Edinburgh tours and excursions

Edinburgh tours

Pub tours

The Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour is a promenade performance around four historic pubs with links to famed Scottish wordsmiths – Robert Ferguson, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Louis Stevenson. From May to September, tours leave each evening from the Beehive Inn in the Grassmarket. They run less frequently during the rest of the year (check their website for details). The route climbs the Royal Mile then drops into the New Town, finishing at Café Royal.

Telephone: 0800 169 7410
Walking tours

The Cadies & Witchery Tours organises walking tours of the Old Town, mixing history with humour and ghosts with gore. The tours leave from outside the Witchery restaurant, near the castle, and lasts around 1 hour and 15 minutes. Mercat Walking Tours operates ghost and history tours daily, including journeys into the depths of Edinburgh’s 18th-century underground vaults. Tours leave from the Mercat Cross on the High Street.

Telephone: +44 1(0)31 225 6745 (The Cadies & Witchery Tours) +44 (0)131 225 5445 (Mercat Tours)

Excursions from Edinburgh

Melrose

This beautiful Scottish Borders town lies on the banks of the River Tweed beneath the Eildon Hills, 64km (40 miles) south of Edinburgh. The ruined 12th-century abbey is said to be the burial place of Robert the Bruce’s heart. Nearby Abbotsford was home to writer Sir Walter Scott, and the Borders’ literary tradition continues in a book festival held in Melrose each June.

North Berwick

The seaside town of North Berwick, 41km (25 miles) east of Edinburgh, is worth exploring for its glorious beaches, golf courses and views from local hill Berwick Law. Nearby Tantallon Castle was the last great medieval castle built in Scotland, in the 1350s.

Visa and passport information is updated regularly and is correct at the time of publishing. You should verify critical travel information independently with the relevant embassy before you travel.