Edinburgh Walking Tours

from Edinburgh, Scotland

ABOVE: A ticket seller for Mercat Tours awaits customers on the Royal Mile.

by Durant Imboden

Edinburgh may be one of Europe's most walkable capital cities, and a great many of its tourist attractions are within a block or two of the Royal Mile (the series of connected streets that run downhill from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood House Palace and the new Scottish Parliament). What's more, the medieval precincts along the Royal Mile have a dramatic history of  plagues, witch burnings, grave robbers, ghosts, grisly murders, and associations with Scotland's greatest writers. It's only natural that this combination of geography, history, and creepiness should have given birth to informative--and entertaining--walking tours.

In the following pages, I've described tour companies whose products I've sampled and a few that I didn't get to try. I've also included links to the tour companies' Web sites.

Tips:

• Compare tours carefully before booking, because some emphasize history while others focus more on ghosts and gore.

• If you're in Edinburgh for only a day or two, consider a late-evening tour. This way, you'll have more time for sightseeing during the daylight hours, and the tour will provide entertainment after dinner.

• When possible, pre-book--especially during the summer high season, when tours may fill up, and during the winter when tours may be cancelled if enough people haven't signed up. In most cases, you can book online, at the Edinburgh Tourist Information Centre on Princes Street above Waverly Station, at the Old Town Information Centre in Tron Kirk on the Royal Mile, or at other locations that are mentioned on the tour companies' Web sites.

Next page: Mercat Tours

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