Edzell Castle and Garden

PricingHalf price in your first year of English Heritage membership, then freeEH memberHalf, then freeNon-member£8.50

EH members: half price, then freeInfo

Half price, then free, for English Heritage members

This place is cared for by Historic Environment Scotland. First-year English Heritage members get 50% off the ticket price; members who have renewed get in free. Bring your valid membership card, and any pre-booked tickets, to ensure entry.

Pre-booking is recommended at Edinburgh Castle, Skara Brae, Stirling Castle, Blackness Castle, Urquhart Castle, Doune Castle and Maeshowe. Bookings are limited to six people per membership.
Bring the card itself: joint and family memberships admit the named holders only.
Historic Scotland does not offer reciprocal admission to National Trust properties, and a National Trust card is not accepted here.

More information

Entry

Non-member prices

Adult (aged 16 to 64)£8.50

Child (aged 7 to 15)£4.00

Concession (aged 65 and over)£6.80

Pricing details

In-person price; £7.50 booked online. One undated price table is published for the April to September season; recheck on reopening in 2027. Children under 7 free but need a ticket; up to two carers free per transaction; Young Scot card holders pay £1 online. Explorer Pass accepted in summer. No family ticket, joint ticket or audio guide. English Heritage members: half price in your first membership year and free after your first renewal, on showing a valid card; bookings capped at six people per membership. Historic Scotland members free.

In-person price; £3.50 booked online; under-7s free with a ticket. English Heritage members: half price in your first membership year and free after your first renewal, on showing a valid card; bookings capped at six people per membership. Historic Scotland members free.

In-person price; £6 booked online. English Heritage members: half price in your first membership year and free after your first renewal, on showing a valid card; bookings capped at six people per membership. Historic Scotland members free.

ParkingParking not known

The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.

Parking details

Historic Scotland says the level tarmac car park has a single accessible bay marked; visitors put it at about 30 spaces. No charge or free statement is published, so the status is recorded as unknown. A bicycle rack is listed.

Driving pin: the castle car park mapped on OpenStreetMap, 116 m from HES's pin. The castle is about a mile outside Edzell, near Brechin, about 15 minutes from the A90. Historic Scotland names no bus service, only its journey planners.

About

Edzell Castle stands a mile outside the village of Edzell, the red sandstone home of the Lindsays, a gifted, turbulent and tragic noble family who acquired the estate in 1358. David, 9th Earl of Crawford, began the grand residence in the 1500s around a tower house that is a fine example of a nobleman's home of the time; Mary Queen of Scots visited in 1562 and James VI stayed in 1580 and 1589. In 1604 his son Sir David Lindsay added the walled garden that makes Edzell unique in Scotland. Its walls carry carved panels of the Seven Cardinal Virtues, the Seven Liberal Arts and the Seven Planetary Deities, a distinctive work of the European Renaissance, and the parterre was recreated in the 1930s around clipped hedges and roses, with a summer house in the corner. Debts forced the sale of the estate in 1715. Bats, barn owls, hares and red squirrels live here now. Reviewers love the garden and suggest bringing a picnic.

ClosedPick a day for times and prices

Until 1 Apr: Closed
From 2 Apr: Fri–Sun 10:00–16:00, last entry 15:45

Today, Saturday 24 October

Edzell Castle and GardenClosed

Opening times may change at short notice.

1 April to 30 September Fridays to Sundays 10am to 4pm, closed Mondays to Thursdays; closed for lunch 12.30pm to 1.30pm; last entry 15 minutes before closing; closed 1 October to 31 March. 1 April 2027 is a Thursday, so the first open day is Friday 2 April. Historic Scotland recommends booking an entry slot in advance to guarantee entry. The castle's phone line is down. No notice on 18 October 2026, though visitors in 2025 and 2026 found parts of the castle closed or fenced off.

The visitor centre is about 150 m from the car park along a bound gravel path and some grass, reached by a short ramp, with an accessible toilet; a manual wheelchair can be borrowed. The castle's ground level has the kitchen, bakehouse and cellars and a cobbled courtyard; the tower house has a spiral stair of 61 steps with no handrail. The garden is 120 m from the visitor centre over a compacted stone path, with a grass path through it; the summer house has 23 spiral steps with no handrail and carved stones in its basement down a single step. Toilets and a picnic area; no cafe or audio guide.

Photo: The red sandstone tower house and ruined ranges of Edzell Castle rising behind the clipped hedges, topiary and yellow roses of the walled garden. Michael Garlick, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edzell_Castle_and_Garden_-_geograph.org.uk_-_4312974.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.