Underground EdinburghMary King's Close, the Vaults and Gilmerton Cove

Two completely different underworlds lie beneath Edinburgh's Old Town, and English-language guides mix them up constantly: a 16th- and 17th-century residential lane built over in 1753 and now sitting under the City Chambers, and a labyrinth of storage cellars in the arches of the South Bridge, opened in 1788. Neither can be entered without a guide, and every tour is in English. This page sorts out who runs what, gives the 2026 prices in pounds and US dollars, and says which site suits whom.

Six places under Edinburgh, compared

Tickets and prices

Mary King's Close sells fixed start times. The operator says itself that tours sell out fast and advises booking anywhere from several days to several weeks ahead, depending on the season. Auld Reekie Tours no longer sells anything at the meeting point – book online or at the office at 45 Niddry Street, open daily 10:00–17:00.

Official prices

• Mary King's Close, Signature Guided Tour, standard ticket, adults£28.50 (about $38.03)
• Mary King's Close, Signature Guided Tour, standard ticket, children aged 5–15£21.00 (about $28.02)
• Mary King's Close, Essential ticket (every change costs £15), adults / children£25.00 / £18.25 (about $33.36 / $24.35)
• Mary King's Close, Lantern Led Tour by lantern light (2 Oct – 1 Nov 2026), adults / children£31.50 / £26.00 (about $42.03 / $34.69)
• Mary King's Close, Above & Beyond Tour (about 2 hours 10 minutes), adults / children£49.00 / £42.00 (about $65.39 / $56.04)
• Mary King's Close, 17th Century Medicine Experience (tour plus a 30-minute workshop, Fri–Sun), adults / children£35.00 / £27.50 (about $46.70 / $36.70)
• Mary King's Close, Closes & Coffee Tour (15 places maximum), adults£40.00 (about $53.38)
• Mercat Tours, Historic Vaults in the Blair Street Vaults, adults / concession / children£27 / £24 / £21 (about $36.03 / $32.03 / $28.02), varies by season
• Auld Reekie Tours, The Vaults Tour (daytime, Niddry Street)£24 per person, £80 for four (about $32.03 and $106.75)
• Auld Reekie Tours, Haunted Vaults Tour (evening, 12+)£24 per person (about $32.03)
• Auld Reekie Tours, Vaults & Graveyard Tour (90 minutes, 12+)£26 per person (about $34.69)
• Auld Reekie Tours, Terror Tour (75 minutes, 18+)£26 per person (about $34.69)
• City of the Dead, Underground City of the Dead (12+), adults / students and seniors£16 / £14 (about $21.35 / $18.68)
• City of the Dead, Double Dead Tour (vaults plus Covenanters' Prison), adults / concession£19 / £17 (about $25.35 / $22.68)
• Edinburgh Castle, including the prisoner-of-war vaults under the Great Hall, adults online / at the gate£23.50 / £26 (about $31.36 / $34.69)
• Edinburgh Trams, adult airport single, bought in advance / bought on board£7.50 / £7.90 (about $10.01 / $10.54)
• Exchange rate behind every dollar figure on this page£1 = about $1.3344, derived from the ECB reference rates of 18 September 2026 (€1 = $1.1460 and €1 = £0.85880)

As of 09/2026 · source and direct booking: realmarykingsclose.com

When everything is sold out

In August, when the Fringe and the Military Tattoo are on, and around Halloween, every operator's evening slots go days in advance. At Mary King's Close the evening times and the weekends disappear first.

Tours of underground Edinburgh

Booking direct is almost always cheaper – Mary King's Close starts at £28.50 (about $38.03), Auld Reekie at £24 (about $32.03). A reseller earns its keep when the operator is sold out on the day you want, when several sites come bundled into one ticket, or when you need free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead, which the Mary King's Close Essential ticket does not give you. Check the description for whether admission is actually included: some offers are street-level walking tours with no access to the close or the vaults at all.

Booked through GetYourGuide (affiliate link, advertising). Most offers can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours ahead. Prices as of 20 September 2026.

Opening hours and best time

The Real Mary King's Close: daily, with times that change by month. In September and October 2026 the first tour starts at 9:00 and the last at 21:00 (Fridays and Saturdays until 22:30); in November the first is at 9:30 and the last at 18:30; in December it runs from 9:30 to 19:30. The shop opens 30 minutes before the first tour and closes 90 minutes after the last. – Mercat Tours (Blair Street Vaults): Historic Vaults daily in the morning and afternoon, Haunted Underground in the afternoon and evening. – Auld Reekie Tours (Niddry Street): the Vaults Tour runs every half hour from 10:00 to 16:30, Haunted Vaults at 17:00 and 19:00, Vaults & Graveyard between 17:30 and 20:00, the Terror Tour between 21:00 and 23:00. – City of the Dead: Underground City of the Dead daily at 15:30 in summer, plus 20:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays; in winter at 15:30 and 20:00.

When it is quietest

For Mary King's Close, take the first tour of the day or a slot after 19:00 – the crush is worst in between, and in August the Fringe piles on top of it. To see the vaults without the ghost staging, take the daytime tours (Mercat's Historic Vaults or the Auld Reekie Vaults Tour); the evening slots are the theatrical versions and are usually the first to sell out. October is the most expensive month: Mary King's Close replaces its regular tour with the Lantern Led Tour at £31.50 instead of £28.50.

