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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Sian Traynor

Edinburgh Mary King's Close to offer new tour showcasing the city's LGBT history

Mary King's Close have announced they will be running a series of tours looking back into the city's LGBT history.

As part of Pride month, the popular tourist attraction will be offering a slightly different experience than their usual spooky offerings, starting from June 10.

Sharing over four centuries of Scotland's 'untold' LGBT history, guides will be telling visitors of real stories as far back as 1546, all the way up to 1912.

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Each guide for the tours is set to be a historical figure from the Edinburgh LGBT community, and will lead groups down the close but also up the Royal Mile as part of the experience.

These will include Robert Fergusson, a Scottish poet who was a member of secret soceity the Cape Club, as well as 19th-century physician, Sophia Jex-Blake, who had several intimate friendships with women over her lifetime.

Other insightful figures include Henry Stuart Lord Darnley, who lived in Edinburgh from 1556 and had claims to both the Scottish and English thrown as a descendent of James II of Scotland and Henry VII of England.

Many historians agree that Henry was likely to be either gay or bisexual and may have had a romantic affair with Mary, Queen of Scots’ private secretary, David Rizzio.

With tickets priced at £23 per adult and £15.95 per child (5-15 years), the one-hour guided tours will start at The Real Mary King’s Close, Warriston's Close, at 5.15pm and 5.30pm on six separate dates during Pride Month, including Friday 10 th , 17 th and 24 th June, as well as Saturday 11 th , 18 th and 25 th June.

Paul Nixon, General Manager, from The Real Mary King’s Close said:

“We’re extremely proud to be working with LGBT Youth Scotland and The University of Stirling to reveal over four centuries of Scotland’s untold LGBT history as part of Pride month in June.

“Our series of six ‘Pride History Tours’ have been carefully designed to reveal the previously untold stories of LGBT community life in Edinburgh from as far back as 1546, at a time when homosexuality was a crime.

“We hope these tours will go some way to highlighting how far we’ve come in terms of LGBTI equality and human rights, as well as celebrating Scotland’s LGBT history.”

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