Is Greyfriars Kirkyard Free?
Yes, Greyfriars Kirkyard is free and open 24 hours a day, all year. Here is what costs nothing, what the kirk itself asks of visitors, and how to see the locked Covenanters Prison.
Is Greyfriars Kirkyard Free?
Yes. Greyfriars Kirkyard is completely free to enter, with no tickets, no donation gate and no closing time: Greyfriars Kirk's own site states that the kirkyard is open to visitors 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There is no admission mechanism of any kind, because it is a public graveyard rather than an attraction with a door and a till.
That sentence comes from the church itself, on its kirkyard page, and it is the strongest free claim in this part of Edinburgh. I went looking for a catch and found only one, and it does not involve money. The catch is that "Greyfriars" is really three different places that get bundled into one word, and only the first of them is free without conditions. A free walk covers this ground: Essential Historical Walk, Spanish.
The three parts are the kirkyard, the graveyard that spreads out behind the kirk; the kirk, the church building at the front, which is free but donation-funded and has an August quirk; and the Covenanters Prison, a walled section at the back whose iron gates are kept locked. Visitors who read that "Greyfriars is free" and then find a chained gate sometimes assume they have been misled. They have not. They have simply found the one locked corner of a free site.
The kirkyard sits just off the Royal Mile, a couple of minutes' walk from the top of Cockburn Street and George IV Bridge, where the famous Greyfriars Bobby statue stands. It is one of the most famous graveyards in the world, in the church's own words, and it costs nothing to wander. If your question ends there, the answer is a clean yes, and the rest of this page explains the two complications for readers who want to go further. This stop sits on a free walking route, Essential Walk With German Option.
For readers planning a fuller free day in the city, the kirkyard pairs naturally with the walks described in our guide to free walking tours in Edinburgh, several of which pass the gates on their route down the Royal Mile. It also sits inside the territory covered by the free Old Town walking tours guide, which lays out the whole Royal Mile corridor in walking order.
What Does It Cost To Go Inside Greyfriars Kirk?
The kirk building is free to enter, but it runs on donations and it is closed to general visitors on many days in August, when it becomes a Fringe venue. Entry to the Kirk is free, although donations are encouraged, in the church's own words, so the honest description is donation-supported rather than unconditionally free in spirit. Nothing is compulsory.
The church's site is unusually plain about the economics. Donations, it says, help keep the doors open, maintain the building, preserve more than 400 years of history and support its arts and cultural programme. A suggested figure is not published for the kirk, so I will not invent one. What is published is the August arrangement, and it catches out a surprising number of summer visitors.
Throughout August, Greyfriars Kirk is a Fringe Festival venue. That means it is closed for general visiting on many days that month, while ticketed Fringe events run inside. If you arrive in festival season expecting a quiet look around the interior, you may find a box office queue instead. Outside August the pattern is simpler, and the church publishes free information boards with a self-guided tour on entry, in several languages, which is a genuinely free extra that most visitors walk straight past.
One distinction worth holding onto: the kirkyard never closes, the kirk sometimes does. A 24-hour graveyard next to a church that keeps ordinary opening hours confuses people at midnight and at lunchtime alike. Neither part charges admission at the door, and neither has ever asked for a booking to look around.
How Do You Get Into The Covenanters Prison?
The Covenanters Prison, the walled section at the rear of the kirkyard, is locked and cannot be entered on an ordinary visit. Access is arranged through the City of Edinburgh Council's bereavement team, which can be emailed at bereavement@edinburgh.gov.uk, and the Friends of Greyfriars Kirkyard run free tours and open days that include the whole cemetery.
The gates have been regularly chained and locked over the past few years, and the reason is preservation rather than profit. The section holds historic graves and heritage structures that were being worn by unrestricted footfall, so the council, which owns the graveyard, restricted entry. Nothing about the lock involves an entrance fee. There is no ticket to buy and no price list, only an arrangement to make.
