- Walking Tour
- 3.5 or 7 Hours
Customisable tours to suit your taste. Our private tours allow your group to have an educated guide all to yourselves.
The walking tour focuses on the historical, cultural, and architectural heritage of Edinburgh.
Come on a walking tour in Edinburgh with us to discover the secrets buried within the tenements and dark closes of Old Town & Royal Mile, surrounding the castle. Built on centuries of struggle and shaped by the most extraordinary – and daring – of peoples, the historic sites that punctuate Edinburgh’s magnificent skyline and Royal Mile are brought to life on this Old Town Walking Tour. Unexpected curiosities and hidden places of peace abound in these amazingly well-preserved streets of stark contrasts.
Your walking tour of Edinburgh will explore the ancient burgh of Edinburgh; a tour designed for the more discerning wanderer. Taking you from the early 11th century, to the time of the founding of Holyrood Abbey in 1128 and St. Giles Kirk in 1130, and then onward.
Your guide can illustrate how Edinburgh followed the usual pre-requisites for a medieval city, boasting a castle, burgh and abbey. Learn how it progressively encapsulated the ensuing centuries of turmoil in this eclectic array of timber-framed houses, monuments and markers to the good, the bad and downright ugly. Saunter by churches, pubs, museums, gardens, shops and more! The topsy-turvy nature of the Royal Mile & Old Town is simply NOT to be missed in its exciting and chaotic array.
Learn about the real-life character who inspired “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde”, stop by the congenially quaint coffee-house, which once served as a retreat for many a budding-writer. Most notably J. K. Rowling, who enjoyed astonishing success with the Harry Potter series, and Alexander McCall Smith. Then see and visit the High Kirk of St. Giles, now widely known as St. Giles Cathedral (and find out who was responsible for its name-change). Meander down the Castlehill and Lawnmarket, observe the change in street levels from the Royal Mile to the Grassmarket, the High Street of the Royal Mile, and see the ogee- domed turrets and elegant chimneys of Edinburgh’s school for “Fatherless Bairns”. Finally, the verdant expanse of Princes Street Gardens delineating the separation of Old & New Towns and its wonderfully varied selection of attractions.
Find out what life was really like in the medieval Old Town, from the roofed red-clay pantiles of John Knox’s House to the chapel where the Knights of the Order of the Thistle undergo their investiture ceremonies.
Step back in time, in the company of writers, philosophers, body-snatchers, witches (and a faithful Skye terrier as well) and let your guide “make history come alive!”
There will be no more than 12 of you on the walking tour in Edinburgh to ensure your full engagement and involvement.
Book your tour today. You will not regret it.