Old Town Educational Guided Tour
Thank you for choosing Historic Edinburgh Tours as your guide for your Old Edinburgh excursion.
We've included answers to typical questions as well as sample risk assessments, possible route dangers, and other information in this pack.
Your pupils will be using the Old Town section of Edinburgh's UNESCO World Heritage Site as a backdrop to educational exercises that relate to the Curriculum for Excellence. We're really excited to be able to take them around this magnificent place!
The laminated worksheets we use on the tours are constructed so that younger pupils can use and analyse evidence such as maps, historical images, photographs of artefacts and eyewitness accounts.
The questions and activities which have been planned for the tour have been deliberately designed to increase pupils levels of observation and enquiry.
Themes Covered
Please note that your specific tour may vary based on the age of your pupils and your time requirements.
How to use maps as historical evidence
Compare different maps and different images to understand how areas have changed
Looking at historical artefacts and placing them within a historical context
Using eyewitness accounts to understand an event from history
The story of Deacon William Brodie
Living conditions in an Old Town close
Death and burial in Edinburgh between 1600 and 1830
Curriculum for Excellence
The laminated worksheets address the Curriculum for Excellence in a number of ways. However, our main focus will be on the following;
I can use primary and secondary sources selectively to research events in the past. SOC 2-01a
and
I can interpret historical evidence from a range of periods to help to build a picture of Scotland’s heritage and my sense of chronology. SOC 2-02a
Skills
A large number of skills relevant to the stages of learning for the upper primary years are identified through visiting the Old Town. These include predicting, observation, surveying, confidence building, forming opinions, seeking opinions other than self, teamwork, and listening.
Questions you may have
What information should I give to Historic Edinburgh Tours before the tour takes place?
Please let your guide know if you have a very specific time you need the tour to end by. We try our best to stick to times, but weather conditions, crowds, pupils with additional physical needs, etc. can all affect tour durations. If you let us know at the start of the tour, ideally before the day of the tour, we will try our best to accommodate you.
Because part of our tour takes place in a graveyard, it would be very helpful to know if any of your pupils have experienced any significant bereavements which may affect them.
What we cover depends on how quickly we can move from location to location. If you have any pupils who might find the walking hard, please let us know so that we can sensitively alter the tour without making it apparent to the other pupils.
When will my tour take place?
Your visit will be scheduled on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday morning.
Our morning tours start at Greyfriars Kirkyard between 9.30 and 9.45 and aim to finish near to Parliament Square at around 12noon. Please allow 15 minutes overspill at the end (although we do try to keep on time!)
Your tour starts at Greyfriars Kirkyard, just next to the tomb for Greyfriars Bobby at the front of the church. This is next to the entrance at the top of Candlemaker Row, next to Greyfriars Bobby's Bar and opposite the Museum of Scotland. (We don't meet you at the statue.)
What should I discuss with my class beforehand?
We ask that you ensure your group knows that Edinburgh's Old Town is a busy place and that pupils will have to be aware of other pavement users. Occasionally parts of the Old Town may be shut off (church services outside St Giles for example). Your guide will endeavour to offer alternative locations and will try his best to stick to the tour times.
This tour can serve as a useful introductory experience to an Old Edinburgh project, or as a finale to your project. The pupils do not have to have any prior knowledge before they come on the tour.
How appropriate is this tour?
This tour is suitable for pupils in P5 and over. It does contain a section in a graveyard and stories about the hangings of Maggie Dickson, Deacon Brodie, and William Burke. We include these because they seem to be very popular parts of typical 'Old Edinburgh' projects. It also looks at the bodysnatchers and anatomists who lived and worked in Edinburgh. We do 'downgrade' the stories from our adult tours, and we have had good feedback from our educational tours.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
What should we bring?
Please come equipped with outdoor weather clothes. Edinburgh can be a wet and windy place, particularly in the winter. Your tour will take place regardless of weather unless you decide to cancel it.
Pupils can bring a snack and a drink. A break will be included in Greyfriars Kirkyard before the 'Old Town' part of the tour commences.
Clipboards, pens, pencils are not needed at all! We respectfully suggest that any classes which use iPads only bring one per group for photograph opportunities. Your class will use our laminated interactive sheets. We bring those, so you don't have to resource anything!
Who does what on the tour?
School staff - Teachers and adults are responsible for the safety and behaviour of their group of pupils. Your tour guide will focus on delivering the learning.
We ask that at least one teacher or adult for every ten children to be allocated to the group, to ensure the safety of the students and to allow for adequate supervision. Ensure that your group knows the standards of behaviour expected of them, please.
Where do we stop on tour and
what stories do we cover?
Stop 1 – Greyfriars Kirkyard
Here we will learn about Greyfriars Bobby before looking at the designs on early 17th century tombs. We will use this to 'date' other tombs by sight and then the pupils will get a chance to work out how the bodies were buried at this time.
We will learn a little about William Carstairs, a one-time spy, and how he was tortured using the thumbscrews. Pupils will see an example of this in action and examine a replica as a historical artefact.
Pupils will explore two tombs to find out how average life expectancy in the Old Town could vary…and why.
We will have a quick look at the tomb of Sir George Mackenzie and learn how his tomb was used by Deacon William Brodie before exploring a mortsafe and learning about how the bodysnatchers operated in Edinburgh.
We have a short break here where snacks can be eaten.
