Edinburgh: Grand Historic and Literary Coach Tour

Edinburgh: Grand Historic and Literary Coach Tour

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Take a whole-city dive into Edinburgh’s incredible history and literary connections on this interactive luxury coach tour. Enjoy fascinating surprises as you gain a deeper perspective on Edinburgh.

Highlights

Relax and enjoy the deepest tour ever offered of the greater Edinburgh area.
Discover Edinburgh’s amazing history and literature on this unique coach tour.
Get local insights from your guide, Edinburgh-born doctor Moray Grigor.
Get up close to an Edinburgh morning, and learn the secrets of its streets.
Enjoy fun and fascinating scenarios and quiz questions throughout the tour.

Description

Explore the historic and literary secrets of Edinburgh on a comprehensive coach tour. Traverse the whole city from the sea to the hills, with a short tea break, and learn about the city's literary connections, from Sherlock Holmes to Harry Potter. Meet your guide, Edinburgh native Dr. Moray Grigor, at the Burns Monument, a memorial to Scotland's national Bard. Then, head to the Balmoral Hotel, where J.K. Rowling completed the Harry Potter saga, and see these sites and many others as we go city-wide to discover our wonderful history and literature! Continue to the Scott Monument, the world's biggest literary memorial, to the 'Man who invented Scotland' - superstar romantic author Sir Walter Scott. See the grand 18th-century St. Andrew’s Square, one of the twin focal points of Edinburgh's 'New Town'. Proceed along upscale George Street, meeting a young man who would gain literary fame and fortune in Canada, and passing the site of Edinburgh's greatest religious schism - the Disruption of 1843. Turn into Hanover Street and pass the Royal Society of Edinburgh, where James Hutton's seminal paper on the age of the earth was presented. Pass Milne's Bar, haunt of the 1950's poetry scene. Ascend the Mound and cross the Old Town, meeting Edinburgh's most notorious criminal and its greatest philosopher, and see the cafe where Harry Potter was 'born' and the site where the disastrous Darien Scheme was hatched in the 1690s. Pass Edinburgh's world-renowned Medical School and George Heriot's school, inspiration for Hogwarts and site of Scotland's first hot air balloon flight. Hear of a night club bouncer foiling a gang attack, and later reaching global fame. Continue to Lothian Road and meet a world-famous woman author getting married in virtual secret, and hear why cemeteries in old Edinburgh needed security towers. In Charlotte Square, meet a little boy with a very big future, and his very unusual birthday present. Unearth the pub haunt of Edinburgh's top contemporary crime writer. Continue into Queen Street and meet another little boy, destined for literary greatness. Pass the house where a historic medical discovery was made and the site of possibly the most 'steam-punk' attraction ever made. Continue along the coast, entering Leith, hearing of whisky, red wine, Oliver Cromwell, Rabbie Burns, a cannibal family, and a young queen's return to Scotland. Hear the story of the first Open Champion, surgeon John Rattray, nearly killed by his trade, but saved by his hobby. Head east and hear of the world's greatest ever assembly of warships, and also solve the puzzle of whose navy was menacing Edinburgh in 1779. Meet two of the greatest stars of the early 20th-century stage, one who was born in Edinburgh, one who died here, and also discover perhaps Edinburgh's greatest culinary secret. All this, and then the South Side of the city too, with its own tales to tell, from Oscar Wilde and Eric Liddell, to Frederick Douglass and Miss Jean Brodie!