How long is the Edinburgh Vaults tour?

The six, by the clock

• 1 hour — the flagship South Bridge tour, daytime and evening slots.
• 75 minutes — the Blair Street history tour, the witches walk and the extreme tour.
• 1.5 hours — the vaults and Greyfriars tour, which has a kirkyard to cross.
• 2 hours — the Blair Street evening tour, with an Old Town walking section and a drink taken sitting down.

How much of it is underground?

Less than the duration suggests, and no listing publishes a split, so I will not invent one. What I can tell you from doing them is the shape: you gather at the meeting point, you walk down through the closes, you are underground for the substantial middle of the tour, and then you come back up. The longer tours are longer mostly because of what happens above ground — the two-hour one adds a walking section through the Old Town and a sit-down stop in the cellar, and the 90-minute one adds Greyfriars Kirkyard.

Fitting it into a day

An hour underground plus the walk from Waverley is a comfortable half-morning or an easy slot before dinner. Two of these in one day is more than most people want — the chambers are cool and damp and you come up ready for daylight. If you are picking a slot, the best time to go covers what changes between an 11am and a 9pm start, and the booking page covers how far ahead to book.

Frequently asked questions