Skip-the-Ticket-Line Edinburgh Castle Walking Tour

Great views great stories!

We loved this tour! The views were amazing and the stories were really fun. The castle grounds were like a little town. Our tour guide was great!

A beautiful day!

Great, enthusiastic guide. Wonderful 90 minute explanation of castle’s history and allowed plenty of time to explore after. So glad we did this. Be warned that due to preparations for Military Tattoo, you have a five plus block walk uphill to entrance during summer months.

Probably Better Tours Out There

I would recommend choosing another tour if you’d like to visit the castle. Skipping the line was the big selling point with this one, but there was no line when we got there, so we should have gone on our own. We didn’t learn as much from the tour as we’d hoped. Our tour guide was just okay. I felt like we struggled to follow the thread a lot, and he skipped over a lot of relevant things assuming people already knew the history. Also worth noting that the tour guides do not take you inside any of the buildings so allow for an extra hour plus at the castle to take yourself through after the tour.

Edinburgh Castle

Enjoyed touring Edinburgh Castle with our guide Alisdair. He was very knowledgeable and has a flair for storytelling. He really brought to life the grandeur as well as the brutality of the Castle’s history. Fun tour!

Great 90 min with sites, history and fun

Emma did a fabulous job leading a large group tour around the castle. Our family of five was there. It was a great time of history and laughs and info - and then we could walk inside places with all that inspiration. If young children - would be mindful this is navigating crowds and making handful of fairly long stops. Just fyi. It was great.

Enjoyable Tour

Emma was an exceptional hostess and tour guide. Similar to herding cats, she was able to keep us together and on task while providing narration and humor. I would recommend.

Great Castle Tour

Alisdair was a wonderful guide. He spoke clearly & was easy to understand. He was very conscientious & made sure everyone was able to follow him even though the street & castle grounds were very crowded. He offered many interesting facts about the castle & its history. Because we had to meet further away from the castle due to the construction of the stadium seating next to the castle I would suggest listing a prominent business such as Starbucks that is close to Stevens Close to make the meeting spot easier to locate. It was a great tour & I highly recommend it.

Great tour of the castle

Alistair was a terrific guide. Very knowledgeable, entertaining, and very helpful with any questions we asked.

Wasted time

We went to the castle then had to meet about a half a mile from the castle and then walk back to the castle. It was really needless.

Excellent tour guide

Our guide, Alisdair, was excellent! Great knowledge of Scotland’s history with very interesting anecdotal stories that truly brought the history to light. We explored key areas of the castle while he narrated the history and significance of each part of the castle compound. Afterward we had lots of free time to further explore the castle on our own.

Skip-the-Ticket-Line Edinburgh Castle Walking Tour

The castle is amazing and the tour is superb. The guide extremely knowledgeable and made sure all could be included and hear. Loved it!

Great for a quick visit

Excellent Tour! Would book again as we didn’t have to wait in line, and got a great overview of the castle, which you then get to explore on your own

Perfect Introduction to the Castle

Our guide Alasdair did an excellent job providing us with an overview of the castle’s history and notable figures, explaining the different buildings and their functions. There is a lot to cover in just 90 minutes but Alasdair accomplished the task masterfully with just the right balance of information and storytelling. The tour only covers the outside of the castle buildings. However, once the tour has concluded, you have the rest of the day to explore the inside of the Palace building containing the Crown Jewels, the Great Hall and other areas. I highly recommend this tour.

Great tour

Despite the rain and crowds it was a great tour. Charles was so knowledgeable and gave us a wonderful overview of both the Royal Mile and the castle. Note: the tour was about 90 min. Then we had time to explore the castle and area.

Highly recommended

Charles gave us lots of interesting history information.. Lots of late rain and a shortage of help at the gate made for a stressful tour for him - ( all completely out of his control). but he pulled it off great. Well done We had a blast / such an amazing castle:structure. Nice to be able to roam around post info to see what we wanted.

