Edinburgh Royal Mile and Old Town Small Group Walking Tour
Recommended by 97% of travelers
Edinburgh, Scotland
- 3 hours (approx.)
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Explore Edinburgh’s famous Royal Mile with a professional historian or other specialist guide, and gain insight into the 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 Edinburgh Castle, St. Giles’ Cathedral, Grassmarket, and Greyfriars Kirkyard as well as hidden gems. Get the chance to ask questions in a small-group setting and find out what makes this ancient city tick.
- Get a more intimate insight into Edinburgh by exploring on foot
- Enjoy a small-group tour with time for questions
- Start and end at handy central meeting points in Edinburgh
- Ideal for first-time visitors to Ediburgh seeking an interesting overview
What's Included
- Expert historian or specialist local guide
- Small-group walking tour, maximum 12 travellers
- Time for questions and conversation throughout the tour
- Entry to Edinburgh Castle, the Scott Monument, or any paid attractions (paid on site)
- Food and drink
- Hotel pick-up or drop-off
- Gratuities/tips, optional
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- Usher HallLothian Rd, Edinburgh EH1 2EA, UK
Your guide will meet you outside the central entrance of the Usher Hall on Lothian Road. There are three entrances; please wait by the middle/central entrance and arrive 5 minutes before the tour starts.
End point
- E. Princes St Gardens, Edinburgh EH2 2EJ, UK
The tour ends by the Scott Monument in East Princes Street Gardens, a short walk from Princes Street and Edinburgh Waverley Station.
Itinerary
1
Usher Hall
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
2
Edinburgh Castle
35 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
3
Grassmarket
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
4
Milne’s Court
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
5
Jolly Judge
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
6
Writers' Museum
20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
7
Riddle's Court
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
8
Deacon Brodie's Tavern
20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
9
St Giles' Cathedral
20 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
10
Edinburgh City Chambers
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
11
Edinburgh Waverley Station
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
12
Scott Monument
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Children under 12 are free
- Stroller accessible
- Children 12-16 pay 75%
- Service animals allowed
- Near public transportation
- Travelers should have a moderate physical fitness level
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 12 travelers
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
4.9
based on 1,659 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
We ended up as the only visitors on the tour which was great. Stuart was quite knowledgeable and friendly and gave us a very informative tour.
Response from Host, Oct 2026
Dear Jenny
Thank you so much for your great 5 Star Review of your Tour with me and glad that you enjoyed it so much! I hope you found the rest of your stay in Edinburg equally enjoyable.
Best wishes
Stuart Usher.
David was a very knowledgeable and engaging guide. He explained the history and architecture thoroughly so that everyone could understand
Response from Host, Oct 2026
Dear Thomas
Many thanks for your great 5 Star Review of your Tour with our David Forsyth! We are delighted that you learnt a lot about the history, architecture, etc of the city.
Best wishes
Stuart Usher.
Our guide was knowledgeable and enthusiastic about Edinburgh and Scotland. We covered a lot of geography and history--both past and recent. There is a lot of walking both uphill and downhill. Be prepared to stand for lengths, as well.
Response from Host, Oct 2026
Dear Christin
Thank you so much for your great Review! Craig Goodman was your guide. Deligted that you learnt a fair bit of the history and geography of our ancient city. It is not the easiest city for walking by any means; plenty of ups and downs!
Best wishes
Stuart Usher.
Ben was an amazing guide who was very knowledgeable and who shared interesting stories about people and historical events along the Royal Mile. He made the tour informative and entertaining. I would highly recommend this tour with Ben!
Response from Host, Sep 2026
Dear Pat-M
Many thanks for your great Review of your Tour with our great Guide, Ben! Walking, living and learning is a most enjoyable pastime in the company of someone like Ben! Delighted that you enjoyed your Tour with him so much. Many thanks again for your great recommendation.
Best wishes
Stuart Usher.
My husband and I are frequent travelers and have had many walking tours but this was probably the best. Our afternoon with Douglas was a great introduction to Edinburgh and its history. This proud Scotsman’s knowledge was astounding and while we won’t remember everything he told us we will remember him and his enthusiasm. I highly recommend this tour as the first thing you book for your visit in Edinburgh.
Response from Host, Sep 2026
Dear Carter
Many, many thanks for your most glowing Review of your Tour with our super Guide, Douglas Graham! Douglas will be delighted with your descibing him as the best Tour Guide you have ever had! He is all that you have described so nicely. We are delighted that you enjoyed your Tour with him to the full. Also thanks again for your most gracious recommendation!