Questions answered include…
How did Greyfriars Kirkyard change over time?
Why were some grave spaces more desirable than others?
What information can a tomb/monument give us?
What did bodysnatchers do and why did they exist?
Stop 2 – Grassmarket Execution Spot
In the Grassmarket, we will hear the story of 'Half-hangit Maggie Dickson' and learn how she might have survived her hanging. We will look at an old image of the West Bow, one of the most atmospheric and important Old Town streets, before exploring it ourselves as we head up to the Ovir Bow at Victoria Terrace.
Stop 3 – The Ovir Bow
We stop half-way up the route of the old West Bow and learn about how it has changed, and why, over the years. We make an assumption on the reliability of some evidence before looking at two archive maps of this area. We make links from the maps to pictures and what we see today and work out what has changed.
Questions answered include…
What was this street once called?
What is it called now?
What was once at the top of this street and what do we know about it?
What evidence can we see of this street's past today?
Stop 4 – Riddle's Court
A very quick stop as we hear and see what money bought you in the Old Town. We look at what the difference between closes, wynds, streets and courts were.
Stop 4 – Parliament Square
This is our longest stop (and possibly our most fascinating!) We will look at maps and old images to work out what the Tolbooth looked like. We will hear some stories about life in this prison before we 'recreate' the prison by holding hands around its perimeter.
We will then use a variety of different sources about Deacon William Brodie to learn a little of his story and hear how public hangings changed over time. Hearing an eyewitness account of his execution might make us wonder about a few things (given information amassed so far on the tour…)
Questions answered include…
Where were most prisoners kept?
What could you be put in jail for?
How did the jail building change over time?
Who is the criminal and what can secondary sources tell us about him?
What kind of criminal was he?
Why did he become a criminal?
What can we tell about what happened at his execution?
What was suspicious about his last moments and why might these have happened?
Stop 5 – Advocate's or Barrie's Close
Our stop here sees us learning about the geology of the Old Town before hearing about Old Town life and how the living conditions in a close affected people. Gardy Loo is mentioned, and we examine evidence which reveals just how unsavoury life was in a close such as this 150 and more years ago. This is our final 'interactive' stop; our last two locations give the class a break from analysing evidence and lets them just listen to some of the most interesting Old Town stories.
Questions answered include…
What were the features of living quarters in an Old Town close?
What problems were there with living conditions in the Old Town?
What objects would people use to cope with these problems?
How were New Town buildings an improvement over Old Town buildings?
What advantages were there in Old Town living?
Why did some people brick up their windows?
For more information on our school tours and visits, please contact:
Robert Howie
Historic Edinburgh Tours Ltd
P 07590 026 077
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Example Risk Assessment
(Please note that this is provided purely as an example of the types of hazards which may occur on the tour. Please use your own risk assessment procedures.)
Potential Hazard / Possible Likelihood and/or Seriousness of Injury / Control Measures To Be Put In Place / Assessment of Remaining RiskTraffic / Possible and potentially very serious. / Supervision of children by class teachers and parents. / Still a risk
Pavement, steps and road conditions due to weather or repair / Likely and could be serious. / Children asked to wear appropriate shoes for walking
Supervision of children by school staff. / Still a risk
Child wandering away from group / Possible and potentially very serious. / Supervision of children by school staff and parents.
Clear information to children to remain in class line and not to leave group. This should be given by teacher before the tour starts. / Still a risk
Needles/broken glass in Greyfriars / Possible and potentially very serious. / Supervision of children by school staff and parents. Clear information not to touch anything on the ground and to stay with the group at all times. / Still a risk.
Tetanus from rusty metal around the mortsafe / Possible and potentially very serious. / Pupils to be told not to touch mortsafe and to clean hands with sterile wipes (teachers first aid kits should have these). / Still a risk.
Your tour route
Location/Crossing / Notes / Activity
Greyfriars Kirkyard
(Candlemaker Row) / Parent helpers and school staff to be vigilant for any needles or broken glass within the Kirkyard. / Short talk about Greyfriars Bobby, investigation on grave 'fashions', look at William Carstairs and the 'thumbscrews', discussion on life expectancy in the Old Town between 1700 and 1850, look at the mortsafe
Candlemaker Row to Cowgatehead/
Grassmarket / Crossing at Grassmarket – very busy usually.
/ Story of the hanging of Maggie Dickson. Investigation into the West Bow.
Grassmarket to West Bow at Victoria Terrace / Steep flight of stairs up to the Ovir Bow. Wheelchair access not a possibility (although teacher/parent could take a wheelchair to Victoria Street/George IV Bridge and then double back on Victoria Terrace). / Continue investigation into the West Bow
Ovir Bow to Parliament Square / Very busy double crossing at George IV Bridge (at G and V Hotel – former Missoni).
/ Stop at Riddle's Court to look at differences between a close, a wynd, a street and a court.
Parliament Square / Busy area – staff to help keep pupils together, especially when 'recreating the Tolbooth'
The following two stops are optional. They are very worthwhile and interesting but add between 30-40 minutes onto the tour. / Pupils will learn about the Tolbooth building and how it was used over time. Then they will learn about the different methods used to hang criminals before hearing an eyewitness account of the hanging of Deacon William Brodie.
High School Wynd / Pupils will hear stories of Burke and Hare and their links to this area.
Contact information