The guide
Robert.
Robert was born within view of the Old Town, has lived in Edinburgh all his life, and has taught in a primary school here for more than twenty years.
He studied primary education at Moray House, on the Canongate, which puts his own student years inside the same few streets the tours cover. He has authored and resourced every Historic Edinburgh Tours route himself, from primary sources. Nothing is bought in and nothing is recited.
Some of the stories told in Greyfriars Kirkyard are his own family’s. That is the level of local this is.
The record
Twenty years of it, and some awards along the way.
- 2017
- Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence.
- 2018
- Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence, again.
- 2020
- Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice award, and a nomination for ‘Best Entertainment’ at the Edinburgh Business Awards.
- 2015
- Local history talks delivered at the Museum of Edinburgh.
- TV
- Research and resources contributed to television programmes and books, plus an appearance on Dutch television.
- 99%
- Of all reviews rate the tours ‘Excellent’.
The bag
Everything he found while writing it comes with him.
Engravings, old maps, photographs and records. These are the sources the tour was built from, and they get handed round while you stand in the place they describe.
It is the thing teachers do instinctively and tour guides almost never do: show your working. It is also the quickest way to tell the difference between someone who researched a city and someone who memorised a script about it.
The company
Small, on purpose.
Historic Edinburgh Tours is one guide. Book it and Robert is the person who turns up, every time. There is no rota, no subcontractor and no forty-strong crowd with an umbrella at the front.
