Private guided tours · Edinburgh & Scotland
The Scottish
Enlightenment Tours
Private guided tours in Edinburgh and across Scotland with Phil Hall, qualified STGA Blue Badge Guide.
Our purpose
The story we tell
In the eighteenth century, Edinburgh and Scotland became one of the great centres of human thought. Within a few streets, philosophers, scientists and writers reshaped the way the world understands economics, science, society and human nature.
On tour, we walk the closes, squares and streets where it happened, moving from Scotland's dark and dramatic past to the brilliance of the Enlightenment and the ideas that still shape our lives today.
Private experiences
Popular private tours
Edinburgh Castle
From the volcanic rock on which it stands to the Honours of Scotland, the castle holds more than a thousand years of the country's story. Phil brings it to life before you step inside.
Learn moreThe Old Town
Medieval closes, the Canongate, and the Royal Mile — a walk through the layers of Edinburgh's history from plague years to the age of reason, with the stories that never appear on the signs.
Learn moreThe New Town & Dean Village
One of Europe's finest examples of Georgian planning, and a hidden riverside village that Edinburgh keeps to itself. A tour about ambition, architecture, and a city that reinvented itself.
Learn moreScottish National Gallery
Scotland's greatest collection of paintings, guided with the eye of someone who has spent years understanding what these works meant to the people who commissioned and created them.
Learn moreScottish History Through Pubs
The pub is where Scotland's social history was made. An evening walk through some of Edinburgh's oldest and most storied drinking establishments, with the history between the pints.
Learn moreDoon the Watter
A journey down the Firth of Clyde following the great Victorian tradition of Glasgow's working families escaping the city for the coast — seaside towns, steamer piers and the world that built them.
Learn moreStirling
Wallace, Bruce, Mary Queen of Scots — Stirling Castle sat at the centre of every great contest for Scotland. A half-day in a place that decided the nation's future more than once.
Learn moreGlasgow
Scotland's largest city on its own terms: Mackintosh, the Merchant City, the Clyde shipyards and a culture that is warmer, louder and less visited than it deserves to be.
Learn moreWhat guests say
Words from the road
"We'd visited Edinburgh twice before and thought we knew it fairly well. Phil showed us a city we hadn't seen. The detail he carries — and the way he uses it — is extraordinary."
Margaret & Tom H. — Boston, MA — September 2024
"Stirling Castle with Phil is a completely different experience from going alone. He had us gripped from the moment we arrived. We cancelled our afternoon plans to keep the conversation going over lunch."
David L. — San Francisco, CA — June 2024
"The pub tour was the highlight of the whole trip. Phil knows how to read a group and how to tell a story. By the end of the evening, Scotland made sense in a way it simply hadn't before."
Caroline & James W. — Chicago, IL — August 2024
Planning a trip to Scotland?
Contact Phil to discuss a private tour or a tailored itinerary. Every tour is arranged around what matters to you.
Get in touch