In this guide
💡 The Short Version: An adult ticket is £23.50 booked online and £26 at the gate, and once the online allocation sells out, nothing is sold at the castle. The Flexi ticket (£38) is valid for one entry on any day in a 7-day window, with no time slot. The official 30-minute guided tour adds £6.50 and is pre-booked only. The castle opens at 9.30, last entry is 4pm from 1 October to 31 March and 5pm from 1 April to 30 September, and it is closed on 25 and 26 December. Allow at least 2 hours, and be at the Argyle Battery before 1pm for the One O’Clock Gun (not on Sundays). Buy from the castle at edinburghcastle.scot. Or book a tour: GetYourGuide sells no plain entry ticket, but Scotland City Tours’ 1.5-hour guided tour with entryad is from £35 (4.7 stars from 14,400 reviews).
The tickets, compared
Prices are the adult rate from the castle’s tickets page. The castle sells through that page and warns on it about look-alike sites. Search results for “Edinburgh Castle tickets” include sites with the castle’s name in their web address that say on their own pages they are fan sites or independent guides; they are not the castle.
Edinburgh Castle above the Grassmarket. Photo: Tom Page, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
| Ticket | Online | At the gate | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adult (16 to 64) | £23.50 | £26 | One entry at a timed slot |
| Concession | £19 | £21 | 65 and over, or unemployed, with proof. Not students |
| Child (7 to 15) | £11.50 | £13 | Under-16s must be with an adult |
| Adult Flexi | £38 | Not sold | One entry on any day in a 7-day window, no time slot |
| Concession Flexi | £30.50 | Not sold | As above |
| Child Flexi | £22.50 | Not sold | As above |
| Official Guided Tour | Add £6.50 | Not sold | Admission plus a 30-minute guided tour. Pre-book only |
| Audio guide | £4 | £4 | Download before you travel, or hire a device at the audio booth |
- Free or cheaper: Historic Scotland members and Explorer Pass holders enter free but should book online to guarantee entry. Carers of disabled visitors are free (two per transaction). Young Scot card holders pay £1. Serving members of the British Armed Forces are free with a MOD 90 card. English Heritage, Cadw and Manx Heritage members pay half in their first year.
- The audio guide is in 13 languages, and Historic Scotland members and Explorer Pass holders get 20% off. Bring headphones and charge your phone: the castle says connectivity on site varies.
- Phone: +44 (0)131 225 9846. Online ticketing is ticketing@hes.scot, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
Which ticket to buy
- Book the timed ticket for the day you have fixed. The £2.50 you save online is the smaller reason: the castle says tickets often sell out far in advance, especially over the summer, and sold-out online means sold out at the gate.
- Buy the Flexi ticket if the forecast decides your day. It costs £14.50 more than the timed ticket and has no slot, so you choose any day in the 7 days from your start date.
- Add the official tour if you want the history without paying for a longer one. It is £6.50 for 30 minutes, outdoors on cobbles, in English only. Meet just inside the Main Gate, to the right, 15 minutes before: a visitor who misses the start cannot join that tour or any later one that day. Tours run at 9.45, 10.15, 10.45, 11.15, 11.45, 12.15, 1.15, 1.45, 2.15, 2.45, 3.15 and 3.45 from 1 April to 30 September, and at 10.15, 11.15, 12.15, 2.15 and 3.15 from 1 October to 31 March.
- The Explorer Pass covers Edinburgh, Stirling and Urquhart Castles, Skara Brae and Fort George for 14 consecutive days: adult £48 from 1 April to 31 October, £38 from 1 November to 25 March. Stirling Castle cannot be pre-booked with the pass in February and March 2027. Edinburgh City Pass: is it worth it? runs the sums against the other passes, and Stirling Castle by train covers the day trip.
Tours worth paying for
None of these is the castle’s own tour, and all include the entry ticket. They are £35 to £46 against £30 for the castle’s own entry and 30-minute tour, so the extra buys a longer walk with a guide who often starts on the Royal Mile. Tour operators say Historic Scotland’s rules keep guides out of the castle’s covered buildings, so the commentary is outdoors and you visit the Crown Room and the Great Hall on your own afterwards. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.
Guided tour with entry, from opposite St Giles’
From £35 · 1.5 hours · 14,400 reviews
Edinburgh Castle: Guided Walking Tour with Entry Ticketad meets in front of Advocates Close on the High Street, opposite St Giles’ Cathedral, and spends about 75 minutes inside the castle. It is the cheapest of the five.
History tour from the Adam Smith statue
From £42 · 1.5 hours · 12,746 reviews
Edinburgh Castle Guided History Tour with Ticketsad by Little Fish Tours begins at the statue of Adam Smith on the Royal Mile, outside the castle, with an 80-minute guided walk inside it. It does not depart from the castle, and it is not suitable for wheelchair users.
Tour with a kilted guide
From £39 · 1.5 hours · 1,412 reviews
Edinburgh Castle Tickets & Tour with Kilted Guidead by Edinburgh Capital Tours meets at 379-381 High Street. The guide wears a kilt, and the ticket gives access to the castle’s museums after the tour.
English-language tour from the High Street
From £39 · 1.5 hours · 3,450 reviews
Edinburgh Castle: Guided Tour with Tickets Includedad by All-Star Guides is in English only, meets at 379-381 High Street, and leaves you free to explore the castle until closing.