Skip the line tour

The entire Edinburgh Castle tour was fantastic. Alisdair, and that's how he spells it, was an outstanding guide filled with an enormous amount of information mixed with a little humor.

Great guide!

We really enjoyed the Edinburgh Castle tour. Our guide was especially good and informative. She was quite able to put us in the time and setting of the castle.

Excellent tour of Edinburgh Castle

Our guide Alasdair was extremely knowledgeable and personable. The tour of the Edinburgh Castle was excellent and we would recommend highly.

Great guide, poor tour size, etc.

Thoughtful guide. Have done a private tour for 4-6 before. This group format is way way too large to hear anything or actually see the castle sites. No choice but to leave.

Alisdair-Great tour guide

Alisdair was an amazing tour guide! He was so friendly from the start, very good to ensure everyone could hear him in the group and was still with us as it was very busy that day. He was full of such amazing information and definitely made a difference in touring the castle. Would highly recommend doing this tour!

Engaging tour

Alyster was a very engaging tour guide. The tour was informative and a nice small group of about 10.

Great Castle Walk with knowledgeable staff.

Our guide was excellent and from the town of Edinburgh. We walked up to the Castle and went through various sections of the castle. My favorite part was the history and the prison section. The cannon from the castle goes off at 1pm everyday.

Extremely disappointed in the lack of professionalism.

I was extremely disappointed with this tour as I was unable to locate the tour guide after we entered the Portcullis Gate. He did not have a red umbrella instead a black one and only ever showed the black handle. I only found the group again in the Square where he gave a final talk on finishing the tour. Definitely not value for money and feel that the tour leader should have been much more aware in relation to the number of people in his group. I spoke with another couple on the group and she was only able to stay in touch because her partner was talk. Definitely not a tour suited to a solo traveller. Very, very disappointed and upset with the lack of professionalism of the tour leader.

Good tour

G, the guide, was very knowledgeable. Shared good information. I didn’t see that we skipped a line but still good.

A memorable tour of Edinburgh castle

We had a wonderful tour. It couldn’t have been better. The castle is stunning has so many places and stories and so much history. Our guide, Emma was knowledgable and interesting. Thank you!

Perfect way to explore the castle!

Very knowledgeable and engaging guide. One of our favorite tours of the trip. Would highly recommend this tour for anyone visiting the city.

Edinburgh tour

Gavin was great! Knowledgeable and insightful on the history of Edinburgh Castle. The memorial is am amazing tribute to the fallen heros.

Great tour

I highly recommend this tour of the Edinburgh Castle. Just walking through it on your own you'd miss so much. Our tour guide, Alister, was a wealth of information. The only hiccup of the tour was the meeting place. I missed that in the emails and went to the castle. It worked out - we waited at the castle and just looked for the group with the red umbrella.

Our guide was excellent...

Our guide was excellent knew a lot about the tour and answered questions about everything. He was great, showed us a wonderful time.

Edinburgh castle local guide

Our tour guide was great, I loved that he was a local guide and was very well versed in Edinburgh castle history along with a magazine of pictures and explanations. Thank you for making our tour amazing!

Wonderfully macabre

Loved our tour guide giving us some of the more macabre details of the place. I was very entertained and I usually can’t stand history!

Our guide Alaidair was...

Our guide Alaidair was informative, humorous and thoughtful. His careful presentation of the castle’s changes over the decades and centuries brought history to life for us.

Informative tour

Guide was great and very informative with great knowledge. We did think we would be taken into buildings within the castle, but it was purely an outdoor tour

Naomi was awesome

This was an awesome and very informative tour. Our guide, Naomi, was fabulous! She shared a ton of information, was engaging and very personable.

Great afternoon at the Castle

Alistair did a great job of giving us context as we walked through the Castle and its features. We did not know much about the history- so his insights were very interesting.

Be forewarned: This tour does NOT go inside any of the sites included on the itinerary!

