Free Walking Tours in Edinburgh We Actually Loved

One of the first things we booked for our trip to Edinburgh was a free walking tour—one of my favorite ways to get familiar with a new city.

In July 2022, my friends, Kelsey and Stephanie, and I spent 5 days exploring the city, using the city as our home base from our full 5-day Edinburgh itinerary.

Free walking tours take you to some of Edinburgh’s major landmarks while also teaching you about the city’s history, hidden closes, local legends, and darker past.

Plus, if you do one (or both) of these walking tours on your first day in Edinburgh, they’re honestly a great way to fight off any lingering jet lag too!

During our trip, we ended up doing two very different free walking tours:

• Free Tour of Edinburgh through GuruWalk
• Free Edinburgh Ghost Tour through City Explorers Tours

Both were completely worth it.

Between the storytelling, local recommendations, creepy history, and city layout tips, these tours helped us understand Edinburgh so much faster than if we’d explored entirely on our own.

If you’re planning your first trip to Edinburgh and wondering whether free walking tours are actually worth the time, here’s our honest experience, what we learned, and which tour we’d recommend depending on your travel style.

In this guide, I’m sharing:

• the tours we booked
• what each one was like
• how much we tipped
• which tour we’d recommend first
• and some of the most interesting stories we heard along the way

👉 Planning a full Scotland trip too? Don’t miss my complete 5-Day Edinburgh itinerary.

• Best for First-Time Visitors: Free Tour of Edinburgh
• Best for Dark History & Ghost Stories: Free Edinburgh Ghost Tour
• Best Overall Tour Guide Energy: David from the Free Tour of Edinburgh
• Creepiest Stop: Greyfriars Kirkyard
• Best Tour to Take on Your First Day: The general Edinburgh walking tour

Would We Do Both Again?

Honestly, yes. Even though some locations overlapped, the storytelling and overall vibe felt completely different.

Before booking our first tour, we had the exact same question: are free walking tours actually free?

Technically, yes.

You can reserve these tours without paying upfront, and there’s usually no cancellation fee if your plans change.

That said, the guides work almost entirely for tips, so it’s definitely expected that you contribute something at the end based on your experience.

During our trip, we tipped around £20 each for both tours because we genuinely felt like they were worth it—especially considering how much local history, context, and entertainment we got over several hours.

Some people give less, some give more. It really depends on your budget and how much value you felt you got from the experience.

Good to Know: Scotland uses the British pound (£), but both of our guides accepted card payments for tips, so we rarely needed cash during the trip.

Honestly, these tours ended up being one of the best-value things we did in Edinburgh!

If you only have time for one walking tour in Edinburgh, I’d recommend choosing based on the type of experience you want most.

Choose the General Edinburgh Walking Tour If You:

• are visiting Edinburgh for the first time
• want a good overview of Old Town
• enjoy history and architecture
• want local recommendations for food, pubs, and sightseeing
• are trying to orient yourself early in the trip

This is the tour that helped us understand the layout of the city the fastest.

Choose the Ghost Tour If You:

• enjoy darker history and storytelling
• like spooky or paranormal topics
• want something fun to do at night
• already know the basics of Edinburgh history
• don’t mind hearing some pretty gruesome stories

The ghost tour definitely leaned more theatrical and atmospheric.

Honestly, yes.

Even though some of the locations overlapped, the tours felt completely different because the storytelling and focus were so different.

One felt educational and city-focused.

The other felt like stepping into Edinburgh’s darker side.

Out of the two walking tours we did in Edinburgh, Free Tour of Edinburgh is the one I’d recommend most for first-time visitors.

The tour covered a mix of:

• major landmarks
• local history
• hidden closes
• famous Edinburgh stories
• and helpful city recommendations

Our guide, David (@thatguidewithglasses), somehow managed to make centuries of Scottish history entertaining, quirky, and easy to follow—which is honestly impressive considering how dark some of the stories were.

We also appreciated that the tour helped us get our bearings early in the trip. After this, navigating Old Town felt much less overwhelming.

The meeting point was near the Royal Mile, although we did struggle slightly to find it at first, so I’d definitely recommend arriving a little early.

Here are a few of the stops and stories that stood out most to us.

If it’s your first time in Edinburgh, you’ll probably end up walking the Royal Mile constantly whether you mean to or not.

