The Scottish Literary Tour Trust

We enjoyed this a lot. It probably helped that we had a small group, everyone was very relaxed and in a great mood.

The Literary Pub Tour was great. I had just travelled for a solid 24 hours from the United States so I was exhausted and probably missed half of what was going on but even still it was a great experience!
The two actors were entertaining and the history was great. I also enjoyed bouncing around from pub to pub since I had never actually been to a real pub! Only those fake American ones.
Great value!

My mom loved it.
My 22 year old night club loving friend loved it.
The old German man who spoke very little English loved it.
The just engaged on Arthur’s Seat that morning couple loved it.
My dad, a huge history buff, loved it.
I, who have been on the tour three times now, have loved it every. single. time.
This tour is without any exaggeration, and any hyperbole, my favorite touristy thing to do in Edinburgh. And I’m no longer a tourist, mind you. I reside smack dab in the middle of the medieval part of town and I wake up every morning to views of Arthur’s Seat in the distance. I can have a drink at Robbie Burns’ favorite pub any time I like, and I have walked nearly the entire Water of Leith.
Nothing, nothing, nothing combines the drinking, the witticisms, the history, the learning, the walking, the scandal and the poshness of it all the way that this tour does.
If you know me, you know that many of my reviews are based on an attractive bartender, or wanting to sleep with a staff member.
And yes, of course, I do want to sleep with ONE of the tour guides (he’s so badass), but there are seven! And I’ve seen six of them perform. And if I were to sleep with them based on their acting talent, knowledge and general chat… let’s just say I would have sex six times (possibly seven, and more if they were up for another go).
But yea, this is a funny, interesting, amazingly cleverly put together tour and it’s my favorite thing to do in Edinburgh — by far. Everyone I’ve brought has LOVED it and I will go again and again!

Went to the Beehive Inn for lunch (BIG mistake btw) with the intention of buying tickets for the tour later that night. Was tipped off that this might be a mistake by the lady at the door who said «we’re not affiliated in any way with the tour, you can’t buy tickets through us, and we wish they wouldn’t say on their website that you can.»
Okay.
She continued: «Come here tonight about ten minutes before the tour starts. Hopefully they’ll be here.» she chuckles, adds again: «Hopefully.»
Wow. It’s our last night in Edinburgh (a Saturday) and this is a city you really need reservations in, but we decide to take our chances. We show up, along with nine others, including one couple who’d just gotten in from Texas that day, and who’d bought tickets on line.
And we waited. And waited. And finally after 35 minutes we gave up. Two more left when we did, and we watched the other seven from our seat at the pub across Grassmarket. They gave it another fifteen or so before also giving up.
Super unfortunate. It was a great trip, and the night turned out okay, but frankly it was a sour end note and we would have loved to experience a tour that clearly gets such great reviews.
Caveat emptor folks. Apparently even if you have tickets you may be shit out of luck.

Recommended by Rick Steves and in every guide book, I had been looking forward to the pub tour for months before my trip. As a former theater student (with an Englishh minor), this is the perfect tour for me and I had budgeted it in as a surefire highlight of my trip to Edinburgh. I excitedly told all my friends and family I was going, as well. When I arrived at the Beehive, it was in fact, a charming start to a tour, with an erudite pair and fact upon fact of Scottish literary greats. I was willing to wait it out to see how the specific pubs related to the authors and it had just gotten interesting when we hit Tattoo traffic (and rain) so we ducked in for a wee break and I got my cider and waited to continue my conversations with fellow tour members. I ducked into the restroom for five minutes and upon exiting, the entire tour had gone. THEY HAD LEFT ME AND WENT ON. I talked to the pub owner, waited outside a bit, went back to the Beehive (they were singularly unhelpful), came back, wandered Princes Street, where the tour supposedly ended up and NOTHING. No sign of anyone I knew, so I trekked back to my bus stop (yes, in the rain), sorely disappointed after such a build up and such a nice start to the evening.
UPDATE: OK, they are sending me a full refund and were super nice about it all, so don’t let my bad experience stop you from a truly lovely tour (what I saw of it anyway).

Rick and I were looking for a unique tour of Edinburgh. Boy did we find the right one. He’s a history teacher and he enjoys a good pint. I’m a non-​drinker because of my diabetes, but I am a true book lover.
The tour begins at the Beehive Inn, which is in the Grassmarket, a favorite drinking venue for so many of Scotland’s favorite authors. The two hosts are two fictional characters, Clart and McBrain. The tour takes the form of an impassioned debate between them at the various taverns and ‘howffs’ in Edinburgh’s New and Old Towns. They’ll discuss three hundred years of Scottish authors.
You’ll also visit the Jolly Judge (outside of which some of the most boisterous discussions of the tour take place), Ensign Ewart, and Café Royal. Along the way you’ll meet Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Burns, and Robert Ferguson. The tour eventually makes its way to Prince’s Street and the statue of Sir Walter Scott.
I have to tell you this was one of the most fun and engaging tours I’ve ever taken. I didn’t catch the actors’ names playing Clart and McBrain but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see them on stage or screen.

I visited Scotland in February for my birthday. This is the off season. No tourists were visiting. This meant i was the only person on this tour. That is correct. I had awesome Scottish tour dude all to myself. I loved every minute.
For someone who is really into literature and had prepared for her vacation by reading all the ScotLit i could get my hands on, this tour was a highlight of of the trip. I got to see tons of the places I had read about in books like The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Trainspotting, not to mention the works of Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. It was like drugs. I highly, higly recommend this tour for Literature lovers.
This was the daytime nerd tour, not the pub tour. I wanted to be sober for my literary history orgy.

This is the Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour, in its more commonly known form. (They also run a couple of other tours.) Check the website for scheduling details. The tour departs from The Beehive pub in the Grassmarket, so you may as well get there early and have a couple of drinks.
During the course of the evening, you will meander central Edinburgh, touching four pubs in two hours. The tour plays out as a dialogue between two actors, undertaking the parts of Mr Clart, a verve-​ish boor, and Ms McBrain, an uppity intellectual. They banter and debate the merits of the city’s various men (and women) of letters, including the Big Three of Stevenson, Burns, and Scott, plus Muriel Spark and Irvine Welsh.
Although the dialogue was corny in parts, and the actors good but not great, they brought it all off with oodles of charm which sold the whole enterprise. These two had a chemistry which served them well to create the perfect playfully antagonistic spirit.
Our group was about a dozen. Although apparently they can be rather larger, I thought that this was the perfect size, both logistically, for the spaces that we occupied from stop to stop, and aesthetically, for the sense of communal enjoyment that we shared.
I learned a lot about the various literary figures, drank some good whisky and beer, met a few fellow tourists, and had a great time. What’s not to recommend?