Edinburgh Tour and Castle

Edinburgh is well-known for the annual Edinburgh Festival, a collection of official and independent festivals held annually over about four weeks from early August. Other notable events include the Hogmanay street party (31 December) and the Beltane celebrations (30 April).

Border Express Edinburgh Tour - Small and Personal.

We don't do scheduled tours, all our tours are geared for groups of friends or family travelling together.  We can offer car's with dedicated driver/guides for individuals or couple's at very competative prices as well as minibuses for up to 16 passengers.  Don't put up with coach tours full of strangers join us on our tours and you will be amazed at what Scotland has contributed to the world we live in.  All our driver/guides are in Highland Dress.

 

We have a goal - to make sure you enjoy your holiday.  WE DON'T VISIT WOOLEN MILLS UNLESS YOU WANT TO!!!!

  

Call or email us with your pick-up and drop-off points and how may are travelling and we will quote for any of our tours.  Just go into contact us for our phone number or email details.

Edinburgh Castle is an ancient fortress which, from its position atop Castle Rock, dominates the sky-line of the city of Edinburgh, and is Scotland's second most visited landmark .

Edinburgh Castle  - early reference to occupation of the site of the Castle can be found as early as the mid-second century AD. Ptolemy refers to a settlement of the Votadini known to the Romans as Alauna (rock place). lots more insight on the Castle when we see on the tour...

• Edinburgh Castle - with impressive views of the city and landscape beyond.
• Whisky Heritage Centre  - whisky visitor attraction beside Edinburgh Castle.
• Gladstone's Land  - was the home of a prosperous Edinburgh merchant in the 17th century.
• Deacon Brodie  - lived in Edinburgh in the 18th century. His double life is thought to have been the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde".
• St Giles' Cathedral -  walking through the door of you are entering one of the most historic and romantic buildings in Scotland (High Kirk).
• Moubray House - this house dates from the middle of the fifteenth century and is one of the oldest houses in Edinburgh.
• John Knox House  - John Knox, leader of the Scottish Reformation and founder of the Presbyterian Church.
• Tolbooth -  brass plates embedded into the cobbles west of St. Giles in Parliament Square, marks the site of the Old Tolbooth Prison. The 400 year old building was demolished in 1817, having served as a boothe for collecting tolls, a council chamber, a court house and squalid prison.
• Mercat Cross  - was originally a place where merchants would gather, and later became the focal point of many town events such as executions, announcements and proclamations..
• Canongate Tolbooth  - the Tolbooth was built in 1591, it was here that the tolls or public dues were collected.
• Canongate Kirk - built in 1688,this beautifully light and spacious Kirk serves both Holyrood palace and Edinburgh castle.
• New Parliament  - since September 2004 the official home of the Scottish Parliament has been a new Scottish Parliament Building, in the Holyrood area of Edinburgh.
• Holyrood Palace - the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official residence in Scotland of Her Majesty The Queen, stands at the end of Edinburgh's Royal Mile.

Plus many more - too many to mention. Not just history, but life times and people, many famous both in Scotland and around the world.

• Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig
• Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson (November 13, 1850 - December 3, 1894), was a Scottish novelist and poet.
• Sir James Young Simpson, was a Scottish doctor and important figure in the history of medicine.
• Charles Robert Darwin
• Robert Burns

Just some of the famous people who lived or worked in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh areas like Corstorphine, Colinton, Swanston, Burdiehouse, Gilmerton, Portobello themselves suggest well over 2000 years of human settlement and over 4000 years of archaeological evidence.

 

Rosslyn Chapel 

Rosslyn Chapel, originally named the Collegiate Chapel of St. Matthew, is a 15th century Episcopal church in the village of Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland.

The Chapel is a major feature in the last part of Dan Brown's 2003 novel 'The Da Vinci Code'. Not long after The Da Vinci Code was published, the number of visitors to Rosslyn Chapel almost doubled. In 2004, almost 70,000 visited the chapel, making it now one of Scotland's most popular tourist attractions.

The Chapel stands on fourteen pillars, which form an arcade of twelve pointed arches on three sides of the nave. The three pillars at the east end of the chapel are named, from north to south, the Master Pillar, the Journeyman Pillar, and most famously, the Apprentice Pillar. At the west end, another three pillars divide the nave and the Lady Chapel.

Among Rosslyn's many intricate carvings are a sequence of 213 boxes protruding from pillars and arches with a selection of patterns on them. It is unknown whether these patterns have any particular meaning attached to them — many people have attempted to find information coded into them, but no interpretation has yet proven conclusive. See what you think...

Rosslyn Chapel; Roslin Chapel

Border Express  - prompt services and friendly customer service with a commitment to passenger comfort and safety will be key for your holiday or short break. 

Tours can be tailor made to cater for your needs... Simply call us with your start and finish times and we will do the rest at Border Express.  

 

IMPORTANT – By making a booking with us, you are agreeing to Border Express Ltd terms and conditions.