With children
Edinburgh ghost tour with kids: which ones take them, and which to skip
The deciding factor is almost never the stories. Children handle stories perfectly well. What catches families out is an hour in a windowless stone room with the lights off, or ninety minutes standing on wet cobbles on a hill. This page sorts the twelve tours by what they actually ask of a child, rather than by how frightening they sound.
Quick answer
The short answer. The comedy ghost bus at $27 is the family answer: seated, warm, funny, seventy-five minutes, nothing enclosed. For older children who want the underground, the Real Mary King’s Close at $36 is history rather than fright. Age minimums are set by each operator and are published on the listing — check before booking, because the late-night vault tours set them high.
What each format asks of a child
- The ghost bus
- Easiestseated, warm, indoors, 75 minutes
- Mary King's Close
- Manageableguided, lit, timed, 1 hour
- Daytime Old Town walk
- Finebut two hours on foot, uphill
- Evening kirkyard walk
- Dependsdark, cold, uneven ground
- Standard vaults tour
- Hardenclosed, windowless, lights out
- Late-night terror tour
- Noand the age minimum usually says so
- Real issue #1
- Enclosed spacenot the stories
- Real issue #2
- Standing stillin the cold, for an hour
- Real issue #3
- The late slota 9 pm start is a 10.30 pm finish
- Age minimums
- Set per operatorpublished on each listing
- Cheapest family option
- $27the bus, per person
- Free alternative
- Daytime walkGreyfriars is free and open by day
The actual problem
It is not the ghosts
Enclosed space and standing still. Not the stories.
Parents worry about the content and then discover the content was never the issue. Children who have watched anything at all on television are not troubled by a guide telling them a seventeenth-century story in a lit room.
What gets them is the physical situation. An hour underground means an hour with no windows, no phone signal, no easy way out, still air at about ten degrees, and a minute of complete darkness in the middle. For an adult that is atmospheric. For a nine-year-old who has decided halfway through that they would like to leave, it is a long forty minutes for everybody.
The second problem is simpler and even more common: standing. An evening walking tour is ninety minutes to two hours, mostly stationary, on a slope, in the cold, often in rain. That is a lot to ask of a child who has already done a castle and a museum that day.
Sorted by what it asks
The twelve tours, from easiest to hardest with children
Age minimums are the operator’s call and appear on each listing. This is about what the tour physically involves.
- Easiest: the comedy ghost bus — $27
Seventy-five minutes in a seat on a heated vintage double-decker, played for laughs by an actor. Nothing enclosed, nothing below ground, no standing, and rain is irrelevant. This is where most families land, and correctly.
- Manageable: Real Mary King's Close — $36
Underground, but a lit and managed visitor attraction with a costumed guide and timed entry, not a dark chamber. It is history rather than fright and it runs an hour. Several flights of stairs and no photography. The operator publishes its own minimum age.
- Fine in daylight: Old Town History and Tales — $23
Two hours of genuine Old Town history, rated 4.8 across 2,796 reviews, and available in daylight slots. The length is the constraint, not the content.
- Depends: Dark History walk — $20
Ninety minutes above ground through Greyfriars, the Covenanters’ Prison and the Grassmarket. Shorter than the two-hour walks. Cold, dark and uneven underfoot in winter.
- Depends: vaults and Greyfriars — $27
Ninety minutes covering both above and below ground. The underground half is the question; for a confident older child it is a very good introduction to the city.
- Hard: the standard vaults tour — $25
An hour in enclosed, windowless chambers with a minute of complete darkness. Some children love it. The ones who do not have nowhere to go.
- Not for children: the late-night terror tour — $27
Deliberately the hardest tour in the city, run late and dark. The age minimum on the listing reflects that, and it should be respected rather than negotiated.
Greyfriars Kirkyard is free, open in daylight, and full of the same history. An hour there on a Tuesday afternoon costs nothing and works at any age.
Greyfriars, explained→Every trip, current fare
The family-friendly end of the list
The four tours that work best with children, by what they physically involve rather than by how frightening they sound.
| Tour | Length | Price | Underground | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dark History Walking TourThe cheapest walk, and it is a good one | 1.5 h | $20 | No | $13.33 | 5.0 · 72 |
| Old Town History & TalesThe Old Town explained, best-rated walk here | 2 h | $23 | No | $11.50 | 4.8 · 2,796 |
| Comedy Horror Ghost Bus TourA comedy show on a vintage double-decker | 75 min | $27 | No | $21.60 | 4.5 · 4,546 |
| Real Mary King's CloseA street the city built over in 1753 | 1 h | $36 | Yes, the close | $36.00 | 4.7 · 4,405 |
Making it work
Six things that decide the evening
Small decisions, disproportionate effect.
- Take an earlier slot
A nine o’clock start finishes at half past ten and there is still the walk back. In December it is fully dark by half past four, so a five o’clock tour is a night tour without the late finish.
- Eat first, properly
Ninety minutes standing in the cold on an empty stomach is the single most reliable way to end a family evening early.
- Tell the guide at the start
Every guide in this city has run tours with children and most will adjust — a little less dwelling on the grim parts, a check-in before the lights go out. They cannot do it if they do not know.