Best wishes
Stuart Usher.
Excellent tour guide ! Entertaining and educational!. Mature gentleman kept pase with the group.
Very credible!
Response from Host, Sep 2026
Dear Robert
Thank you so much for your 5 Star Review of your Tour with me! Delighted that you found the Tour entertaining and educational. One should learn at least one new thing every day!
Best wishes
Stuart U
Our guide Alison was superb and delivered exactly what a condensed history should include..
Her eloquent style and vast knowledge of history was perfectly incorporated with the architecture was fabulous
Highly recommended
Response from Host, Sep 2026
Dear Michael.
Great thanks for your fabulous Review of your Tour with our superb Guide, Dr Alison Duncan! Delighted that you found her to be so eloquent and just everything any tourist would want in a guide.
Many thanks for yur recommending us so graciously.
Best wishes
Stuart U.
Dr. Alison was incredibly knowledgeable and fun to be with. She is a true professional. We had a blast!!
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Dear Michael
Many thanks indeed for your great 5 Star Review of your Tour with our great and fun Guide, Alison! Delighted that you enjoyed the Tour so much.
Best wishes
Stuart Usher.
Our guide Stewart Usher shared his local well informed knowledge of the area and history. Don’t be in a hurry or you will miss special places and stops. Enjoyed every moment.
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Dear Debbie
Thank you so much for your super 5 Star Review of your Tour with me! Very much appreciated. Delighted that you enjoyed every moment of the Tour and would love to see you in town again some sunny day.
Best wishes
Stuart Usher.
My wife and I did this tour with Allison, a historian. We had Allison all to ourselves as a couple of others had cancelled. Allison was PHENOMENAL! She was extremely knowledgeable, enthusiastic and went out of her way to ensure that we had a wonderful time. Do this tour with Allison - she is one of the best guides we have ever had!
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Dear Dhines
Many thanks for your superlative Review of your Tour with our phenomenal Guide, Dr Alison Duncan! It was a stroke of luck for you that the other couple booked for the Tour had cancelled so you ended up with Private Tour, with Alison all to yourselves. Delighted that you enjoyed the Tour with her so much. She is indeed a most outstanding all round Guide. She will be delighted to learn that you regarded her as one of the best Guides you had ever had!
Best wishes
Stuart Usher.
Nice pacing and historical info. Enjoyed learning more about the history of the place and interesting facts.
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Dear Jennifer
Thank you for your Review of your Tour with our Dr Alison Duncan. We are delighted that you enjoyed the Tour and learnt more about the history of our ancient city.
Best wishes
Stuart Usher
Our tour guide who is with Edinburgh Guided Tour was phenomenal! Knowledgeable, clear in communication, patient, and mindful of the challenges a tourist faces navigating the streets, stairs, narrow passageways of a centuries-old city, Dr. Alison Duncan treated us (a small group of six) to a three hour well paced and informative walking tour along the Royal Mile. We hit all the major sites along the way, including several lesser known gems. We were never really aware of the time and before you knew it, we arrived at the Princes Street/North Bridge bridge in time to witness the 1 o’clock gun fire from the Edinburgh Castle. We had started at 10:00. Well worth the price!
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Dear Anthony
A million thanks for your truly superb Review of your Tour with our incomparable guide, Dr Alison Duncan! We are delighted that you had such an enjoyable and informative Tour with her. Alison,s knowledge of the city is encyclopaedic, few can match her. Edinburgh's history covers a wide field of human activity including The Good ( David Hume, Adam Smith, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson etc, etc), The Bad (Deacon Brodie, the Respectable by day and the Devil at night!) and the downright ugly (Burke and Hare, the Serial Murderers selling the bodies of their victims to Surgeon's Hall to be cut up in medical research!). No doubt that Alison covered these aspects of the city's history as well.
We would b delighted to welcome you again to our fair city!
Best wishes
Stuart Usher.
Douglas was an excellent tour guide - knowledgeable, interesting and great to spend 3 hours learning history and hearing interesting anecdotes. Highly recommend!
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Dear Richard
Many thanks for your great Review of your Tour with our Douglas Gaham! 3 hours fly past in no time at all when the tour is led by a guide of Douglas’s calibre. Delighted that your learnt a lot of the city’s history.
Best wishes
Stuart Usher.
I enjoyed this walking tour. The guide took us to fascinating places and shared the history of Edinburgh in a very engaging way. I especially appreciated learning about hidden spots and lesser-known stories that I probably would never have discovered on my own.
