Our scheduled day tours start run on Thursdays and Saturdays. We run a 10.30am-
12.30pm tour and then a 2pm-4pm tour on both those days. All tours run in most
weather conditions. Please ensure you arrive a few minutes beforehand. It would be a
huge help to us, and we’d love you forever! Your guide is instructed to wait 20 minutes
for his groups, unless we’ve heard from you, after that he has permission to leave if no
one has appeared.
Booking and pre-payment is essential on all our tours. We recommend booking at last
three days in advance. We will run tours no matter what the group size is, even if it is a
cold dark night and only one person is scheduled for the tour, we will run it. However,
we do sometimes ‘block out’ times where we aren’t expecting many guests as very
small groups aren’t financially viable for us. If you book in advance, we will be there
and your tour will run.
Our Old Town and Greyfriars tours meet at the grave of Greyfriars Bobby in Greyfriars
Kirkyard at the top of Candlemaker Row. Bobby’s Bar sits next to the entry and has the
postcode EH1 2QE. Our Canongate tour meets at the forecourt ‘arena’ area of Dynamic
Earth in Holyrood Road.
The Old Town tour lasts just over two hours.
The Greyfriars Kirkyard tour lasts approximately 1h 45 minutes.
The Royal Mile tour lasts around two hours.
The Slums of Victorian Edinburgh tour lasts around two hours.
Although we aim to keep to these finishing times, our timings largely depend on the
size and speed of the group as well as external events happening in and around the
Old Town (such as crowds of people during the Festival).
he tour goes ahead, and we will be there no matter what!
if you are the only person on a scheduled tour, your guide is authorised to wait for
fifteen minutes before he leaves. If there are other people on the tour, your guide can
only wait around ten minutes (as long as it takes to tell the first story) before he needs
to move his group. Please have your tickets/phone/email confirmation ready so that
he can check your booking.
If you can find the group, you are welcome to join. Please provide your booking
confirmation at an appropriate time. Your guide cannot cover areas/stories you may
have missed.
Edinburgh’s Old Town is formed around a ‘Crag and Tail’ geological formation which
means it does have some quite steep gradients up and down. Our private tours will
take into account any information you can provide us with and we enjoy altering our
private tours to ensure accessibility is achieved. On our scheduled group tours there
are more limitations on what we can offer. If you contact us before you book, we can
suggest some possible alternatives and discuss which of our tours might be best
suited to you.
Your guide will be usually be wearing blue shirt/jacket with the Historic Edinburgh
Tours logo on the chest, he may be in traditional Highland Dress, with grey tweed
jacket and kilt.
We can only take pre-paid, online booking on all of our scheduled tours. Please note
that we can’t take cash payment on any of our scheduled tours. You can use a credit
card with your booking - but not ‘in person’ on the tour.
Guests who have booked a private tour can pay online in advance, or by cash on the
day. We will email you an invoice/receipt for this.
Greyfriars Bobby's Bar is situated just outside our meeting place and offers a fine
range of Scottish cuisine and beverages. Please note that they only allow children in if a
meal is being consumed. The Elephant House is only a couple of minutes walk away on
George IV Bridge. This is reputed to be where J.K. Rowling wrote early 'Harry Potter'
books and can accommodate youngsters. Both of these are great places to visit before,
or after, our tour. Both have very clean toilets for their customers (as does the
Museum of Scotland over the road) and excellent staff.
Our tours are what we would describe as 'PG' tours - requiring parental guidance
meaning that both tours are general as appropriate as our often violent history lets us,
although we do end both with a very amusing 'adult level' historical story which you
can decide to opt out of. We do require that children under 16 attend with an adult.
You can read our tour terms and conditions here. Our website terms and conditions
can be found here.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR
GUIDED WALKING TOUR
WHEN DOES MY TOUR START?
DO I NEED TO BOOK IN ADVANCE?
WHERE DOES MY TOUR START?
HOW LONG DOES MY TOUR LAST?
WHAT HAPPENS IF IT RAINS?
WHAT HAPPENS IF I AM LATE?
I HAVE MOBILITY ISSUES. WHAT DO I
NEED TO KNOW?
WHAT DOES MY GUIDE LOOK LIKE?
CAN I PAY AT THE START?
ARE THERE TOILETS NEARBY?
ARE YOUR SCHEDULED TOURS ‘CHILD-
FRIENDLY’?
WHAT ARE YOUR TERMS AND
CONDITIONS?
Frequently
Asked
Questions
Text/Call us :
+44 (0)7590 026 077
Call us +44 (0)7590 026 077
© Historic Edinburgh Tours Ltd 2020