From The Best of Edinburgh, a Hidden Scotland guide

Activities & Experiences in Edinburgh

Tours, experiences and things to do across Old Town, New Town and Leith.

Words by Hidden Scotland

Printed in The Best of Edinburgh, a Hidden Scotland guidebook.

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From underground vaults to rooftop whisky bars, a guide to Edinburgh’s most engaging tours, experiences, and attractions across Old Town, New Town, and Leith.

Some cities lend themselves to quiet wandering. Edinburgh does too, but just as often it asks you to join in: down stairwells, into vaults, behind gallery doors, or onto buses that tell ghost stories while circling the Old Town.

A walking tour here is often led by a local, and the stories are personal, specific and sometimes strange, even theatrical.

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Where next

Next in The Best of EdinburghAn Introduction to EdinburghHistory hangs on Edinburgh like a cloak. Even on a gloomy day, Scotland’s national capital can feel like something from a gilt-edged storybook. It’s a city of taverns and tenements, of steep cobbled streets and ancient hills, of grand townhouses and age-old churches. The whole destination is at once real and unreal: tour guides patrol the pavements just as ghosts flitter in the shadows. That the whole urban scene is topped by a mighty, cliff-perched castle – complete with endless tales of its own – seems only fitting.Read on

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