Free Attractions in Edinburgh
The Edinburgh Pass will help you See More and Save More. In fact, it's sightseeing made easy! There are over 30 top attractions in the Pass, so whether you're into history, haunted tours, culture, nature or full on fun, the Edinburgh Pass is a must have for a city break in Edinburgh. Why not visit one of our Tourist Information Centres at Edinburgh Airport and 3 Princes Street where they can help you book tours and make the most of using your Edinburgh Pass!
Please note - During Winter and Christmas period some attractions close or have reduced opening hours. Please check each individual attraction below for details.
Gilmerton Cove
Hidden beneath the streets of Gilmerton on the southside of the city lies Edinburgh's best kept secret. Gilmerton Cove is a series of hand carved chambers and passageways hewn from the bedrock sandstone.
Camera Obscura and World of Illusions
Come and play at Camera Obscura and World of Illusions! Where seeing is not believing. Even more hands-on fun for everyone with loads of amazing new exhibits. Can you shrink like Alice in Wonderland in the Ames room? Will you manage to stay on your feet in the Vortex Tunnel?
Scottish Mining Museum
Discover the miners' way of life through two floors of exhibitions, interactives, film theatres, recreated underground, coalface, Magic Helmet tours and much more!
The Cadies & Witchery Tours- Ghost & Gore Tour
Ghost & Gore Tour
Alexander Clapperton (deceased Edinburgh Cemetary Director during the 1840's) takes a light-hearted look at Edinburgh's dark past, telling tales of hangings, punishment, witchcraft & invasion as he leads you through the Old Town's atmospheric closes & courtyards. Pre-booking: essential
The Queen's Gallery (Palace of Holyroodhouse) Marcus Adams: Royal Photographer. 25 Feburary- 5th June 2011
Remarkable Royal photography by Marcus Adams
Children's Scary Haunted Underground Experience
Come and Join the Auld Reekie Tours team for some magic storytelling in Edinburgh's most haunted underground candlelit vaults. The underground is a very spooky place and our guide can only take you there and tell you all about the nasty and horrible things that happened there if you promise to be brace.
Edinburgh Butterfly & Insect World
It's Creepy- It's Crawly- It's a JUNGLE in here! Come face-to-face with lizards, giant snakes, poisonous frogs...if you dare, join daily handling sessions, spider phobia sessions or visit one of Europe's largest exotic butterfly exhibitions with hundreds of free flying butterflies in a large indoor rainforest.
The Queen's Gallery - The Northern Renaissance Durer to Holbein, 17 June 2011 - 15 January 2012
This exhibition brings together over 120 works by the greatest Northern European artists of the period.
The Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour
The original, award winning Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour is a brilliant and witty dramatic romp through the wynds, courtyards and pubs of Edinburgh's Old and New Town.
Glenkinchie Distillery
Glenkinchie: The home of the Edinburgh Malt! Visit a working distillery a pleasant drive from Edinburgh out into the rolling farmland of East Lothian.
John Knox House
John Knox House is Edinburghs oldest Royal Mile mansion- the home of Mary, Queen of Scots Catholic goldsmith and the final resting place of Scotland's controversial religious icon.
Maid of the Forth
Relax 'n Cruise on our 1.5 hour sightseeing cruise under the famous Forth Bridge and enjoy magnificent views of our world famous Bridge, wartime fortifications and the Edinburgh panorama. See seals, puffins, fulmars, guillemots and the occasional dolphin or porpoise.
Mercat Tours - The Historic Vaults Tour
The Vaults Tour
Visit authentic 18th century vaults beneath the South Bridge and see unaltered conditions in which real people lived and worked. Our guides will tell you stories of the people inhabited these dark rooms. Pre-booking recommended.
National Galleries of Scotland - Dean Gallery, The Scottish Colourists Series: FCB Cadell 22nd October 2011- 18th March 2012.
Uniting 70 paintings, from public and private collections, this exhibition showcases one of Scotlands most popular artists and is not to be missed.
Scottish National Gallery - The Queen: Art and Image, 25th June - 18 September 2011
To celebrate the Queen?s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 the Scottish National Gallery is showing The Queen: Art and Image.
National Museum of Flight
Take part in our new exhibitions Fantastic Flight and The Jet Age and view our 50-strong collection of aircraft which includes high-ranking military planes and passenger travel aircraft. Seek out Comet and Concorde, Tiger Moth and Tornado, Spitfire and Sea Hawk, Jetstream and Jaguar.
Gladstone's Land
Gladstone's Land is a fascinating Edinburgh Old Town tenement built in 1620 full of stunning art, furniture and painted ceilings. Situated on the Royal Mile, only a minute's walk from the castle, make sure you fit it in your day!
Nelson Monument
High on Calton Hill, visit the newly refurbished Nelson Monument.This represents the victory and death of Admiral Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. Additionally, get panoramic view from the top of the monument, one of the best in Edinburgh.
