Edinburgh Underground Tours: The Vaults and Mary King's Close

“Underground Edinburgh” means two things: the vaults under South Bridge, which two companies show in different sections, and the Real Mary King’s Close, a street buried under the City Chambers. No single tour visits both. For a ghost tour, book the Underground Vaults Evening Ghost Tour with Whisky: two hours with a Mercat Tours storyteller through the Old Town and down into the Blair Street Underground Vaults, ending with a drink in a haunted cellar, from $42 per person and rated 4.7 from 2,852 reviews (checked October 2026). For the most reviewed vaults tour, take Auld Reekie Tours’ hour in the South Bridge vaults from $32. For history rather than ghosts, book the Real Mary King's Close.

Check vaults tour dates

The vaults, and the buried street

The South Bridge vaults, two ways in

South Bridge was finished in 1788 on nineteen stone arches, and around 120 chambers were built into it. Tradesmen used them first, then the city’s poorest people, until they were filled with rubble and forgotten; they were dug out again from 1985. The history of the vaults tells the whole story.

Two companies show different sections today. Auld Reekie Tours takes groups in from its meeting point at 300 Lawnmarket on the Royal Mile. Mercat Tours has its own section, the Blair Street Underground Vaults, which it describes as the city’s deepest and largest, with a small museum and a short film inside; its tours start at the Mercat Cross, opposite the City Chambers, and use audio headsets so everyone in the group can hear the guide.

The Real Mary King’s Close

A 17th-century street, closed over when the Royal Exchange, now the City Chambers, was built on top of it from 1753. It is a one-hour guided tour run by The Real Mary King’s Close itself, from Warriston’s Close on the Royal Mile, and it is social history more than a ghost tour: the families who lived there and the plague years. Children under 5 are not admitted. Prices and times are in the Mary King’s Close tickets guide.

Every underground tour, side by side

Prices per person from GetYourGuide, checked October 2026.

Which is the best underground tour in Edinburgh?

It depends on what you want down there. For ghost stories with the most atmosphere, the Mercat evening tour with its drink at the end. For the vaults in an hour, the Auld Reekie tour, the most reviewed underground tour in Edinburgh on GetYourGuide. For a fright, Auld Reekie’s late-night Terror Tour, which is for over-18s and includes its torture exhibition. With children, Mercat’s kids’ tour lets them handle objects found in the vaults, and Mary King’s Close works from age 5.

Book whichever fits your group:

Prices, ratings and review counts from GetYourGuide, checked October 2026.

Can you go underground in Edinburgh without a tour?

Not as a sightseer: the tour companies run the visits to both the vaults and Mary King’s Close. Of the underground tours on GetYourGuide, the cheapest is the Old Town and Underground Ghost Tour from $22, and the free walking tours we know of stay above ground. Wear shoes with grip, because the vault floors are uneven and the steps down are steep in places, and bring a layer: it is cool underground in every season.