This famous stretch through Old Town connects Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse and is packed with:

• historic buildings
• pubs
• shops
• closes
• street performers
• and tour groups at basically all hours of the day

A huge part of why I loved doing the walking tour early in our trip was because it gave us context for places we kept revisiting afterward.

One of the funnier stories involved the statue of philosopher David Hume, whose golden toe tourists rub for good luck and wisdom.

Apparently, the tradition started when philosophy students starting rubbing the statue hoping some of Hume’s intelligence would rub off on them.

The traffic cone on his head is another long-running Edinburgh tradition—and once you notice it, you’ll start spotting traffic cones on statues all over the city.

We spent a lot of time revisiting this area throughout our Edinburgh itinerary because so many major attractions are clustered nearby.

Next up was the Grassmarket, which ended up becoming one of our favorite areas in Edinburgh—even though it has an incredibly dark history.

Dating back to the 14th century, this area is one of the oldest parts of the city.

Today, it’s filled with pubs, restaurants, outdoor seating, and castle views. In fact, some of our favorite Edinburgh restaurants and pubs were actually located around the Grassmarket area.

But historically, this area was once used for public executions (the last hanging took place here in 1784.)

One of the wildest stories we heard here was about “Half-Hangit Maggie” Dickson, a woman who reportedly survived her own execution in the 1700s and was allowed to live freely afterward because she had already been legally declared dead.

It sounds completely unbelievable, but somehow Edinburgh is full of stories like that.

Maggie’s story lives on at Maggie Dickson’s Pub, which overlooks the spot of her execution.

Parliament Square

The Parliament House is a building complex that was once home to the Parliament of Scotland (from 1639 to 1707). Today, it’s home to Scotland’s Supreme Courts.

Close by in Parliament Square, we also stopped at Mercat Cross—a large stone structure topped with a unicorn.

Wait…Scotland’s national animal is a unicorn?

Yep, apparently it is!

Our guide explained that England’s national animal is the lion, while Scotland’s is the unicorn, which honestly explains why you start spotting unicorns all over Edinburgh once you know to look for them.

We also learned that structures like the Mercat Cross once marked the center of Scottish towns and marketplaces, though many were also tied to public punishments and executions throughout history.

Without the walking tour, I probably would’ve walked right past most of this without realizing how much history was layered into the city.

As we walked under the archway into the architectural gem that is Riddle’s Court, our guide pointed out the Latin inscription above us: Vivendo Discimus—”By Living We Learn.”

Hidden just off the Lawnmarket, the courtyard feels almost secret compared to the busier parts of the Royal Mile nearby.

Our guide explained that the building dates back to the late 1500s and was once used to host royal banquets because Edinburgh didn’t have a formal town hall at the time.

Later, philosopher David Hume (yes, the same guy with the famous golden toe statue) even lived here for a period of time.

But honestly, even without knowing the history, this was one of those places that simply felt very Edinburgh: old stone buildings, hidden passageways, quiet courtyards, and centuries of history packed into one small space.

Out of everywhere we visited during the walking tour, Greyfriars Kirkyard was probably the stop that stuck with me the most.

Founded in 1629, the graveyard sits right in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town and is considered one of the most haunted places in Scotland.

It’s also famous for its Harry Potter connections.

Our guide pointed out several gravestones believed to have inspired names in the series, including:

• Tom Riddell
• McGonagall
• Moodie
• Scrymgeour

Fun fact: the real-life McGonagall is apparently considered one of the worst poets in British history, which honestly makes the connection even funnier.

The graveyard itself already feels eerie enough with its old gravestones, stone pathways, and dark history, but things got even creepier once our guide started telling us about the infamous Black Mausoleum.

According to local legend, people who touch the doors have experienced everything from scratches and bruises to fainting spells and other paranormal incidents (that last even after leaving the graveyard)—how scary!

Let’s just say…none of us touched the doors.

One of the more emotional stories we heard during the tour was the story of Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye Terrier who supposedly spent years guarding the grave of his owner, John Gray, after his death.

John Gray worked as a night watchman in Edinburgh, and Bobby became known throughout the city for rarely leaving his owner’s gravesite in Greyfriars Kirkyard after he passed away (he did this for 14 years.)

Over the years, Bobby captured the hearts of Edinburgh’s local residents. When he passed away, he was buried by the gate of Greyfriars Kirkyard, not far from John Gray’s grave, and today, you’ll still find his statue just outside the graveyard.