That arrangement is easier than it sounds. The council's bereavement team handles access requests by email, and the Friends of Greyfriars Kirkyard hold free tours and open days that let visitors into the entire cemetery, locked corners included. Their events are announced on their own channels, so if the prison is the part you most want to see, checking the Friends' programme before a trip is the practical move. This stop sits on a free walking route, Harry Potter, Brújula Free Tours.
The Covenanters Prison matters because of what happened there. It held Covenanters, prisoners of the religious conflicts that tore Scotland in the killing time, in conditions that made the site a place of memorial ever since. The tomb of George Mackenzie, the man whose name is attached to that persecution, stands nearby, and the "Mackenzie Poltergeist" stories that grew around it are the reason the kirkyard became a fixture of Edinburgh's ghost-walk circuit. The stories are folklore, but the graveyard's role in them is why so many tours stop at the gates.
The Body Snatchers, 1h45 Walk meets at the Covenanters Memorial on the Grassmarket, a short walk down from the kirkyard gates, and covers the resurrection-men trade that made Edinburgh's graveyards fortify themselves against the anatomists. It is rated 4.93 out of 5 across 56 GuruWalk reviews and runs in English.
What Can You See In The Kirkyard Without Paying Anything?
Everything visible from the public paths is free: the Greyfriars Bobby statue on Candlemaker Row, the Covenanter monuments, the Mackenzie tomb's exterior, the watchtowers and mortsafe cages built against body-snatchers, and the graves of figures from Edinburgh's past. There is no fee, no guided-only zone and no part of the open yard where a ticket is demanded. One of the free walking routes passes through here: 3-Hour Old Town History, Spanish.
The kirkyard rewards slow wandering more than any paid attraction nearby. The graveyard's ironwork is the part people remember: heavy metal cages, called mortsafes, bolted over plots to stop resurrection-men digging bodies out for the anatomists, and a watchtower built for the same grim purpose. They are a physical record of the body-snatching trade that later earned Edinburgh its dark-tour reputation, and they are visible from the public paths at no cost. The rest of the planning pages sit on Free Things to Do in Edinburgh.
The graves themselves tell the city's story. The Covenanter martyrs' memorials give the prison section its meaning even from outside the locked gates, and the Mackenzie tomb, a blackened mausoleum in its own enclosure, is the site the ghost stories orbit around. The Greyfriars Bobby statue stands just outside on Candlemaker Row, and the small dog's grave lies within the yard, which is why the site draws dog lovers as well as history and horror fans.
| Part of Greyfriars | Cost | Access condition |
|---|---|---|
| The kirkyard (open yard) | Free | Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year |
| Greyfriars Kirk (church building) | Free, donations encouraged | Closed to general visitors many days in August as a Fringe venue |
| Covenanters Prison (walled section) | Free, no ticket sold | Gates locked; email the council's bereavement team or join a Friends of Greyfriars open day |
| Greyfriars Bobby statue | Free | Public pavement on Candlemaker Row |
A word on timing, since the yard never closes but daylight does not follow suit. Early morning and late evening are the quiet windows, and they are also the hours when the graveyard is at its most atmospheric. Midday brings tour groups moving between the Royal Mile and the Grassmarket, so photographers after an empty frame do better at the edges of the day. One of the free walking routes passes through here: 2-Hour Walk With A Famous Dog.
Are The Ghost Stories The Reason Tours Stop Here?
Yes. Greyfriars is the anchor of Edinburgh's ghost-walk circuit because the Mackenzie poltergeist folklore and the Covenanters' history give guides a story with a real address, and several pay-what-you-want walks on GuruWalk include the kirkyard gates or the surrounding closes on their routes. The graveyard itself stays free; the tours are tip-based.
The folklore around the Mackenzie tomb spread widely enough that the kirkyard became a fixture of the city's dark-history walks, and that in turn made it one of the most-visited graveyards in Britain. I have not joined these walks, so I will not rank them from experience, but the roster figures and the routes are checkable, and the kirkyard's place on them is consistent.
