The vaults
The Edinburgh vaults: what they are and how to get into them
They are not caves, they are not cellars and nobody dug them. They are the spaces left inside the arches of a bridge that the city finished in 1788 and then built houses against on both sides, until the bridge disappeared and only the street on top of it remained. About a hundred and twenty rooms, cold, dark and empty, directly under one of the busiest streets in Scotland.
Quick answer
The Edinburgh vaults are around 120 stone chambers built inside the nineteen arches of the South Bridge, which was completed in 1788. They were let to tradesmen, taverns and merchants for roughly thirty years before damp drove everyone out, then filled with rubble and forgotten until the 1980s. They are private property behind locked doors, so a guided tour is the only way in. Tours start at $20.
The Edinburgh vaults, at a glance
- What they are
- Bridge chambersthe spaces inside the arches, not caves
- Built
- 1788when the South Bridge was completed
- How many
- About 120in places stacked four levels deep
- Used for
- ~30 yearsworkshops, storage, taverns
- Why abandoned
- Dampno drainage and no ventilation at all
- Rediscovered
- The 1980sdug out from under decades of rubble
- Temperature
- ~10°Call year, August included
- Access
- Guided tours onlyprivate property, locked doors
- Cheapest tour
- $20one hour, and it goes properly under
- Most reviewed
- 12,500the standard vaults tour
What they are
What exactly are the Edinburgh vaults?
The space inside a bridge, let as shops, and beaten by water within a generation.
Start with the bridge, because without it none of this makes sense. Edinburgh’s Old Town sits on a ridge with steep valleys on either side. In the 1780s the city wanted to link the ridge southward to the university, and the only way to do that was to throw a viaduct across the Cowgate valley. That viaduct is the South Bridge, finished in 1788, and it has nineteen arches.
What makes it strange is what happened next. Buildings were put up flush against both sides of the bridge, from the valley floor to the level of the new street, so that the structure vanished behind them. Walk along South Bridge today and you are walking across a viaduct with no sense whatever of being on one. Only a single arch, the one spanning the Cowgate, is still visible from the street.
The vaults are the leftover space inside those arches. Rather than fill them with rubble, the builders walled the ends and let the resulting rooms as commercial space. In places the chambers stack four levels deep. They are barrel-vaulted, dressed stone, with no windows, no chimneys, no drainage and no natural light of any kind.
For roughly thirty years that was good enough. Cobblers, smiths, cutlers and taverns took them because they were cheap and central, and the Old Town in 1800 was desperately short of space. Then the damp won. Water came through the roadway above, the vaulted roofs were never properly sealed, and there was nowhere for any of it to go. The trades left.
The timeline
Six dates that explain the Edinburgh vaults
The whole story fits into six points, and knowing them makes any tour twice as good.
- 1788 — the South Bridge is completed
Nineteen arches across the Cowgate valley, built to link the Old Town to the university side. The chambers inside the arches are walled and let almost immediately.
- The 1790s — a working underground
Cobblers, smiths, cutlers, taverns and storage. Cheap space in the middle of a city that had run out of it.
- The 1810s and 1820s — the damp wins
No drainage, no ventilation, and water coming down through the roadway. The trades give up and go, and what follows is poorer and undocumented.
- The mid-1800s — filled in
The chambers are packed with rubble and building waste. Above them the street carries on exactly as before, and within a generation nobody is thinking about what is underneath.
- The 1980s — dug out again
The chambers are excavated. What comes out is deliberately unglamorous: oyster shells, bottles, workshop debris — the leavings of people who worked in a dark room for a few years.
- Now — locked, and toured
The vaults are private property with locked doors. Several operators hold different sets of chambers, which is why a guided tour is the only way in and why not every tour goes to the same rooms.
The vaults are one of two undergrounds under this street, and they are not the same thing at all. The other is a street the city built over in 1753.
The vaults against Mary King’s Close→Every trip, current fare
Every tour that goes into the vaults
Twelve tours, cheapest first, with the column no listing gives you: which underground each one actually enters. Seven of these twelve go into the South Bridge vaults.
| Tour | Length | Price | Which underground | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old Town & Underground Ghost TourThe cheapest hour under the bridge | 1 h | $20 | The vaults | $20.00 | 4.4 · 1,871 |
| The Edinburgh DungeonAn attraction with actors, not a historical site | 80 min | $24 | None — an attraction | $18.00 | 4.6 · 1,716 |
| Evening Underground Ghost TourThe evening slot in the South Bridge vaults | 75 min | $24 | The vaults | $19.20 | 4.4 · 4,063 |
| Old Town & Underground Historical TourThe bridge and the chambers as the actual subject | 1.5 h | $25 | The vaults | $16.67 | 4.4 · 2,068 |
| Underground Vaults TourThe standard vaults tour, most reviewed in the city | 1 h | $25 | The vaults | $25.00 | 4.5 · 12,500 |
| Haunted Vaults & Graveyard TourA kirkyard and the vaults in one evening | 1.5 h | $27 | The vaults | $18.00 | 4.6 · 7,277 |
| Late-Night Vaults Terror TourThe late slot, run harder | 75 min | $27 | The vaults | $21.60 | 4.6 · 4,571 |
| Extreme Paranormal Underground Ghost TourThe vaults and a kirkyard, played for fright | 75 min | $27 | Vaults + kirkyard | $21.60 | 4.3 · 885 |
| Multi-Sensory Haunted UndergroundThe original Blair Street vaults tour | 75 min | $34 | Blair Street vaults | $27.20 | 4.5 · 2,754 |
| Small-Group Historic Vaults TourThe Blair Street chambers, in a small group | 75 min | $34 | Blair Street vaults | $27.20 | 4.7 · 614 |
| Real Mary King's CloseA street the city built over in 1753 | 1 h | $36 | Mary King's Close | $36.00 | 4.7 · 4,457 |
| Vaults Evening Tour with WhiskyTwo hours, ending with a dram underground | 2 h | $39 | The vaults | $19.50 | 4.7 · 2,798 |
Inside
What are the Edinburgh vaults like inside?
