Underground Vaults Tour review
My verdict: one hour, one set of chambers, one guide, and nothing bolted on. It is the most-reviewed vaults tour on the platform by a wide margin — 4.6 from 12,464 ratings — and it is the one I point people to when they want the South Bridge vaults and have a single free hour to put them in.
What the hour actually involves
You meet in front of 300 Lawnmarket, by the tourist information booth with the red phone box beside it, opposite Deacon Brodie’s Tavern. That is the uphill end of the Royal Mile, nearer the castle than Holyrood, and it is about five minutes from the Mercat Cross where the Blair Street tours gather. People do turn up at the wrong one. If you are hazy on which is which, the meeting points are written out on the entrance page.
From the Lawnmarket the group walks downhill towards the Bridges, and the underground part comes at the end: a door in a tenement stair, a spiral staircase down, and a step of roughly two feet at the threshold of the first chamber. Inside it is brick, low light and a steady cool that does not shift with the season. The chambers run from about two square metres to about forty, so you move between rooms rather than settling in one hall. The guide carries the light and does all the talking. There are no audio devices on this tour and no translations, so in a full group in a stone room it pays to stand near the front.
The material is what you would expect from the South Bridge operator: torture, hangings, plague, body-snatching and the witch trials. There is an optional Torture Exhibition add-on you choose at the booking stage, which pushes the suggested age up. Video recording is not allowed, and photography is the guide’s call — ask rather than assume.
What you get, and what you do not
Usually included
- A live English-speaking guide for the full hour
- Entry to the South Bridge chambers, which are locked to everyone else
- Daytime and evening departures, so it fits round the rest of a day
- An optional Torture Exhibition add-on, selected when you book
- Free cancellation on the listing, usually up to 24 hours ahead
Not included
- Audio devices or headsets — the guide speaks unaided
- Any language but English, and no translation
- A museum, a film or artefact handling
- A drink of any kind
- Step-free access, at any point of the route
- Video recording, and no pets other than assistance dogs
What works
- The largest review sample of the six by a distance, and it holds 4.6
- An hour is short enough to book on the same day you arrive
- Goes into the South Bridge chambers, the ones most people picture
- Guides get named in the reviews again and again — Ally and James recur
- Evening and daytime slots, which none of the Blair Street tours offer
Worth knowing
- Nothing is included beyond the guide and the door being unlocked
- No audio devices, so a big group in a small chamber can be hard to hear
- The hour includes the walk down, so the underground stretch is shorter than it sounds
- A spiral stair and a two-foot step rule it out for a lot of people
- Weekend evening slots go first, particularly through August
What reviewers keep coming back to
Across 12,464 ratings the pattern is consistent: the guide is the product, and when the guide is good nobody minds that the rooms are empty.
Our guide Ally was very friendly and guided us through the underworld in a knowledgeable and fun way.
Great mix of history and spooky, with a dash of morbid humour.
A great live guide who knew how to make it fun — he just walks very, very fast.
Gerard’s note is the one I would take seriously: an hour that includes a walk down the Royal Mile is a brisk hour. Karen from Panama put it more kindly — short interesting stories, kept moving.
Who I would send on this one
People with one evening in Edinburgh and a list. First-timers who want the chambers without a performance built over the top of them. Anyone travelling with a five-year-old who would sit through an hour but not two, taking the plain version rather than the exhibition — the age minimums across all six are set out on the tours with children page. And anyone who has read is it worth it and decided that yes, a bare brick room with a good storyteller in it is the thing they came for.
Where this is the wrong booking
If what you actually want is the vaults explained rather than performed, book the historic small-group tour instead. It goes into the Blair Street chambers, it comes with audio devices, a small museum and artefacts pulled out of the excavation that you are allowed to hold, and it runs 75 minutes. That is the tour for the person who reads the museum labels.
If the spiral stair or the step is the problem, none of the underground six will work; the Witches and History walk stays at street level and is rated higher than any of them. And if you want Greyfriars Kirkyard in the same booking, that is the graveyard tour.
If you can choose your slot, a weekday afternoon departure usually means a smaller group in the chamber than a Friday or Saturday evening, and you can hear more of what the guide is saying. More on the trade-off on best time to go.
The other five
History, not ghostsEdinburgh: Multi-Sensory Small-Group Historic Vaults Tour
Small groupEdinburgh: Underground Vaults Evening Ghost Tour with Whisky
Vaults + kirkyardEdinburgh: Haunted Underground Vaults and Graveyard Tour
Frequently asked questions
Is the Underground Vaults Tour worth booking?
For most first-time visitors, yes. It is the shortest and most-booked way into the South Bridge chambers, and 4.6 from 12,464 ratings is a large, steady sample. What you are paying for is a guide who can furnish an empty room — the longer answer is on is it worth it.
Which vaults does this tour go into?
The South Bridge chambers, entered from the Niddry Street side. They are not the same rooms as the Blair Street vaults, which are held by a different operator and reached from a different street. A ticket to one does not admit you to the other.
How far ahead should I book it?
Evening slots fill first, especially Friday and Saturday and right through August. A weekday afternoon can often be had at short notice. Free cancellation on the listing means booking early costs you nothing — see how tickets work.