- Stand near the door underground
Not because anything will happen, but because knowing the way out is what keeps a nervous child steady for the whole hour.
- Read the age minimum, do not argue with it
Operators set them from experience. A tour that says fourteen has had a reason to write that down.
- Have a plan B that is not a disappointment
The bus, or Greyfriars in daylight, or the Old Town walk at four in the afternoon. None of those is a consolation prize and all three are good.
The honest recommendation
What we would book for a family
Two children under about twelve: the ghost bus at $27, and nothing else. It is warm, funny, seated, and the only tour here where a bad-weather evening does not change the experience at all.
Teenagers who specifically want the underground: the vaults and Greyfriars tour at $27. Ninety minutes, both halves of the city, and 7,277 reviews at 4.6. It is the most complete evening on this site and the underground section is short enough not to become an ordeal.
A family that would rather learn than be startled: the Real Mary King’s Close at $36. It is the dearest ticket here and it is the one children remember for the right reasons — a whole street with a building on top of it, and somebody who lived there until 1902.
Common questions
Ghost tours with children, answered
Can children go on an Edinburgh ghost tour?
On several of them, yes. The comedy ghost bus and the daytime Old Town walks work well with younger children; the Real Mary King’s Close works with older ones. The late-night vault tours set higher age minimums and mean them.
What is the age limit for the Edinburgh vaults?
It varies by operator and is published on each listing. The late-night tours set the highest minimums. Check the specific tour rather than assuming — the numbers are not consistent across the city.
Which Edinburgh ghost tour is best for families?
The comedy horror ghost bus at $27. Seventy-five minutes seated on a heated double-decker, played for laughs, nothing enclosed and nothing underground. It holds 4,546 reviews at 4.5.
Are ghost tours too scary for kids?
The stories rarely are. What catches children out is the physical situation: an enclosed, windowless hour with a minute of complete darkness, or ninety minutes standing in the cold. Judge on those, not on the theme.
Is Mary King’s Close suitable for children?
Better than the vault tours, because it is a lit and managed attraction with a costumed guide rather than a dark chamber. It is still underground, still an hour, and there are several flights of stairs. The operator publishes a minimum age.
What time should a family tour start?
As early as the season allows. In December it is fully dark by about half past four, so a five o’clock start gives you the atmosphere without a half-ten finish. In June nothing is dark before eleven, which is an argument for going underground instead.
Is there a free option for families?
Greyfriars Kirkyard is free and open in daylight — mortsafes, the watch-house, the Covenanters’ Prison gate — and an hour there costs nothing. The tip-based evening walks are usually too long and too late for younger children.
Should I tell the guide we have children with us?
Yes, at the start. Guides adjust — less dwelling on the grim material, a warning before the lights go out. They will do it if they know, and they cannot if they do not.
The history is the sell
What children actually find interesting
A hidden bridge with rooms in it beats a ghost, every time.
Parents book these tours expecting the ghosts to do the work, and then watch their children get gripped by something else entirely.
The thing that lands is the engineering. A city that would not flatten its own hill, so it built a bridge with nineteen arches and then hid it under a normal-looking street with shops on it. A hundred and twenty rooms inside the arches. Rooms that failed because nobody thought about where the water would go. And then a street that the council buried under a building in 1753, with somebody still living in it in 1897.
Those are the facts children repeat afterwards, and none of them requires a ghost. If you have a child who likes how things work, the vaults are a better sell as a piece of failed civil engineering than as a haunted cellar — and they will get considerably more out of the hour.
Which also gives you a way to pitch it at the door: not "we are going somewhere scary", but "we are going inside a bridge".
Questions to ask before you book
Six things to check on the listing
All six are answerable from the listing page in about ninety seconds.
- What is the minimum age?
Set by the operator and published. It is not a suggestion, and the tours that set it high have had reasons to.
- Are there actors?
Some tours use costumed performers who startle people deliberately. For a nervous child that is the whole difference between a good night and a bad one.
- How long is it, really?
An hour is manageable. Two hours standing outside in February is a different proposition, and the listing states it.
- Is any of it underground?
The single most important question and the one the listings answer least clearly. If it says vaults, it is enclosed.
- What time does it finish?
A nine o’clock start is a half-ten finish plus the walk back. In winter you can get the same darkness from a five o’clock slot.
- Is the meeting point findable?
Look at the address on a map before you book. A doorway in a close, at night, with a tired child, is the worst possible time to be lost.
Go deeper
More on Edinburgh after dark
Every Edinburgh ghost tour
Twelve tours compared on price, length and which underground each one enters.
UndergroundThe Edinburgh vaults
About 120 rooms inside a bridge, abandoned by 1795 and lost for a century.
The closeReal Mary King's Close
A street built over in 1753 and lived in until 1902 — and the legend it did not earn.
The busThe ghost bus tour
Seventy-five minutes of comedy horror from a seat, and who it is really for.
KirkyardGreyfriars Kirkyard
The most-visited kirkyard in Scotland, and what the tours do there after dark.
WitchesThe witches of Edinburgh
What the trials actually were, and which tours tell it straight.
