The Original Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour!

The award-winning Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour was the first literary tour launched in Edinburgh in 1996! Since then, it has carried in excess of 500,000 satisfied customers on a dramatic literary trail across Edinburgh.

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Private Tours

Bespoke literary pub tours

Tailored schedule and route

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Why does our tour stand out from all the rest?

We are the only tour in the UK to have won the much coveted Scottish Thistle Award for cultural tourism.(but we don’t like to brag!)

Join the intrepid duo, Clart (as in muck!) and our clean-hankied intellectual Mcbrain, who will lead you on a brilliant and witty dramatic romp through the wynds, courtyards and pubs of Edinburgh’s Old and New Town. A Hilarious duel of wits across three hundred years of great writing and colourful characters. The Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour incorporates a dramatic script performed by two professional actors, not tour guides reading from books. The tour reaches beyond the well-known figures of Burns, Scott and Stevenson and includes some of the most colourful, literary characters who have added humour and wit throughout the ages to the unique tavern life of The Old and The New Town.

What our customers say

Have you met Clart and McBrain?

It’s no exaggeration to presume that tippling a dram or pint of ale helped to inject a touch of verve, invention and verbal magic to Scottish writing over the centuries! But there seems to be more to this lively dialogue… Are you a bohemian or an academic? Clart and McBrain will help you decide.

For an entertaining insight into the greats of Scottish Literature, served up with new friends, good beer and lots of laughs, The Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour is my vote for the best way to spend an Edinburgh evening.

~Rick Steves – Rick Steves Travel Books and TV travel programmes, USA-wide ~

“A splendid chaser after one too many pints of festival culture.”

~The Daily Telegraph~

“I’ve been on pub tours before, but never one that fired my imagination like this.”

~ Matt Herron, Writer and critic ~

“There’d have been no enjoyment, though, had this not been such
a well-thought-out excursion, executed with professional panache.”

~ The Herald ~

“The purpose of this friendly and enthusiastic tour is not to offer an exhaustive name check nor an academic thesis, but to bring alive for a couple of hours the world of past masters. This they do, with a charm and wit in keeping with the writers who have inspired them.”

~ Rosemary Goring, Literary Editor of The Scotsman ~

Download the audio tour

“The Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour”, by demand, is now available in a professionally recorded audio format. It’s especially useful if you wish to familiarise yourself with the literary scope of the tour in advance of joining us, or as a keep-sake memory to refer to when you return home! For private tours and educational groups it can present an invaluable asset to support your groups experience and learning in advance of taking the tour. As a registered charity and non-profit making organisation, we especially welcome any purchases in excess of the listed price (£5), which contributes and ensures the continued management of the tour, which over it’s 25 years, has become something of a “must-see”, whilst visiting Edinburgh.

What you need to know

The meeting point is outside The Beehive Inn, in Grassmarket:18-20 Grassmarket, Edinburgh, EH1 2JU. A ticketing person in a bright vest will be waiting for you. Please arrive in good time for a prompt 7.30pm start and be ready to present your online tickets to the ticketing person prior to the tour.

More information is available in our