St Cecilia's Hall

What it’s like

A hands-on instrument museum where kids get a digital guide to poke through 150-odd historic instruments, plus the odd mini concert.

The museum's free to wander round, and the trick is the digital guide that comes with entry. Point it at an instrument and you get the audio clip, so a curious eight-year-old can spend a genuinely long time going case to case working out what a serpent or a hurdy-gurdy actually sounds like. There are family activity trails to follow too, including a Halloween-themed one, which gives you a bit of structure if you'd rather not just wander.

If you time it right there are curator or volunteer-led tours that go into the instruments and the building itself, and musical demonstrations that turn into mini concerts. Those are the bit worth building your visit around rather than an afterthought, since a five-minute live demo of something odd-looking beats a screen every time.

It's open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 till 5, with last entry at half four, and shut Sunday and Monday, so this isn't a weekend rescue plan if you turn up on a Sunday. There's a lift up to the first floor galleries and the Concert Room as well as stairs, and accessible toilets on the ground floor, so a buggy or a wheelchair isn't a problem. Parking's the genuine faff here: Cowgate's on-street parking is very limited, and your realistic options are the car parks at the Radisson Blu or the Travelodge on St Mary's Street. If you're coming by train, Waverley's under ten minutes on foot, which is probably the easier call.

Evening concerts run separately from the free daytime museum, with tickets in the £11 to £16.25 range depending on the show, so that's a different sort of outing, more date night than toddler trip.

Facilities

Need to know

Last entry

16:30

Parking

Very limited on-street parking on Cowgate

Wheelchairs

Wheelchair and mobility scooter access

Getting there by bus or train

Edinburgh Waverley Train Station less than 10 minute walk away

• Closed Sundays and Mondays, so plan round that
• Last entry is 4.30pm even though the museum shuts at 5
• Waverley Station is under a 10 minute walk if you'd rather skip the parking hassle
• Evening concerts are a separate ticketed thing from the daytime museum visit

Plan your visit

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