Private Tour

The Potter Trail Private Tour

Overview

Available languages

English

1 hour 30 minutes

Mobile ticket

Founded in 2012, we are the original Harry Potter tour in Edinburgh. Our guides have the most experience of any tour company in Edinburgh and we are consistently rated most highly by visitors across all platforms.

Booking a private tour with us will ensure the ultimate experience for Harry Potter fans as you'll be able to take the tour at your own pace and ask as many questions as you like!

All of guides are trained comic performers so we can guarantee they will captivate and entertain you as well as impress with their extensive knowledge.

We are also happy to customise this tour to suit you! We take on lots of bookings for hen parties and school groups and our guides are skilled at catering the tour content for any audience.

Edinburgh is as magical to us as it is to JK Rowling and we hope this passion will inspire you too!

Additional Info

Wheelchair accessible

Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller

Service animals allowed

Public transportation options are available nearby

Suitable for all physical fitness levels

Is the tour suitable for children under 7 years old?

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

What To Expect

Greyfriars

We begin our tour in the city's historic Greyfriars Kirkyard where JK Rowling spent a lot of time while writing the books. Here we'll see several names on gravestones that inspired characters in the series including William McGonagall and Thomas Riddell. From here we will also see two potential inspirations for Hogwarts in the form of George Heriot's School and Edinburgh Castle.

45 minutes • Admission Not Applicable

An area of the city named after Harry Potter? Surely not! See the place where she wrote much of the first book from here.

10 minutes • Admission Not Applicable

What‘s Included

Guide

Please bring something that you can use as a wand. This can be anything roughly wand shaped - a pen or umbrella will work well!

Options

The Potter Trail Private Tour

Reviews

4.97

2,326 reviews

Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor

2265

Well worth it! Really informative and fun.
katrinat413,,Dec 27, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00
We loved this tour. It was fun to see lots of places that inspired characters and places in the books, and the tour guide (Roisin) also told us lots of interesting facts. She was fun and engaging and we were more than happy to tip her at the end of our tour. Highly recommended!
Highly recommend!
katysU1472IS,,Dec 22, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00
Colin was a great guide! We had lots of fun and learned tons of cool facts. We had a blast. The duration of the tour was accurate and the walk enjoyable despite weather conditions.
Excellent guided tour
98giampieros,,Dec 22, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
4.00
Great guided tour, full of interesting anecdotes. The guide, Charlie, was very nice and friendly. However, I would suggest not concentrating the tour too much on Greyfriars Kirkyard, but expanding it to some other iconic venue.
A trip down the history of Harry Potter
T4207UIgarethp,,Dec 21, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00
Excellent tour with Sam, A huge amount of knowledge and history, with enough Harry Potter background thrown in for a bit of magic. Well worth the trip
Thanks to Charlie!
Tsavotravelandsafari,,Dec 20, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00
We recently visited the Potter Trail in Edinburgh and had a fantastic experience thanks to our guide, Charlie. Charlie was engaging, enthusiastic, and did an excellent job keeping the group interested, even when some students were initially less engaged. His passion for the trail really shone through, and by the end, several students even thanked us for bringing them along. Highly recommend this tour, especially with Charlie as your guide!
Fantastic
Sally-anne H,,Dec 20, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00
Alistair was a brilliant guide. The tour was both interesting and fun. He really made the tour. I would highly recommend this tour.
Highly recommend!
C6132LDjakej,,Dec 19, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00
Allister was an amazing, kind, funny and knowledgeable tour guide. The tour took about 90 mins which seems to be the perfect length. I learned a lot and got to see some amazing sites in the city. Would highly recommend to anyone, both Harry Potter fans and muggles alike!
Best free tour
738camc,,Dec 19, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00
Went with my girlfriend whos a bigger Harry Potter fan than me, but it was so interesting to learn about more factual parts of the history rather than “this is where the book was written”. Charlie is a fantastic, captivating tour guide and you can tell he has a passion for this tour, it shines through! Even if you arent a big HP fan, I definitely recommend this!
Amazing time
I6761WZryanp,,Dec 19, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00
Absolutely amazing tour, would recommend this to anyone and everyone that likes harry potter and is visiting Edinburgh.
Great experience!
A8622QZfrancoisd,,Dec 18, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00
Great experience with a great tour guide. It blends the actual history that inspired the Harry Potter world with that of the books for an informative experience.