There were just a couple of small points worth noting. The tour description mentioned that it would end at the Scott Monument, but it finished at a different location. Also, the guide preferred not to have photos of him taken so they don’t get shared on social media, which I found a little confusing since his photo appears in the tour description.
Overall, these were very minor points and didn’t take away from the experience.
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Dear Eman
Many thanks for your Review of your Tour with our Douglas Graham.
We are delighted that you found our guide very engaging and that he took you to places of great interest.
Making it to the Scott Monument in the New Town is very difficult at this time of year because of the huge slow moving crowds of tourists in the Old Town where most of the places of historic interest are situated.
With regard your guide preferring not to have his photograph taken because of social media concerns we regret that you found this confusing because he photo appears on our business website.
Best wishes
Stuart Usher
Douglas is a knowledgeable, passionate and engaging tour guide. He took us on an experience that unlocked and brought to life the history of Edinburgh and Scotland. It's not often we come across a guide of his caliber and skill. Thank you for a great start to our Scotland trip. Highly recommend!
Grace and Caroline
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Dear Grace and Carolin
We are delighted with your stellar 5 Star Review of your Tour with our top flight Guide, Douglas Graham! Delighted that you both so thoroughly enjoyed the life and history of our ancient city as presented to you by Douglas. Your high recommendation is also very much appreciated. Please do come again some day.
Best wishes
Stuart Ushe
We enjoyed the tour. Our guide, Craig gave us a lot of information and we visited a lot of nice and interesting places.
Response from Host, Sep 2026
Dear ELENA.
Thank you very much indeed for your great Review of your Tour with our great Guide, Craig Goodman! We are delighted that you enjoyed the Tour so much.
Best wishes
Stuart Usher.
Guide was amazing. We ended up having a private tour and he was so accommodating and still provided so much info while addressing other questions we had. We can’t recommend this enough.
Response from Host, Sep 2026
Dear Krista
Great thanks to you for your wonderful 5 Star Review of your Tour with our gifted and accomodating Guide, Douglas Graham! Also many, many thanks for recommending us so highly.
Best wishes
Stuart Usher.
Craig was a great guide. He was very knowledgeable, and enthusiastic about the history of Edinburgh and Scotland. Highly recommend.
Response from Host, Jul 2026
Dear Danielle
Thank you so much for your lovely 5 Star Review of your Tour with our very knowledgeable Guide, Craig Goodman. We appreciate your highly recommending us very much.
Best wishes
Stuart U.
Craig was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about sharing highlights of Scottish history on our walking tour. We spent 3 hours walking the Royal Mile.
Response from Host, Jul 2026
Dear Canda
We are delighted that you enjoyed your Tour with our enthusiastic Guide, Craig Goodman! He certainly knows his stuff. Many, many thanks.
Best wishes
Stuart U.
Steuart is an excellent guide. He has so many stories that explain the culture and history of Edinburgh and Scotland in general. We visited many historic locations and he gave us great context for each one
Response from Host, Jul 2026
Dear Edward
Thanks so much for your superb Review of your Tour with our super Guide, Steuart Watkins. Great that you enjoyed your Tour with him and managed to visit many historic locations. Please do visit us again some day.
Best wishes
Stuart U
We had a fantastic tour with Alastair Sim around Edinburgh and the 3 hours flew past! We loved that the tour was full of interesting stories that bought the place alive (rather than just quoting dates!) and it was tailored to our interests - even including facts related to our occupations. Highly recommend this tour. Thank you Alastair :)
Response from Host, Jun 2026
Dear Jade
Thanks a million for your superlative Review of your Tour with our superb guide, Alastair Sim! You sound as though you really enjoyed his expert story telling and the fact that he tailored the Tour to your interests as well. We also give you our great thanks for your recommending us so highly.
Best wishes
Stuart Usher.
Our guide, Steuart, was very knowledgeable and engaging. The tour started on time and the small group was nice!
Response from Host, Jun 2026
Dear Trish
Thank you for your Review with our Steuart Watkins. We are delighted that you that you enjoyed the Tour.
Best wishes
Stuart Usher.
This was our first trip to Edinburgh and we thoroughly enjoyed our walking tour of Edinburgh Old Town and Royal Mile. Our tour guide Fiona was a wealth of knowledge and was very personable and friendly. The pace of the tour was just right. Highly recommended.
