Edinburgh Castle tops Scotland's visitor attraction list

By Cara Sulieman
Edinburgh Castle: More visitors come to castle than any other Scottish tourism site.© Deadline

Edinburgh Castle has been announced as Scotland’s most popular visitor attraction with more than 1.2 million people going through the door last year.

It is the highest number of visitors to a single paid or free attraction in Scotland.

The National Galleries complex in Edinburgh – which includes five different galleries – saw almost 1.3 million people in the same period.

Scotland has 21 sites in the list of the UK’s most popular, three of which are in the top 20.

The National Galleries are the 14th most popular in the UK, followed by the castle at 16th and Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow in 19th place with just over 1 million visitors.

Kelvingrove remains Scotland's most popular free attraction.

The annual figures were released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA), whose members include some of the country’s most popular tourist sires, including the Tate Modern and the Tower of London.

Other Scottish attractions in the list include the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh which saw just over 700,000 people visit last year, the National Museum of Scotland where numbers were just over 600,000.

Historic Scotland, who run Edinburgh Castle, reported its best period on record in December last year with the castle seeing an increase of 12% in September alone.

The figures released on Wednesday show that the annual numbers for the attraction have increased overall by 1%.

Other attractions they run feature on the list including Stirling Castle where just under 400,000 visitors went last year and Urquhart Castle with just under 300,000 visitors.

The culture minister Fiona Hyslop said that the figures were good news for the Scottish economy.

Ms Hyslop added: "The fact that the castle has sustained its numbers in the face of two unprecedented events - the ash cloud at the beginning of the year and the extreme weather at the end of the year, and on the back of a very strong season the year before, illustrates the enduring appeal of the castle as a brand and the hard work of staff to provide a world-class visitor experience.

"The castle is a Scottish icon, with a strong global pull and identity, but it's important that we continue to evolve our offering to attract a new generation of visitors."

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