Walking tour in Scottish city tops UK’s best free tourist attraction list

A WALKING tour in Edinburgh has topped a list of the UK’s best free tourist attractions.

The Potter Trail, located in the Scottish capital, asks visitors to grab their “wand and cloak” as they discover the “magical” locations that inspired characters and scenes in the Harry Potter series.

Among the locations the tour takes fans of the series to the site where Lord Voldemort’s father is buried, the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the first book and a trip down the real life Diagon Alley.

The free walking tours take thousands of tourists around the city every year and has topped the table, which was created by Village Hotels as they analysed Tripadvisor reviews, to find the UK’s free family-friendly attractions with the highest percentage of five-star reviews.

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The Potter Trail has beaten over attractions across the UK like the John Ryland Library in Manchester and the British Museum in London to the top spot.

It boasts an impressive 93.91% five-star review rating which comfortably beat second places Royal Air Force Museum Cosford’s 80.68%.

The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (below) in Glasgow made the top 10 as it came in eighth place, with a five-star review percentage of 73.01%.

(Image: PA)

The Potter Trail was founded in 2012 by Stuart Young who said his first tours were only attended by a handful of people.

Since then, the free walks have grown in popularity, and they now offer five tours every day and have 10 tour guides.

Early members of the tour guide group were from Edinburgh University’s Comedy Society which Young says all of the guides are still trained comic performers and that it adds to the charm of the tours.

He said: “We like to think this gives us a unique enthusiasm and theatricality in what we do, and our customers tend to think so too.”

Information on the Potter Trail can be found here.