Even if you normally don’t care much about historical monuments, this ended up being one of the more memorable stops for us because of how attached the city still feels to the story.

We learned way more during the tour than I could realistically fit into one blog post, but these were a few of the random facts and stories that still stuck with us afterward:

• Some staircases in Edinburgh were intentionally built with uneven steps to trip up burglars at night.
• Protestant churches in Scotland traditionally use a rooster on their steeples instead of a cross.
• January 25th is Burns Night, a celebration honoring Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns.
• Bagpipes were once considered weapons of war because they were used during battles to intimidate enemies.
• Edinburgh is filled with hidden “closes,” or narrow alleyways, that often lead to courtyards or hidden streets you’d never notice on your own.

Honestly, one of the best parts of the tour was learning all the weird little details you’d probably never pick up just wandering around independently.

One of the eeriest parts of the tour was returning to Greyfriars Kirkyard after dark and hearing about the alleged paranormal activity connected to the Black Mausoleum.

Our guide shared stories about visitors supposedly experiencing:

• scratches
• burns
• fainting
• and other unexplained incidents after touching the mausoleum doors

Apparently, there have even been hundreds of reported paranormal encounters over the years connected to what’s now called the “Mackenzie Poltergeist.”

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, the atmosphere inside Greyfriars Kirkyard at night was genuinely unsettling.

And yes…we still very intentionally did not touch the doors.

One of the heavier stories from the ghost tour involved the Covenanters, a Scottish Presbyterian group who were persecuted during the 1600s for resisting religious changes imposed by the monarchy.

After a major uprising in 1679, thousands were reportedly imprisoned near Greyfriars Kirkyard in brutal conditions during what some historians consider one of the earliest examples of a concentration camp.

Our guide explained that many prisoners died from starvation, disease, or execution during what later became known as “The Killing Time.”

Even more unsettling? Sir George MacKenzie, aka “Bluidy MacKenzie,” the man responsible for much of the persecution, was eventually buried only steps away in Greyfriars Kirkyard.

It was definitely one of the more sobering moments of the tour and another reminder that Edinburgh’s history can get very dark very quickly.

Another bizarre story we heard involved the so-called “Queensberry House Cannibal,” which honestly sounds completely made up until you’re standing in Edinburgh hearing the story at night.

According to local legend, James Douglas, a nobleman who was supposedly hidden away for much of his childhood, attacked and ate a kitchen servant inside Queensberry House, which is now part of the Scottish Parliament complex.

Whether the story is fully true or partly exaggerated over time, our guide explained that many historians believe the tale may have been used to justify removing him from the line of succession.

Either way, it definitely added to Edinburgh’s reputation for having some of the darkest historical storytelling we’ve encountered while traveling.

Probably the most infamous story from the tour involved Burke and Hare, two serial killers who murdered people in Edinburgh during the 1800s and sold the bodies for medical dissection.

At the time, Edinburgh was becoming a major center for medical research, and cadavers were in incredibly high demand.

What started with selling the body of a deceased lodger eventually turned into multiple murders once Burke and Hare realized how profitable the arrangement could be.

Honestly, this was one of those stories that somehow became worse the more details we learned.

Our guide explained that Hare eventually turned against Burke to avoid prosecution, while Burke himself was later executed—and, in an especially ironic ending, his own body was publicly dissected after death.

His skeleton was displayed at the Anatomical Museum of Edinburgh Medical School.

Edinburgh really doesn’t hold back when it comes to dark history.

One of the more sobering moments of the ghost tour involved hearing about the thousands of women accused of witchcraft in Scotland between the 1500s and 1700s.

Many were tortured or executed under the Witchcraft Act simply because they were considered suspicious, outspoken, or different.

What really surprised me, though, was learning that Scotland only formally apologized for these persecutions on International Women’s Day in 2022 (yes, you read that right)—literally right before our visit.

That sure was a long time coming! That fact alone made the history feel much more recent and real than I expected.

Even beyond the specific stories, the ghost tour completely changed the way we saw Edinburgh at night.

The narrow closes, dimly lit streets, graveyards, and centuries-old buildings already feel atmospheric on their own—but hearing the city’s darker history while walking through those exact locations made everything feel much more immersive.

