Edinburgh Castle Tour
Description
Skip-the-line tickets included and an expert guide who will show you the things other visitors miss: the Honours of Scotland, the Royal Palace, Mons Meg and centuries of battles.
Ensure you get the best value of your visit to Edinburgh Castle with this tour. Your expert tour guide will lead you throughout your trip to the Castle, showing you things all other visitors miss.
IMPORTANT: For security reasons, bags and backpacks larger than a 30L capacity will not be admitted in Edinburgh Castle.
Bloody battles and dramatic conquests, no visit to Scotland is complete without visiting its most famous fortress. Our Edinburgh Castle Tour includes a ticket with skip-the-line entrance!
Mons Meg, the Honours of Scotland and all the secrets and most interesting spots of Edinburgh Castle are all included on this 1.5 hours tour, which will make the most of your visit.
Edinburgh Castle stays open 9.30am-6pm in the summertime (Apr-Sep) and 9.30am-5pm during wintertime (Oct-Mar). Bear in mind that your ticket will only be valid for one day.
You will have time to explore the Castle after the tour but if you wish to go back another day, you must buy another entry ticket. For this reason, we recommend planning the visit to allow yourself enough time.
Every day at 10am, 12.15pm and 1.30pm
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes. You can keep exploring the Castle afterwards.
Language: English
Prefer Spanish? See the Tour del Castillo de Edimburgo.
Meeting point: 351 High Street
On the Royal Mile, in front of number 351. Open in Google Maps.
From £37, ticket included
Concession (60+): £35 · Child (5-15): £29 · Child (0-4): free.
Book your place
Highlights
Dùn Èideann, the first settlement
The Castle & the Esplanade
Wars with England & Scottish independence
The Crown Room
The Great Hall
St Margaret’s Chapel
The Mons Meg
William Wallace & the story of the Stone of Destiny
The One o’ Clock Gun
National War Museum and War Memorial
The Dungeons
Half Moon Battery
Dog Cemetery
And much more...
Your guide may adapt the route to the needs of each group.
Good to know
Castle ticket included
Your Edinburgh Castle ticket is included and is only valid on the day of the tour.
Bags and backpacks
For security reasons, bags and backpacks larger than 30 litres are not allowed in the Castle.
Free cancellation
Free cancellation 24 hours before the start of the tour.
Groups
Ideal for any kind of group. You can also book a Private Castle Tour.
Castle opening hours
9.30am-6pm in summer (Apr-Sep) and 9.30am-5pm in winter (Oct-Mar).
Rain or shine
Much of the visit is outdoors. Please dress for the weather.
What our guests say
City Explorers has a 5.0 rating on Google from 27,127 reviews. Here is a selection of real reviews, updated every week. Tap any review to read it in full.
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We had a great tour with Graham. He gave us all the important/historical information and also shared some entertaining tidbits. The two hours flew by.
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SJ was awesome!! She was lovely and she’s a great storyteller, you can tell she puts a lot of effort into these tours!! :)
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Graham was a great tour guide, there was a good mix of facts and humour. He worked well with the group. I would recommend him to anyone visiting Edinburgh.
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Rory was absolutely fantastic. What a great way of learning about the history of Edinburgh. The time absolutely flew. 12/10 would recommend
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Absolutely incredible tour by Cobin! Enjoyed every part of it, the history of Edinburgh is so interesting and Cobin’s way of storytelling is absolutely gripping and funny at the same time. Highly recommend!
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Graeme was a wonderful guide! Full of interesting facts and history, and even his dad jokes were appreciated and made the tour very fun! Highly recommended.
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What a fun tour!! Graham was absolutely lovely and gave us so many useful insights into Edinburgh and made us laugh so much! Truly recommend
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Glen was a fantastic guide - enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and gracious. Great tour would recommend for your first time in Edinburgh!
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Dan was such a great guide, would definitely recommend for others and future self when visiting Edinburgh again. Lots of good humor and theatrical expressions!
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I learned a lot from this tour. It was interesting and fun but Colan made it more even fun and light. He also was funny which made it more delightful.
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We had an amazing tour with Kenny! He was very friendly, knowledgeable and very funny! Would go on another tour with him any day :)
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SJ was our tour guide last night, she was a great storyteller who was really animated and entertaining! We would highly recommend!
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Great experience with our guide Coben. Funny, interesting and we got a different view on the City of Edinburgh.
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Wonderful insights, stories and navigation. Got us to all the highlights and more but routed to avoid/minimize the interaction with other tours. Some of the side bar stories were the best.
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Cobin is amazingly good with a hint of fun story teller! He made a boring history particularly very very very interesting and easy to remember! Highly and exceptionally recommended!! If you don’t, you’ll miss half the adventure of your life!!
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Cobin was a great tour guide!! Lovely humor and a lot of fun facts. Would definitely recommend to friends and family:)
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I had fun listening to the stories our guide shared. He was totally entertaining, built the atmosphere and hooked us into the experience.
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Rory was a very cool and charming tour Guide. The storys were very nice and for us from germany very good understandble. And it was nice to learn so much about the dark history of scotland and edinburgh
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Dr Rory can tell a story! I couldn't believe how quickly the tour ended. When I looked at my watch and hour and a half had passed! Get a tour, get it with Rory !
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Griem was a fantastic tour guide ! He was very helpful, showed a great amount of knowledge about the city, and I loved his sense of humour:))
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Great tour, got all the major sights and lots of history. Kenny, our guide, was very knowledgeable and eloquent he made the tour very interesting and fun at the same time.
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I highly recommend this tour! Rory’s gory stories were amazing, you can really tell he loves the job and makes the tour feel very special!
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Had a wonderful tour through Edinburgh. Cobin is a very funny guy with great knowledge about the city and entertaining storytelling
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Cobin was an awesome guide. We got a lot of interesting information on our tour. He was clever and very engaging. He paced the tour so we could all follow along and he was very careful that we were all with him and safe. Thanks Cobin for an interesting morning!
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Cobin was very entertaining and informative. The pacing and humor of the tour was well balanced and enjoyable
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Graeme was a fantastic tour guide with many interesting stories and so much knowledge. Highly recommend this tour and guide
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Our guide was Kenny. He was very knowledgeable and informative and had a really good sense of humour! Fantastic tour. Highly recommend
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Kenny was entertaining and knowledgeable. He was happy to answer all of our questions and gave us a brilliant tour
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Absolute riveting. Our tour guide Dan was a gem and a really fantastic storyteller. He has great knowledge and even had some extra facts. Highly recommend.
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We had a great experience with Cobin! He was very friendly and made the tour really enjoyable. We had a wonderful time. Highly recommend!
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Selected real reviews from Google · Updated November 2026