Two-hour in-depth tour
From £46 · 2 hours · 3,253 reviews
Edinburgh Castle 120-Minute In-Depth Tour with Expert Guidead by EDI Tours is the longest, with a castle map, and covers Hospital Square, the Western Panorama and the Crown Square. It is the most expensive of the five and rated 4.9.
What to see
The castle sits on Castle Rock at the top of the Royal Mile. The way in is a steep cobbled route of about 350 metres up to the top level at Crown Square, with no luggage storage and bag searches at the entrance. The castle’s own itineraries give the time each takes:
| Itinerary | Time | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Just an hour | 1 hour | Portcullis Gate, Lang Stairs, St Margaret’s Chapel |
| Royal Route | 1.5 hours | Portcullis Gate, the Castle Timeline, Lang Stairs |
| Morning | 2 to 3 hours | Portcullis Gate, the Argyle Battery, Lang Stairs |
| Afternoon | 2 to 3 hours | Foog’s Gate, Mons Meg, St Margaret’s Chapel |
| Family Day Out | 3 hours | A children’s quiz, the Dog Cemetery |
The One O’Clock Gun firing at Edinburgh Castle, with the Firth of Forth behind. Photo: Jcfrye, Wikimedia Commons.
- The Argyle Battery and the One O’Clock Gun. The gun has been fired at 1pm since 1861 and is a 105mm field gun today. Get to the far end of the battery by the Redcoat Café about 12.45, because crowds gather and the bang surprises people. It is not fired on Sundays, Good Friday or Christmas Day.
- Foog’s Gate, Mons Meg and St Margaret’s Chapel. This is the steepest part of the route. Mons Meg is a six-tonne siege gun given to James II in 1457. The chapel, built around 1130, is the castle’s oldest building, and the castle calls it the oldest building in Edinburgh.
- Crown Square. The Royal Palace’s first floor holds the Crown Room, where the Honours of Scotland, the crown, sceptre and sword of state, are on display; the castle calls them the oldest Crown jewels in Britain. The Great Hall, finished in 1511 for James IV, displays arms and armour. The Scottish National War Memorial, opened in 1927, is on the same square. The Stone of Destiny was shown in the castle from 1996 until it moved to Perth Museum in March 2024, so the Crown Room is no longer where to look for it. The Prisons of War vaults below the square are a recreation of how they looked around 1800; the castle says an early Stars and Stripes is scratched into a door.
- The National War Museum and the Half Moon Battery. The museum is open 9.45 to 5.45 from April to September and to 4.45 from October to March. The battery gives the view over the city and the main entrance.
What to skip: with under two hours, drop the regimental museums and the Queen’s Embroideries and keep the gun, the Crown Room and the Great Hall.
The Half Moon Battery and the Palace Block at Edinburgh Castle. Photo: Kim Traynor, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Hours, rules and getting there
- Hours: open from 9.30. Last entry 5pm and closing at 6pm from 1 April to 30 September; last entry 4pm and closing at 5pm from 1 October to 31 March. On 24 December last entry is 3pm and it closes at 4pm. It opens at 11am on 1 January and is closed on 25 and 26 December.
- Christmas at the Castle runs from 18 November to 31 December 2026, with decorations and a tree in the Great Hall. Christmas Afternoon Tea in the Queen Anne Tea Room is from 1 December 2026 to 3 January 2027 (not 25 and 26 December), sittings from 11am to 2.30pm, at £70 for an adult and £34 for a child, with castle admission included.
- The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is performed on the castle esplanade from 6 to 28 August 2027; Edinburgh in August 2027 has the dates and hotel prices.
- Dogs: only assistance dogs are admitted.
- Where: the Castle Esplanade at the top of the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile walk runs down from the gate to Holyrood.
Palace of Holyroodhouse is at the other end of the Royal Mile and is shut on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for most of the year. What to book before you go to Edinburgh has the closed days for every sight, and Edinburgh’s views says which viewpoints are free. Under the Old Town, the Real Mary King’s Close and the ghost and vault tours are separate bookings. To stay close, see hotels near the Royal Mile and where to stay in Edinburgh.
Common questions
How much is a ticket for Edinburgh Castle?
£23.50 for an adult (16 to 64) booked online and £26 at the gate. Concessions (65 and over, or unemployed; not students) are £19 online and £21 at the gate, and a child aged 7 to 15 is £11.50 online and £13 at the gate.
Can I buy Edinburgh Castle tickets on the day?
Only if online tickets have not sold out. The castle says that once tickets are sold out online, no further tickets are available at the castle. It advises booking ahead, especially in summer.
What is the Flexi ticket?
One entry on any day in a 7-day window starting on the date you choose, with no time slot. It is online only: adult £38, concession £30.50, child £22.50.
How long does Edinburgh Castle take?
The castle says to set aside at least 2 hours. Its own itineraries run from 1 hour to 3 hours, and the official guided tour adds 30 minutes.
When is the One O'Clock Gun fired?
At 1pm every day except Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day. The gun stands at the far end of the Argyle Battery, outside the Redcoat Café.
Is the Stone of Destiny at Edinburgh Castle?
No. It has been on display in Perth Museum since March 2024. The Honours of Scotland, the crown, sceptre and sword of state, are in the Crown Room at the castle.
Is Edinburgh Castle open on Christmas Day?
No. It is closed on 25 and 26 December. On 24 December it closes at 4pm with last entry at 3pm, and on 1 January it opens at 11am.