Scottish Seabird Centre
Exciting Discovery Centre with amazing live cameras to watch wildlife on the islands. Wildlife cinema, interactive displays, kids' play zone and giant aquarium with fish feeding, daily.
Surgeons' Hall Museum
Scotlands largest medical museum houses one of the most significant surgical collections in the world.
Auld Reekie Tours-The Haunted Underground Tour
Explore the darkened crypts, once the home of body snatchers and witches alike. Each vault has an individual story of death, destruction, disease and crime, which your guide will enthuse in giving you all the gory details! Meeting Point - Tron Kirk on the Royal Mile/North Bridge
Auld Reekie Tours-Terror Tour
Edinburgh's scariest, most haunted underground ghost tours, as featured on "Most Haunted Live" Halloween 2006 & 2008. Acclaimed as their scariest location ever. Meeting Point - Tron Kirk on Royal Mile/North Bridge.
Edinburgh Visit Scotland - Robert Louis Stevenson Experience
Learn facts about some of Robert Louis Stevenson?s most famous novels such as Treasure Island, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Kidnapped. Pre-booking: Essential
The Cadies & Witchery Tours - Murder & Mystery Tour
Your guide is Adam Lyal (deceased), highwayman, who was executed in Edinburgh's Grassmarket on 27th March 1811. He will lead you through the dark courtyards and eerie alleyways of Old Town Edinburgh, telling tales of witchcraft, plague, torture and bodysnatching. Pre-booking: essential
Greenyonder Tours - Hidden Gardens of the Royal Mile
Take this short, easy walking tour and see a little-known side of Edinburgh's Old Town: behind the historic buildings discover the surprising number of gardens and green 'nooks and crannies', all with a story to tell.
Dynamic Earth
You'll be shaken by erupting volcanoes, dive beneath oceans, be plunged into the Polar Extremes before hanging out with orang-utans in our tropical rainforest. Child Pass not valid here.
The Edinburgh Dungeon
** You can buy your Edinburgh Pass here **
The Edinburgh Dungeon invites you to delve into the capital?s most blood-curdling history. Experience "Extremis - Drop Ride to Doom"! Taste the fear and feel the adrenaline pump as you drop screaming into the darkness below! ** YOU CAN BUY YOUR EDINBURGH PASS FROM HERE - just ask a member of staff **
Edinburgh Zoo
Enjoy a fantastic day out at Edinburgh Zoo, Scotland's largest and most exotic wildlife attraction.
Hopetoun House
Hopetoun House "Scotland's Finest Stately Home" is situated 12 miles form the centre of Edinburgh.
Almond Valley Heritage Centre
Almond Valley's traditional farm buildings and working watermill are home to many friendly farm animals. With a wide range of activities such as animal handling sessions and milking demonstrations, indoor and outdoor play areas, a simulated archaeological dig, trampolines, go karts and lots more, there is plenty to keep kids and adults entertained!
Lauriston Castle
Visit this beautiful castle which stands in thirty acres of tranquil grounds enjoying a magnificant view across the Firth of Forth. Here you will find beautifully preserved interiors which were richly decorated and furnished between 1902-1926, in Edwardian taste.
Mercat Tours - Secrets of the Royal Mile
Secrets of the Royal Mile
Be enthralled as your historian guide takes you back through the centuries and away from well-trodden paths to reveal the secrets of Edinburgh's past. Pre-booking recommended.
Mercat Tours- Gallows to Graveyard
The Old Town has a history of torture, execution and death. Traitors, thieves and murderers have come to a bloody end on the Royal Mile. Do they still haunt the dark narrow closes of the Old Town? Your cloaked guide will have the answers and will take you on a journey of discovery to reveal the Dark Secrets of Old Edinburgh.
Mercat Tours- The Ghostly Underground Tour
Our GHOSTLY UNDERGROUND TOUR will descend into the Vaults beneath the South Bridge, and as you are led through candlit passages into dark, gloomy chambers, your ghost guide will tell you tales of those who once occupied these Vaults and perhaps still do...
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Open all year, the Garden is breathtaking throughout all seasons. At the heart of the Garden, visit the iconic Victorian Temperate Palm House and adjacent Glasshouses, which offer visitors the opportunity to travel through time and across the globe while experiencing ten very different realms of the plant kingdom.
Scottish National Gallery - Elizabeth Blackadder, 02 July 2011 - 02 January 2012
The major summer exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery in 2011 will be devoted to the art of Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, organised in honour of the artist?s 80th birthday.
Georgian House
Discover High Society living and 'life below stairs' in Edinburgh's New Town- 18th Century style!
Newhailes
Newhailes is an amazing survival story and is a dignified 17th-century home in authentic condition. Rather than attempt to re-create an immaculate dwelling, the Trust has worked hard to keep the house "untouched" by modern hands.
