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Blair Street Vaults Tour: Explore Edinburgh's Hidden History
4.7
1,131 Ratings
Edinburgh
Explore Edinburgh’s hidden history on a 5-star small group tour of the Blair Street Underground Vaults. Discover secrets beneath the South Bridge.
Explore Edinburgh’s hidden history on a 5-star small group tour of the Blair Street Underground Vaults. Discover secrets beneath the South Bridge.
Duration:
1 hour, 15 minutes
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
-
Mercat Tours - Get exclusive access to the city’s oldest, deepest Blair Street Underground Vaults.
Discover secrets & stories of Edinburgh’s underworld.
See and touch 19th century artefacts.
Visit our Discovery Room with 3D model & display. - Mercat Cross - Tour meeting point.
- Royal Mile - Explore the closes and understand the buildings…
- Mercat Tours - Get exclusive access to the city’s oldest, deepest Blair Street Underground Vaults.
Discover secrets & stories of Edinburgh’s underworld.
See and touch 19th century artefacts.
Visit our Discovery Room with 3D model & display.
- Mercat Cross - Tour meeting point.
- Royal Mile - Explore the closes and understand the buildings of the historic Old Town of Edinburgh, before descending into the Blair Street Underground Vaults
- Edinburgh Old Town - See the sites of the Old Town as you walk towards the Blair Street Underground Vaults
What's Included
- Small group experience
- Exclusive access to Blair Street Underground Vaults
- Award-winning local storytellers
- TourTalk radio receiver for immersive storytelling
- Small group experience
- Exclusive access to Blair Street Underground Vaults
- Award-winning local storytellers
- TourTalk radio receiver for immersive storytelling
Additional Information
Small, personal 5 star group tour with a maximum of 18 people.
Descend into the unique Blair Street Underground Vaults of Old Edinburgh.
Far below the busy, bustling Edinburgh streets there lies a dark, quiet and forgotten place. These wonderful dark rooms of arched ceilings, fireplaces and 18th century wine vaults lie beneath the South Bridge, one of…
Small, personal 5 star group tour with a maximum of 18 people.
Descend into the unique Blair Street Underground Vaults of Old Edinburgh.
Far below the busy, bustling Edinburgh streets there lies a dark, quiet and forgotten place. These wonderful dark rooms of arched ceilings, fireplaces and 18th century wine vaults lie beneath the South Bridge, one of the city’s main thoroughfares. What happened in these extraordinary vaulted chambers, who lived here, where, when and why? See and learn more…
- Children over 5yrs only
- Tours are guaranteed all year round, so please dress for the weather, with comfortable shoes.
Location
Mercat Cross
High Street
Mercat Cross, High St, Edinburgh EH1 1RF. Look for the 8 sided monument with white Unicorn on top. You will find a member of our visitor services team waiting here to check you in. They will be dressed in black, holding an iPad, wearing an orange lanyard & holding a black & orange umbrella.
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.7
(1131 Ratings)
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A1439ugdiannes
Oct 9, 2024
An amazing historical underground tour. - We did this tour Monday 30th September. We found this tour informative and very interesting learning all about underground Edinburgh and the living conditions in the closes. Roger our guide was extremely knowledgeable and so funny, keeping us entertained all the way. A valuable history lesson. Steph, our other guide told a really good story of the body snatchers, very atmospheric, would highly recommend this tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Peter_s
Oct 7, 2024
A fascinating & fun tour for all the family - A great tour - a fun and interesting introduction to a side of Edinburgh that we would have otherwise walked straight past without noticing. The 2 guides made a real effort to engage everyone throughout the tour. Thank you!
Review provided by Viator
Cynthiagls
Oct 4, 2024
Amazing experience! - I went together with my partner and his cousin on one of the tours today with our incredible tour guide named Marie. She was an amazing story teller and made sure you knew every bit of the history regarding the tour. Not only that, but feel the history too! This experience is definitely worth every penny (which is definitely not expensive at all!). After it ended, we actually wanted to go again. Marie, to you, thank you again!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Stacy22c
Oct 4, 2024
Edinburgh Underground Tours - Recommended Out of the Norm Tour - Highly recommend this tour. If you are looking for an out of the norm tour without the touristy landmarks, this is the tour for you. This tour was the perfect mix of the town’s history and the interesting stories of the underground vaults. Learn all about the world operating under the city. Our guide Linda was wonderful. She was very knowledgeable and added the perfect amount of humor.
Mercat is a family owned tour business so I highly recommend going with them over the other larger companies you see in town. If we had more time we would have done another tour with them.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Freedom00440955135
Oct 3, 2024
Amazing, would recommend! - Very interesting tour, didn’t know anything about these underground vaults before. Linda was an amazing tour guide! We would recommend Mercat Tours. :)
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Narelle
Oct 2, 2024
So glad we chose this! - Roger our guide was super friendly, entertaining and informative . He encouraged patron participation rather than just talking at us. Highly recommend this tour. Worth every cent!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Inspdiddy
Oct 2, 2024
Fabulous!!!! - Absolutely amazing tour .. our tour guide Roger was amazing - so knowledgeable and made the whole tour so much fun .. Would highly recommend - the whole experience from booking to the end was excellent
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Y1419jvjenniferc
Oct 2, 2024
A great way to learn about some of Edinburgh’s hidden history - Very knowledgeable guide who gave us a helpful introduction to the geological structures of Edinburgh, the nature of closes, and the almost entirely hidden north and south bridge - they look like regular roads at road level.
After 15ish min above ground we went down to the Blair St vaults under south bridge. Really informative tour about how the rooms viewed were likely used, very interesting. Finished in a mini-museum with artefacts found when these vaults were rediscovered, not all that long ago.
Highly recommend, unless you’re very claustrophobic as most of the tour is underground and while the rooms themselves are generally decent sizes, the passageways are very narrow.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
205marilynt
Sep 28, 2024
A MERCAT TRIP FULL OF HISTORY - Edinburgh is a beautiful place so my Sister and I decided on a Mercat tunnel visit, we booked it in february to save a place as these tours are popular and busy. We went on a Historical tour with a wonderful knowledgably lady named Veni - she was great and ensured everyone was safe down in the vaults. Strongly recommend Mercat Tours.
Go On get on an Adventure
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Scenic30938993893
Oct 4, 2024
Recommended! - Very interesting and a nice Guide. The personal headset with receiver was a super good idea! You could understand everything well and everyone was “in” the story of the Guide. It was also ideal for eliminating background chatter from fellow participants.
This activity is highly recommended.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
