Edinburgh Highlights Audio Tour: Historic Charm

Explore Edinburgh at your own pace

Beneath the shadow of Edinburgh Castle, the cobblestones hum with the echoes of centuries of blood, ambition, and betrayal. Edinburgh is not merely a skyline of stone but a layered puzzle of dark history waiting to be unearthed.

Transform your smartphone into a personal guide and uncover the hidden narratives that most travelers walk right past. This self-guided audio tour strips away the facade of the city to reveal the raw reality of past rebellions and forgotten scandals.

Which royal secret is still buried deep within the castle walls? What malevolent force allegedly haunts the quiet corners of the Grassmarket? Why did a city once prize the illusions of the Camera Obscura above its own sanity?

Photo: Adam Wilson, Unsplash

Tour details

• Duration: 1 hour 25 minutes, entirely at your own pace
• Distance: around 3.6 km (2.2 miles)
• Stops: 15 landmarks, including Edinburgh Castle, Camera Obscura, Edinburgh, The Hub, Edinburgh
• Audio: up to 38 minutes of narration
• Starts at: Edinburgh Castle

Map data by Mapbox and OpenStreetMap contributors

How it works

• Book here and a redemption code arrives by email within minutes.
• Download the free Auda app on your phone and enter the code.
• Download the tour once and the whole thing works offline.
• Walk to the first stop and press play. The audio for each landmark starts automatically as you approach it, so your phone can stay in your pocket.

Your code arrives within minutes of booking, so you can walk the tour today. There is no fixed date and no start time: the date you pick at checkout does not matter, and the tour stays on your phone permanently, so you can also keep it for a later visit and walk it again as often as you like.

What is included

• Professionally narrated audio that plays automatically at each stop
• An interactive map showing the walking route between landmarks
• Full offline access once downloaded, so you need no data or signal
• Freedom to start, pause and resume whenever you like
• Lifetime access - your code never expires

Where you will stop

• Edinburgh Castle
• Camera Obscura, Edinburgh
• The Hub, Edinburgh
• Grassmarket
• Greyfriars Kirkyard
• National Museum of Scotland
• Writers' Museum
• St Giles' Cathedral
• Parliament House, Edinburgh
• Mercat Cross, Edinburgh
• Mary King's Close
• John Knox House
• Canongate Kirkyard
• Scottish Parliament Building
• Holyrood Palace

Image: AudaTours

What is AudaTours?

AudaTours turns a walk through a city into a story. Our guides bring landmarks to life with the history, the scandals and the detail you would never get from a plaque.

• Immersive: real stories about the places in front of you, not a dry commentary
• Offline: download once and use it with no data, anywhere
• At your own pace: start, pause and resume whenever you want
• Accurate: every story is built from verified historical sources and checked before release

Good to know

• This is a self-guided audio tour on your own phone. There is no in-person guide.
• It does not include entry to any building or site along the route.
• AudaTours is not affiliated with the landmarks on the tour.
• You need a smartphone with Android 7.0 or later, or iOS 16 or later.
• Bring headphones and start with a charged phone.

Who it suits

Solo travellers, couples, families and small groups who would rather explore on their own schedule than follow a guide and a fixed departure time. It suits a first visit, and it suits anyone who has already seen the famous sights and wants to know what actually happened in them.

Image credits

Photos: Joss Broward, Adam Wilson, Ben Guerin (Unsplash).