Response from Host, Jun 2026
Dear Richard
A thousand thanks for your superb Review of your Tour with our equally superb Guide, Fiona! We are delighted that you enjoyed your Tour with her so much and also that the pace of the Tour was just right. And thanks for recommending us so nicely!
Best wishes
Stuart U.
Make sure you wear your walking shoes and bring water because while it was a very informative trip, it was exhausting going up all those hills!
Response from Host, Jun 2026
Dear Adina
Thank you for your great Review of your Tour with me. You are right about plenty of uphill walking in the Old Town so potential bookers of our Tours please note!
Best wishes
Stuart U.
Alastair was a great tour guide. The information he provided was interesting and he took our interests into account. Lively stories of Edinburgh history. Small group experience was nice… 12 people instead of the other tours with masses of people wearing headphones.
Response from Host, Jun 2026
Dear Dana
Many thanks for your super Review of your Tour with our Alastair! We are glad that you mentioned that we have a maximum of 12 Tourists on all our Group Tour walks. Those tourists in large groups of up to 40 tourists on them can never engage with the Tour Guide properly; hence their giving up and donning their headphones. Thank you again!
Best wishes
Stuart U.
Got very lucky- we were the only ones on this tour! Fiona was AMAZING. She was personable, entertaining, made our tour feel special and unique. She clearly had such a passion for the history of Edinburgh, and so much to share. She spent some time getting to know us and what were interested in learning, and personalized the tour towards this (general history with some medical history and Harry Potter sites thrown in!) She knew many "more private" ally's and gardens and the history of all of these. We both called this a highlight of our vacation. Would recommend to anyone.
Response from Host, May 2026
Dear Galit
Many, many thanks for your fulsome and very glowing Review of your Tour with our great Guide, Fiona Parker! You certainly appear to have really enjoyed her great passion for the long history of our great city of Edinburgh. Edinburgh was the leading city in the world in the field of madical research for centuries and we are delighted that she included some of that history on your Tour. How about another Tour with her some sweet day?
Steuart was a wonderful guide. Knowledgeable story teller that kept us engaged. Also loved that he took us off the beaten path and showed us areas that most may miss.
Response from Host, May 2026
Dear Kate
Thank you very much for your superb 5 Star Review of your Tour with our wonderful guide, Steuart Watkins.
Best wishes
Stuart U.
Great introduction to old town Edinburgh, castle history, town cemetery and top half of the royal mile. Tour didn’t cover lower half and only briefly mentioned the Holyrood palace (no mention at all about the Scottish Parliament).
Guide was extremely knowledgeable and welcoming. His ability to speak in English and Scotts was very educational.
Response from Host, May 2026
Dear Padraic
A million thanks of your stellar Review of your Tour with Edinburgh Guided Tour! We are delighted that you enjoyed your Tour with us to the full. Broad Scotch is a dialect of English and has nothing to do with Gaelic which was the original language of Scotland. The Scots arrived in Scotland from Ireland in c 600 AD. Before that Scotland was inhabitated by a people called the Picts. Many thanks again.
Best wishes
Stuart U.
I thought this was a tour of the Royal Mile. We spent the first hour and a half moving slowly behind Edinburgh Castle. Much of the narration was slow moving and not engaging.
Response from Host, May 2026
Dear Donald,
We regret that you didn’t find our tour to your liking.
Our tour is called the “Royal Mile and Old Town Walking Tour” and it is divided evenly between the Royal Mile and other parts of Edinburgh’s Old Town, including Grassmarket, Greyfriars Kirkyard, and Victoria Street. The first hour and a half takes place in the surrounding Old Town and the final hour and a half is spent on the Royal Mile.
As you and your travelling companion left after two hours of the three-hour tour, you missed the majority of time we spend on of the Royal Mile itself and that is most regrettable because over 97% of travellers who book our tour recommend us to fellow travellers to experience and enjoy and this is something we’re incredibly proud of.
Nevertheless, we hope you enjoy your remaining time in our beautiful city.
Best wishes
Stuart U.
Douglas was one of the best tour guides we have experienced ever. He explained the history of each site with an easy delivery. He was so incredibly knowledgeable. This is a must for anyone wanting a compact history lesson provided in a professional manner.
Response from Host, May 2026
Dear Madeline
Many thanks indeed for your stellar Review of your Tour with our equally stellar Guide, Douglas Graham! Your referrinng to him as the best Tour Guide that you have ever had is a very high compliment with which both he and our business are delighted!
Best wishes
Stuart U.
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