Edinburgh Castle Tour: History and Mystery

1,498 Ratings

Edinburgh

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Discover Edinburgh’s secrets on a 2-hour Royal Mile walking tour. Explore hidden gems, historic sites, and optional Edinburgh Castle visit.

Duration: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Cancellation: 24 hours

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Highlights

St Giles’ Cathedral - Admire the exterior and listen to its history.
Parliament House - Observe the exterior.
Edinburgh Old Town - Discover on foot and learn its history from your guide.
Royal Mile - Walk with your guide who will share captivating stories.
John Knox House Museum - See the exterior and learn its history with…

What's Included

Exclusive multi-sensory experience with master Storyteller guides
Enhanced, hand-picked sounds of Edinburgh through TourTalk audio devices
Small group experience
Fast track, skip the line entry into Edinburgh Castle

Additional Information

This walking tour offers an ideal introduction to the capital of Scotland. The first secret revealed? You can bypass the queue at Edinburgh Castle!
Delve into Edinburgh’s hidden gems and uncover the essence of Scotland’s capital, away from the typical tour buses and guidebooks. This magnificent city, rich in captivating history, remains beautifully…

Location

Mercat Cross

High Street

Mercat Cross, High St, Edinburgh EH1 1RF. Look for the 8 sided monument with white Unicorn on top. You will find a member of our visitor services team waiting here to check you in. They will be dressed in black, holding an iPad, wearing an orange lanyard & holding a black & orange umbrella.

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings

4.8

(1498 Ratings)

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N4122wzkathyr

Nov 12, 2025

A truly enjoyable tour - Our guide Mally was fun, enthusiastic and very knowledgeable Truly enjoyed the tour and highly recommend Mercat Tours.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Navigator289676

Nov 11, 2025

Fabulous tour so worth doing - We had a great experience on our tour with Nicola. So informative so much information and learnt so much during the tour. Nicola was just brilliant so enthusiastic and certainly knew so much history to communicate. Certainly recommend.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Maureen_c

Nov 9, 2025

Highly recommend! - Tour was time well spent. Guide was the perfect mix of entertaining and informative. Have already recommended tour to friends.

Review provided by Viator

Passport44409753085

Nov 5, 2025

Edinburgh Tours - Great tour(s), I went on multiple tours with Mercat. Veni was the guide on 2 of my tours, was a great guide with a wealth of knowledge.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Nielsen87

Nov 4, 2025

Informative, funny, and great customer service - I recently went on this tour with our knowledgeable, funny guide Linda. She gave us a great deal of context for the history of Edinburgh and how it developed. It's worth noting that for this tour you have the option of paying to go in the castle for the last part of the tour. Because we were less than organized, we had already gone to the castle previously, BUT when future friends and family visit, I will recommend going with this tour. (The castle doesn't have a great deal of information posted on signs, so I suspect it will be a much better experience going on the full tour.) I'll also give a shout-out to Mercat tours for being flexible when we asked last minute if they'd be willing to increase their group size slightly, so everyone in our party could join. No promises they will always be able to do this, but we had great customer service, which was very appreciated.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Edward_g

Nov 3, 2025

Nice walking tour of The... - Nice walking tour of The Royal Mile with Craig, our very knowledgeable and very funny guide. He took us down alleys and into hidden courtyards we would not have seen otherwise. Worth the afternoon and cost.

Review provided by Viator

493carriel

Nov 2, 2025

Great walking tour - Linda was an awesome guide! She was engaging and so knowledgeable. We learned so much about Edinburgh and Scotland through the stories she shared. Would highly recommend this tour!

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Joshuadw4837jh

Nov 1, 2025

Excellent Walking Tour with Engaging Guide and Great Audio System - We had a great walking tour of the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle in late October 2025, led by our excellent guide, Mally. Mally walked us through the Old Town, bringing to our attention hidden historical gems and little-known details of the city, linking everything together with rich historical context and extensive information. He was lively, informative, and offered keen observations about life throughout the centuries in Edinburgh. What impressed me most was his authentic delivery. Though he's surely given this tour hundreds of times, he spoke as if the thoughts had just occurred to him. Very natural and engaging, and a delight to listen to. Important Feature: This tour provides a significant advantage; Each participant receives a phone/sound amplification device connected to the guide's microphone. Even at the rear of the group, you hear Mally clearly over crowds, street noise, and bagpipes. Watching other tour guides yelling to their groups made me appreciate this feature even more. I would highly recommend choosing tours that offer this technology. All in all, a terrific tour with an engaging, knowledgeable guide and the right equipment to ensure you don't miss a word. Highly recommend!

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Q7504qabeckys

Oct 31, 2025

We loved Mally! - Mally did an excellent job as our tour guide. He made it fun and was a wealth of knowledge about well-known and little-known facts about Edinburgh and Scotland history. I had some disability and was able to do this tour with ease.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Stephanielw9441wp

Oct 29, 2025

Wonderful Tour! - Our Royal mile walking tour was truly delightful. Our tour guide Linda was charming, funny and very knowledgeable. She engaged well with everyone on the tour and made the history of Edinburgh truly come alive. We are so glad we did the tour at the start of our trip as it was a great orientation to the city. Thank you!

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Check Availability

From $67

up to 6 guests

1 - Adult