Empty stone rooms, ten degrees, and no light except what your guide carries.
Empty, and that surprises people. A vault chamber is a stone room perhaps four or five metres across with a curved ceiling, no windows, and a floor of packed earth or laid stone. There is nothing in it. Whatever furniture, stock or machinery once stood there went out with the tradesmen two centuries ago.
What there is instead is scale and silence. The chambers run into one another through doorways cut in the dividing walls, so you move through a sequence of rooms rather than round a single space, and the sound behaves oddly: the curved stone throws voices back at you. Most guides put the lamp down at some point and let the group be quiet, and that minute is the one people describe afterwards.
It is cold. About ten degrees, all year, because there is no daylight and no ventilation to change it. In August, coming down from a warm street, the drop is startling. Every operator tells you to bring a layer and roughly half of every group does not.
And it is dark in a way that indoor darkness usually is not. There is no residual light down there at all — no windows, no gaps, nothing under a door. Whatever the guide is carrying is the entire lighting scheme, which is why a phone camera struggles and why the photographs in the listings are all taken with equipment you have not brought.
Before you go
Six things worth knowing before you go down
None of this is in the listing and all six change the hour.
- Bring a layer, even in August
Ten degrees, all year. It is the single most common thing people wish they had been told twice.
- Ask which vaults you are entering
Blair Street and Niddry Street are different sets of chambers under the same bridge, held by different operators. Both are genuine; they are not the same rooms.
- The vaults are empty — that is the point
If you are expecting furnished rooms you want Mary King’s Close instead. The interest here is the structure and what it was for.
- There are stairs, and they are stone
Often steep, sometimes damp. None of the vaults tours are wheelchair accessible and most set a minimum age.
- Separate the record from the stories
The dates, the trades and the excavation are documented. A great deal of what is said about the vaults after dark is not, and the better guides tell you which is which as they go.
- Book the evening slot if you can
Same chambers, but the tours after dark consistently rate higher, and in August they are the first thing to sell out.
Common questions
The Edinburgh vaults, answered
What are the Edinburgh vaults?
About 120 stone chambers built inside the nineteen arches of the South Bridge, which was completed in 1788. They were let as workshops, storage and taverns for roughly thirty years before damp forced everyone out, and they were excavated again in the 1980s.
Are the Edinburgh vaults real?
Yes. The chambers are genuinely inside the 1788 bridge, the commercial use is documented, and the excavation in the 1980s is recent enough that people who did it are still around. What is not documented is most of the ghost material attached to them afterwards.
How do you get into the Edinburgh vaults?
On a guided tour, and only on a guided tour. The chambers are private property behind locked doors, held by several different operators. Tours start at $20 and run from the Royal Mile.
How cold are the Edinburgh vaults?
About ten degrees Celsius, and it barely changes across the year because there is no daylight or ventilation. Bring a layer even in summer.
How long is a tour of the Edinburgh vaults?
Most run sixty to ninety minutes, of which forty-five to sixty are actually underground. The longest on this page is two hours and ends with a whisky in one of the chambers.
Why were the Edinburgh vaults abandoned?
Water. There was no drainage inside the chambers, no ventilation, and the vaulted roofs were never properly sealed against the roadway above. Within about thirty years the trades had gone, and the chambers were later filled with rubble.
Are the Edinburgh vaults the same as Mary King’s Close?
No, and this is the most useful distinction on the whole subject. The vaults are storage chambers inside a bridge at one end of the Royal Mile. Mary King’s Close is a street at the other end, built over in 1753 and lived in until 1902.
Can you visit the Edinburgh vaults for free?
No. Unlike the streets above them, the chambers are privately held and locked, and there is no public right of way. A tour is the only access, and the cheapest is $20.
Go deeper
More on the Edinburgh underground
Real Mary King's Close
A street built over in 1753 and lived in until 1902.
The bridgeThe South Bridge
Nineteen arches, one of them visible, and 120 chambers inside.
The whole thingThe underground city
What is actually beneath the Old Town, and what is only a story.
Which vaultsBlair Street or Niddry Street
Different chambers under the same bridge, and who runs which.
Side by sideVaults or the close?
The comparison everybody makes, with a straight verdict.
Vaults toursEvery vaults tour compared
Seven tours into the same chambers, and what separates them.
