search
Find Things to Do
Why Book Ahead
- Save time & money
You won't find it cheaper online or anywhere else! - Don't be disappointed
When you book ahead, you are guaranteed not to miss out on popular tours & activities. - Travel with confidence
Our providers are hand-picked, safe and reliable, so you always get what you pay for
Secrets of Edinburgh's Royal Mile Afternoon Walking TourEdinburgh Tours, Sightseeing & Things to Do | ||
90 minutes Edinburgh, United Kingdom Cultural & Theme Tours Ghost & Vampire Tours Ghost & Vampire Tours 3998ADEPASS | $14.11 Reserve Now | |
Tour Details |
Secrets of Edinburgh's Royal Mile Afternoon Walking Tour
Learn the secrets of Edinburgh's historic past on this afternoon walking tour of the city's famous Royal Mile.
Begin your tour at the Mercat Cross which marks the historic heart of Edinburgh. Here merchants gathered to trade: 'Mercat' is simply the Scots word for market. The townspeople met to exchange news and gossip and listen to public pronouncements, and visitors to the city came here to find a guide who was both city grapevine and taxi driver!
Pick up your guide at the Mercat Cross and let him entertain you with stories from Edinburgh's past. Since the earliest times, Edinburgh has been at the forefront of religious and legal matters in Scotland. St Giles Cathedral was founded in 854 AD and has been site of some of the most dramatic events in the nation's history. The Protestant Reformers, the brave Covenanters and the fiery Jenny Geddes who threw her chair at the Bishop - hear about them all.
Home to the earliest skyscrapers in Europe, some famous Edinburgh tenements were 14 stories high. After defeat by the English in 1513 the city fathers build the Flodden Wall around Edinburgh to protect against invasion. As the population grew, the city could not expand outwards, so it grew upwards. It is said that people, ten stories up, could reach out and shake hands with their neighbors in the opposite building!
Your tour ventures down the narrow passageways into courtyards where you learn of tragedy and triumph, marvel at the stunning architecture - and recoil at the cry "gardyloo". The Royal Mile was home to the great, the good - and the not so good - of Edinburgh. Deacon Brodie, locksmith by day and thief by night, inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's famous novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Deacon Brodie and many others populate this enthralling and fascinating tour of the Old Town of Edinburgh.