Extremely disappointing… From the description and the photos of prior participants in this tour I assumed the tour included the guide leading us into the War Museum, the chapel and/or the castle itself. But no. The tour was entirely outside — and on a very cold day. I hate to say anything negative about the tour guide, Alasdair who was very sweet, but given the cold weather he could have sped up some of his commentary, which included references to old tv shows that contributed little to nothing to one’s appreciation of these historical sights. At $50+ this tour is vastly overpriced for an exclusively outdoors tour. At the very least, it should have been made expressly clear in the description that the guide would not be taking participants into ANY of the sites noted on the itinerary and it was just a walking tour of the exterior of the castle grounds. Be forewarned…. This was a waste of time and money.

pleasant experience on a wet edinburgh december day.

this trip was very informative the guide australian david certainly knew his history and talked for over an hour in an amusing manner. our time spot allowed us to hear the 1 o`clock cannon. can recommend.

Still had fun on my own!

The operator cancelled a few days before the tour and offered me an alternate day which, unfortunately, was for a few days after I would have left Scotland. I paid to get in using the Edinburgh Castle web site and found I could have had a guided tour a little bit earlier on the original day but it was probably for a different operator so they didn't tell me about it. While I understand they were unable to deliver the tour, I was disappointed they didn't refer me on. I did enjoy touring the castle on my own so if this happens to you, check out the self-guided audio tours on the castle's web site

Wonderful Tour

Our tour guide Alasdair was very knowledgeable of the castle and its history. He made the tour very enjoyable and we highly recommend going on it.

Ins and outs of Edinburgh castle

You can tour the castle on your own but if you really want to learn about the history that goes along with it I would highly recommend this tour. Alasdair our guide had incredible knowledge of the castle and city’s history. He was also able to give great local recommendations for everyone’s interest!

The perfect tour experience in the heart of Edinburgh!

This tour and our tour guide were amazing! My parents and I lucked out with an unexpected private tour experience with Alasdair on what was a beautiful sunny day at Edinburgh castle. We walked along the Royal Mile, where Alasdair shared interesting information about the landmarks we passed by. At the castle, we learned so much history which made us appreciate walking on the grounds so much more. Alasdair was extremely friendly and knowledgeable -- we couldn't have had a better guide! I highly recommend this tour to anyone wanting to skip-the-line to access the castle and deepen their knowledge of the area's history. THANK YOU!

Great tour guide

Castle & it’s were interesting & the view was amazing. Our guide Alisdair was terrific. Knowledgeable & funny. One of our group has trouble walking & he took time to let her keep up. Asked her several times if she was okay. Very thoughtful!

Enjoyable. Highly recommend.

Alasdair was friendly, knowledgeable, funny and a great explainer. Highly recommend this tour. Skipping the line was bonus.

Great info!!

Alasdair was perfect for this tour as he was from Edinburgh!! Couldn't have been happier with this tour...thank you Alasdair!!

Fantastic guide! Alasdair...

Fantastic guide! Alasdair was great. Knowledgeable and entertaining. Your was a great length. Felt like covered the castle well and did not drag on

Never again with Viator

Terrible tour company with extremely poor customer service. There was no "line." They charge you more for no gain. Bus was an hour late and we had to rush through the castle to stay on time. Beautiful place - horrible tour service.

A must do in Edinburgh

Melanie Boyd was our guide. Fun, thoughtful and informative. Her stories were humorous She gave her time to any of the group that wanted to chat.

Fantastic

Alisdair was a fantastic host!! Can’t say enough good things about him he was extremely entertaining and certainly knew his history… wouldn’t hesitate to recommend! Just one comment regarding hook up you should mention a bar or store where meet up is … extremely difficult to find 130 High St.

10/10

Very interesting tour. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable. I loved all the fun facts along the way. Would definitely recommend!

Edinburgh Castle tour

The tour was wonderful. Very interesting and comical. The history of Edinburgh castle was unfolded in an inert resting narration and conveying it with present incidences in and around castle. Worth a try !