Your guide to 53 things to do with kids in Edinburgh, including Giants and DYNAMIC EARTH INTERACTIVE GALLERIES, and more — updated weekly. (Updated August…
6 kids activities and family events are listed in Edinburgh right now, including 2 free things to do.
Updated August 2026
Where to take children in Edinburgh — the free national museums, the hills and beaches, what works at each age, and how to manage the Old Town with a buggy.
The National Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street is the strongest family day out in the city and free: Dolly the sheep, the Scottish galleries, the Millennium Clock and an entire floor of hands-on science, plus a roof terrace with a Castle view most visitors miss. Edinburgh Castle earns its ticket for the One O'Clock Gun, the Crown Jewels and Mons Meg, and Camera Obscura on the Royal Mile is the best-value hour in the Old Town for 6–12s. Edinburgh Zoo at Corstorphine has the penguin parade and a steep hill that doubles as the day's exercise.
For more space, Holyrood Park puts a genuine hill walk up Arthur's Seat inside the city, Portobello beach is 20 minutes by bus with sand and a promenade, and the Royal Botanic Garden is free with a Chinese hillside and glasshouse. Further out, Dynamic Earth by the Parliament, the Royal Yacht Britannia at Ocean Terminal and Deep Sea World across the Forth at North Queensferry all take half a day each. Start with the top 10 attractions for kids in Edinburgh.
Scotland's national collections are free, which covers the National Museum of Scotland, the Scottish National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery and Modern One and Two with their sculpture grounds. The city adds the free Museum of Childhood and Museum of Edinburgh on the Royal Mile, the Writers' Museum, and the Royal Botanic Garden. Outdoors costs nothing at all: Arthur's Seat and St Margaret's Loch, Calton Hill for the easiest big view in the city, Inverleith Park's playground and pond, the Water of Leith walkway from Stockbridge to Dean Village, and Portobello and Cramond beaches. Cramond also has a causeway to the island at low tide — check the tide table first.
For scheduled free activity, see free events for kids in Edinburgh — library bookbug sessions, museum drop-ins and ranger walks in Holyrood Park.
Haar and horizontal rain are part of the deal, so keep two indoor options in reserve. The National Museum of Scotland can absorb a whole wet day for free; Dynamic Earth's 4D dome and Camera Obscura's illusion floors work for 6–12s; and the Museum of Childhood is a short, dry stop on the Royal Mile. For active indoor time there is Edinburgh International Climbing Arena at Ratho — the largest indoor climbing arena in the world, with clip-and-climb walls for children — plus Ryze trampoline park, Little Marco's soft play and Midlothian Snowsports Centre at Hillend. The Scottish Storytelling Centre and the Traverse both programme family shows outside festival season.
Filter to museum events for kids in Edinburgh for indoor sessions with a fixed start time.
Toddlers (0–4): Inverleith Park and the Botanics, the Museum of Childhood, Gorgie City Farm, the Portobello prom and library Bookbug sessions. Keep the Old Town cobbles for later — they are hard work with a pushchair.
Ages 5–8: Edinburgh Zoo, Camera Obscura, the National Museum's Adventure Planet gallery, Deep Sea World and the beach at Cramond. Activities for children aged 6–11 lists what is on for this bracket now.
Ages 9–12: Arthur's Seat, the Castle and the Real Mary King's Close for the grislier history, Dynamic Earth, Ratho's climbing walls, and Hillend for dry-slope skiing. This age also gets more from museum workshops and talks than from craft tables aimed at younger children.
Lothian Buses cover everything and under-22s resident in Scotland travel free with a Young Scot card; visitors pay a flat child fare and need exact change or contactless. The tram runs airport to Newhaven via Princes Street and is step-free throughout, which helps with a buggy. The city is walkable but vertical: the Old Town is cobbled and stepped, so with a pram stick to the Bridges and Princes Street rather than the closes and the Playfair Steps. Driving in is awkward — the centre has a low-emission zone and controlled parking, so use a park-and-ride such as Ingliston or Hermiston. In August the Fringe fills the centre; book family shows early and expect the Royal Mile to be impassable with a pushchair in the afternoons.