shares tales of dramatic events in the neighborhood's history, as well as those of the writers, philosophers, and inventors who called the area home.

Edinburgh's underground network of vaults, which dates from the 1700s, is one of the most fascinating parts of the city to explore. To truly understand these former slum dwellings, and their dark histories, you need to explore them in the company of a guide who can provide all of the necessary context, background information and spooky stories.

Ah, Edinburgh! They don't call it "The Jekyll & Hyde City" for nothing. During the day, a respectable figure, with its astonishing architecture and wondrous history. But when the sun sets, it tells an entirely different story... Hear all about the darker history of Edinburgh: murderers, thieves, cannibals, hangings and decapitations, witches, the Plague and streams of human waste. Learn about the most notorious citizens of Edinburgh and how ghost stories are born. This is not a ghost tour: we don't need costumes or people jumping from behind the corners, Edinburgh's Dark History itself is enough to make your skin crawl. And oh, how we love to share it with our visitors...

Designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the world of whisky, this guided tour of the Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh is the ideal choice for travelers wanting to learn more about Scotland’s national drink. Learn about Scotland's whisky-producing regions and how the weather affects the flavor of your drink as well as the art of blending. View one of the world’s largest Scotch whisky collections and enjoy a guided tasting session.

Edinburgh’s stately streets hide a darker, more mysterious side of the city, rooted in its 18th-century slums, ‘wynds,’ (alleyways), and vaults. This 75-minute tour takes you back in time to this shadowy world, exploring dark cobbled lanes, a haunted cemetery, and underground vaults. As you explore, your costumed guide shares captivating tales of the city’s history, along with stories of ghosts, murders, crimes, and more.

Skip the line on your visit to one of Scotland's most popular attractions on this Edinburgh Castle walking tour. Walk up the Royal Mile toward to the castle with your guide while they share insight into the significance of the fortification in Scottish history and introduce you to some of the key characters associated with it. Once inside, explore the main buildings as your guide provides further details about such elements as the one o'clock gun, the Argyle Battery, and the castle dungeons. 

Comedy club meets history class on this walking tour with a professional comedian. Explore Old Town Edinburgh’s highlights and ask anything you want to know about Scotland. Your guide is a local, professional, stand-up comedian guaranteed to make you laugh yourself silly!

See both the highlights and hidden gems of Edinburgh on a private tour that reveals Scotland’s capital through the eyes of a local. Designed with first-time visitors in mind, this private tour promises the undivided attention of your guide and gives you the chance to compile tailored recommendations to last the rest of your vacation.

Immerse yourself in the sights and stories of Edinburgh's atmospheric Old Town on this small-group walking tour. Unlike most tours of the Old Town, the maximum group size is just 15 people so you won't be elbow to elbow with other visitors as you explore the area, from the Royal Mile to Greyfriars Kirkyard, and Princes Street Gardens.

Discover the Edinburgh Vaults—aka South Bridge Vaults—18th-century underground chambers that lie far below the city. On this underground walking tour with an entertaining and informative guide, hear tales of this dark and almost-forgotten place built below one of Edinburgh’s busiest thoroughfares. See evidence of excavated storage spaces, human habitation, taverns with wine vaults and more!

Hear hidden secrets from beyond the grave on this haunted vaults and graveyard walking tour in Edinburgh. As night falls across Scotland’s ancient capital, follow a guide through the streets and learn the mysteries of the city’s dark past. Visit venues believed to be haunted including Greyfriar's Kirkyard and the Nidry Street Vaults, and hear of the troubled souls of beggars, prostitutes and witches said to walk the city streets by night. Along the way, make sure to keep your wits about you for sightings of the un-dead.

The Waverley Pub is one of Edinburgh’s most popular drinking establishments and stocks a huge variety of Scotch whisky. On this tasting tour, sample four single malt whiskies from four different whisky-producing regions of Scotland, uncover the secrets of Scotch whisky-making, and experience the Scottish tradition of storytelling.

Embark on a quick and fun ride through Edinburgh's rich literary history. This literature-themed pub crawl through Edinburgh's Old and New Towns is led by a couple of actors who will bring such figures as Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson to vivid life as you journey in and out of Edinburgh's most atmospheric pubs, courtyards, and hidden alleyways.

Famed as the birthplace of the boy wizard, Edinburgh is home to many Harry Potter-themed tours. While big group tours can leave visitors feeling rushed with questions unanswered, this private tour guarantees a personalized, and customizable, experience that goes at your own pace and gives you plenty of opportunities to ask the entertaining guides all of your burning Potter questions.

An Edinburgh bus tour is the perfect way to hear commentary on city sights and get a panoramic overview. This City Sightseeing tour of Edinburgh lets you hop on and off at several strategically placed stops as many times as you like. Board the open-top double-decker bus and travel the entire route, or stop at Edinburgh Castle, the National Museum and many more. Buses depart regularly and tickets are valid for 24 hours from first use.

Not for the faint of heart, this 1.5-hour ghost tour of Edinburgh promises to deliver spine-chilling paranormal frights. Edinburgh’s brutal and bloody past has resulted in a heavily haunted present and this tour takes you to some of the city’s most haunted locations. Under the cloak of darkness, you’ll visit a graveyard and descend to the underground vaults that snake beneath the city. Hear vivid tales of torture, murder and body snatching, and enjoy a heightened atmosphere on this small-group tour, limited to 15 people.