Free entry to Edinburgh Castle (and other Historic Scotland properties)

(Last Updated On: 29/08/2019)

Fancy visiting a palace or a castle this month? Did you know that Historic Scotland are giving away free entry to many of their properties over the weekend of 24th-25th November 2018 to celebrate St Andrew’s Day, including free entry to Edinburgh Castle which normally costs £17+ for an adult… if you are a family of four, entry could potentially cost £60 so it is normally an expensive day out. All the more reason to snap up some free tickets!

Free entry is available for the following properties:

Aberdour Castle & Gardens
Arbroath Abbey
Blackness Castle
Bothwell Castle
Caerlaverock Castle
Castle Campbell & Gardens
Craigmillar Castle
Dallas Dhu Historic Distillery
Dirleton Castle & Gardens
Doune Castle
Dryburgh Abbey
Duff House
Dumbarton Castle
Dunfermline Abbey and Palace
Dunstaffnage Castle & Chapel
Edinburgh Castle
Elgin Cathedral
Fort George
Huntingtower Castle
Huntly Castle
Iona Abbey and Nunnery (Saturday 24 November only)
Jedburgh Abbey
Linlithgow Palace
Maeshowe Chambered Cairn
Melrose Abbey
New Abbey Corn Mill & Sweetheart Abbey
Rothesay Castle
Skara Brae Prehistoric Village
St Andrews Castle & St Andrews Cathedral
Stirling Castle
Tantallon Castle
The Blackhouse, Arnol (Saturday 24 November only)
Urquhart Castle

To get your free tickets, all you need to do is visit the ticket giveaway website and join the online queue. When I joined, I was approximately position 1,000 in the queue and it took about 90 minutes to get to the front. Not too bad, all I had to do was keep checking back to make sure I didn’t miss my slot, as you only get 5 minutes to enter the website. I expect in the coming weeks that the website will get quieter and you won’t need to wait as long.

The free ticket scheme runs every November over the St Andrew’s weekend – I haven’t taken part in many years, but last time I got free entry to Edinburgh Castle so this time I have booked somewhere different – Stirling Castle.

Let me know if you managed to get free tickets and if so, where you are going to. If you will be visiting Edinburgh, make sure you check out my five cheap things to do with kids.