If you enjoy spooky history, storytelling, or paranormal-style tours, this one was genuinely entertaining.

After doing two walking tours during our trip, here are a few things I’d definitely recommend keeping in mind before you go:

Wear Comfortable Shoes

Edinburgh is extremely walkable—but also surprisingly hilly.

Between the cobblestones, staircases, uneven streets, and elevation changes, your feet will absolutely feel it by the end of the tour.

Bring Layers

Even during summer, Edinburgh weather changes constantly.

We experienced sunshine, wind, and light rain within the same afternoon more than once.

Book Tours Early in Your Trip

Doing a walking tour on your first or second day helps so much with:

• understanding the city layout
• learning local history
• finding restaurants and pubs
• and deciding which areas you want to revisit later

Honestly, several places we returned to later were recommendations from our guides.

Don’t Stress About Carrying Cash

We were able to tip both guides with card payments, so carrying large amounts of cash wasn’t necessary for us.

Expect Some Dark History

Edinburgh’s tours definitely don’t shy away from difficult or gruesome topics.

If you’re sensitive to stories involving executions, plague, murder, or paranormal themes, just know that those topics come up pretty frequently—especially on the ghost tour.

If you end up loving Edinburgh’s darker history and underground storytelling as much as we did, I’d also highly recommend looking into The Real Mary King’s Close.

Unlike the free walking tours, this is a paid underground experience that takes you beneath the city streets into preserved alleyways and hidden spaces beneath Old Town Edinburgh.

We included this underground experience in our 5 days in Edinburgh because it paired perfectly with the city’s darker history tours.

Between the preserved underground streets, plague history, creepy storytelling, and hidden rooms, it ended up feeling like one of the most immersive history experiences we did in the city.

It goes especially well with:

• ghost tours
• Greyfriars Kirkyard
• Edinburgh’s underground history
• Royal Mile sightseeing

👉 If this sounds like your kind of thing, you can check availability for The Real Mary King’s Close here.

Q: Are free walking tours in Edinburgh actually free?

Yes—you can book the tours without paying upfront.

However, guides work primarily for tips, so it’s expected that you contribute something at the end based on your experience.

Q: How much should you tip Edinburgh walking tour guides?

There’s no fixed amount, but we personally tipped around £20 each because we felt both tours were genuinely excellent.

Most people seem to tip somewhere between £10–20 depending on the tour length and quality.

Q: Are Edinburgh ghost tours scary?

The ghost tours are more atmospheric and story-driven than truly terrifying.

That said, some of the history is pretty dark, especially around Greyfriars Kirkyard, executions, and murder stories.

Q: Should you book walking tours in advance?

I would—especially during summer.

Both of our tours had large groups, and Edinburgh gets very busy during peak travel months.

Q: Which Edinburgh walking tour is best for first-time visitors?

If you only choose one, I’d recommend starting with a general Old Town/history tour first.

It gives you a much better understanding of the city layout and major landmarks before diving into the darker history.

Q: Can you do multiple walking tours in Edinburgh?

Definitely.

Even though some locations overlap, the themes, stories, and overall experience can feel completely different depending on the guide and tour focus.

Doing these walking tours ended up being one of the best decisions we made during our time in Edinburgh.

Not only did they help us learn the city’s history and layout quickly, but they also introduced us to places, stories, restaurants, and viewpoints we probably would’ve missed otherwise.

More than anything, the tours made Edinburgh feel layered in a way I wasn’t expecting.

Behind almost every pub, alleyway, courtyard, or historic building seemed to be another bizarre, creepy, funny, or surprisingly emotional story.

And honestly, that’s a huge part of why I ended up loving Edinburgh as much as I did.

If you’re visiting for the first time, I’d absolutely recommend adding at least one walking tour to your itinerary—especially early in your trip.

👉 Planning a bigger Scotland trip too? Start with my complete Scotland travel guide for itineraries, city guides, day trips, and travel tips.

And if you’re planning more time in Edinburgh specifically, these guides pair perfectly with this post:

• My complete 5-Day Edinburgh itinerary
• Where we ate in Edinburgh: restaurants, pubs & bars we’d recommend
• The Scottish Highlands day trip we loved
• Our St Andrews day trip guide

And if you’ve done a walking tour in Edinburgh that you loved, let me know in the comments—I’d absolutely book another one on a future trip.

XOXO Sara at Travel A-Broads