The Ghosts and Mysteries, Royal Mile walk is a two-hour pay-what-you-want tour rated 4.51 out of 5 across 176 GuruWalk reviews, running in English, Spanish and Italian, and meeting on the Royal Mile. It covers the Old Town's haunted closes and churchyards in the territory around Greyfriars. Readers weighing the free versus paid options in this genre can compare the landscape in our guide to free ghost tours in Edinburgh.
For a broader sense of how these pay-what-you-want walks work, and what a guide actually gets paid, our explainer on how free walking tours in Edinburgh work covers the mechanics without a sales pitch. The short version: the walk costs nothing to reserve, the guide is paid by tips, and nobody is turned away for tipping nothing.
How Does Greyfriars Fit Into A Free Day In Edinburgh?
Greyfriars slots neatly into a free Old Town circuit: the Royal Mile itself is a public street, the Museum of Edinburgh, the Writers' Museum and the People's Story are all free council museums on or just off it, and the kirkyard sits two minutes off the Mile at the George IV Bridge end. A full free day is possible without buying a single ticket. This stop sits on a free walking route, History And Fun Facts Walk.
Start at the castle end, where the paid attractions bookend the route, and work down. Edinburgh Castle is paid, at £23.50 for an adult online, so a free day treats its walls and the Royal Mile below them as the view rather than the destination. The free council museums sit along the way: the Writers' Museum in Lady Stair's Close, the Museum of Edinburgh on the Canongate, and the People's Story in the old Tolbooth. Greyfriars branches off at the top of the Mile, and the Grassmarket below it gives the walk a natural loop.
The church landscape around the city is worth a note here, because it is changing. St Giles' Cathedral, further down the Mile, is moving to a £12 visitor charge from September 2026, with free access continuing for Scottish residents and under-16s, as reported by the Edinburgh Evening News. Greyfriars Kirk, by contrast, publishes no charge and asks only for donations, and the kirkyard asks for nothing at all. Our guide to free churches and cathedrals in Edinburgh tracks which doors are genuinely open without a ticket. One of the free walking routes passes through here: Full Historical Walk, 2h15.
For readers planning around the whole city rather than one graveyard, the site's free things to do in Edinburgh roundups cover museums, parks and viewpoints, and this page is part of that same directory. The kirkyard's own pages, at greyfriarskirk.com, carry the kirk's current opening pattern and the donation wording quoted above.
Common Questions About Greyfriars Kirkyard
Is Greyfriars Kirkyard Free?
Yes. The kirkyard is free to enter with no tickets and no donation gate, and Greyfriars Kirk's own site states it is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The kirk building is also free, with donations encouraged, and the locked Covenanters Prison section costs nothing but must be arranged in advance.
Can you visit Greyfriars Kirkyard at night?
Yes. The church's own page says the kirkyard is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, so there is no closing time to work around. The kirk building keeps ordinary opening hours, and the Covenanters Prison gates stay locked regardless of hour.
Why is the Covenanters Prison locked?
The gates have been regularly chained and locked in recent years to protect the historic graves and heritage structures from wear. Access can be arranged by emailing the City of Edinburgh Council's bereavement team at bereavement@edinburgh.gov.uk, and the Friends of Greyfriars Kirkyard run free tours and open days that include the whole cemetery.
Is Greyfriars Kirk free to enter?
Entry to the Kirk is free, although donations are encouraged, in the church's own words. Note that throughout August it operates as a Fringe venue and is closed for general visiting on many days, with ticketed events running instead.
Where is the Greyfriars Bobby statue?
The statue stands on Candlemaker Row, on the public pavement just outside the kirkyard gates near the George IV Bridge end of the Royal Mile. It is free to see at any hour, and the dog's grave lies inside the kirkyard.
Do you have to pay for a ghost tour to enjoy the kirkyard?
No. Everything in the open yard is free, including the mortsafes, the Covenanter memorials and the Mackenzie tomb's exterior. The pay-what-you-want ghost walks that stop at the gates, such as Ghosts and Mysteries, Royal Mile, cost nothing to reserve, with guides paid by tips.