Who it suits

Getting there

By public transport

Everything sits within a 10-minute walk of the Royal Mile. From Edinburgh Airport the tram takes about 30 minutes to the city centre, every 7 minutes at peak times; an adult airport single is £7.50 (about $10.01) bought in advance, £7.90 (about $10.54) on board. Get off at Princes Street or St Andrew Square, both a few minutes from the Royal Mile. Haymarket, the city's other mainline station, is on the same tram line – two stops to Princes Street. From Waverley the operator gives 10 minutes on foot to Mary King's Close: from Waverley Bridge to the mini roundabout, across to the foot of Cockburn Street, where the Warriston's Close sign stands on the right – 100 steps lead up from there. To avoid the stairs, carry on up Cockburn Street to the Royal Mile and turn right. Lothian Buses stop on Princes Street, the High Street and North and South Bridge.

By car

Parking in the Old Town is scarce and expensive, and the Royal Mile is largely closed to through traffic – a hire car is the wrong tool for this part of the city. Taxis may pull up directly outside the Mary King's Close entrance.

From the nearest city

Meeting points: Mary King's Close in Warriston's Close, right beside the City Chambers; Mercat Tours at the Mercat Cross on the High Street, finishing in Blair Street; Auld Reekie Tours at 300 Lawnmarket; Gilmerton Cove lies about 7 km south, in the Gilmerton district.

Tips for your visit

1. Decide first which of the two worlds you want. Mary King's Close is a built-over residential lane with social history; the South Bridge vaults are storage cellars with ghost stories. If you want both in one day, take the close in the morning and the vaults at night.
2. Coming in from the airport, the tram is the sensible move: about 30 minutes to Princes Street or St Andrew Square, £7.50 for an adult single bought before you board, and the Royal Mile is a few minutes' walk uphill from either stop.
3. From Waverley the shortest way runs up 100 steps at the foot of Warriston's Close. With luggage or bad knees, walk up Cockburn Street to the Royal Mile instead – same time, no stairs.
4. At Mary King's Close the £3.50 upgrade to the standard ticket is worth it if your plans are shaky: rebooking is then free up to four hours before, while every change on the Essential ticket costs £15.
5. Leave the camera in your bag at Mary King's Close – the ban covers phones as well. If you want your own pictures from underground, book the Blair Street Vaults instead, where photography without flash is fine.
6. Download the audio-guide app over the shop wi-fi before you go down; there is no signal below. And expect the guide to carry on in English alongside it.
7. Lockers exist only at Mary King's Close – more than 20 of them in the courtyard, opened by QR code. Do not turn up at the vault operators with a suitcase.
8. Auld Reekie Tours no longer sells tickets at the Lawnmarket meeting point. Book online beforehand or go to the office at 45 Niddry Street, open daily 10:00 to 17:00.
9. If someone in your group uses a wheelchair or dislikes tight spaces: the Vaults Museum in Blair Street is step-free and included in every Mercat ticket. The group can go down while their companion stays up top and sees the same material as a film.
10. In October the regular Mary King's Close tour is not running at all – it is replaced by the more expensive Lantern Led Tour. If you want the standard product at the standard price, travel before or after.

What the internet gets wrong

History in brief

• Mary King's Close is named after Mary King, a merchant who lived there from 1635, traded in fabric and, as a widow with four children, ran a sewing business – naming a lane after a woman was unusual, and it had previously been King's Close or Alexander King's Close.
• In 1645 Edinburgh went through the worst plague outbreak in its history. The city posted watchmen outside infected houses, ran a night watch and used isolation huts on the Boroughmuir – and the present operator stresses that the lane had been open to the sky for more than 200 years and that nobody was ever walled up in it.
• In 1753 the lane was partly demolished and built over for the Royal Exchange, today's City Chambers. What was left standing beneath became the new building's cellar.
• More than 600 people lived in the close in the 17th century. The last resident, Andrew Chesney, only moved out in 1902, after the city compulsorily purchased his property for £400.
• The South Bridge was built under the South Bridge Act of 1785 and opened in 1788. Its 19 arches produced roughly 120 chambers of between 2 and 40 square metres – unlike Mary King's Close, these rooms were meant as storage and workshops from the start.
• For about 30 years the vaults held taverns, cobblers' workshops and merchants' stores. Because the bridge surface was never sealed against water, damp got in; the first users gave up from 1795, and by about 1860 even the poorest inhabitants had gone.
• In 1985 an excavation hit midden layers with toys, medicine bottles and crockery – proof that people had actually lived in the vaults. In the 1990s Norrie Rowan and his son Norman cleared out hundreds of tonnes of rubble and uncovered thousands of oyster shells.
• The Real Mary King's Close has been open as a visitor attraction since 2003, run by Continuum Attractions. Gilmerton Cove opened in the same year after a five-year restoration – and stayed open until the pandemic.
• The Covenanters' Prison in Greyfriars Kirkyard goes back to the Battle of Bothwell Bridge on 22 June 1679: around 1,200 prisoners were brought to Edinburgh and roughly 400 were held in a fenced field south of the kirkyard. The council has kept the area locked since about 1990.

Frequent questions

Sources