Ian and Colin

The Rebustours were launched in 2000, following close consultation with Ian Rankin and his UK publishers Orion Books Limited.
Since then, several thousands of people have come on the tours from all over the world and during the period of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August each year the tours are regularly sold out. The tours were rated in the top three walking tours of Edinburgh by The Scotsman newspaper in 2003.

In recent years some of the participants on the tours have included: the Lothian and Borders Police force; groups from several universities and further education colleges in the UK and USA; a pathologist from Germany; a judge from Canada; journalists and travel writers; readers’ circles and librarians. The tours have been used within study programmes in Edinburgh by the University of California at Davis, the University of Wisconsin and Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

Ian Rankin has joined several special Rebustours evening walks as part of a fundraising event for an Edinburgh children’s charity and participants were thrilled to meet him in the pub and chat over a beer or two!

Here are some recent comments.

It was fantastic to get a real context to the books I've read so many times. I'm realy looking forward to revisiting them with fresh eyes, and a new understanding of
Rebus' world.

Colin was fascinating...I loved the story of the French sailor who jumped off the bridge three times, the genesis of 'Knots and Crosses' and the stories of old Edinburgh.

The tour was full of Edinburgh history- my friend is a big Rebus fan, and I was amazed by how much Colin was able to tell us about this ancient city along the way. I'd recommend the tour to anyone with an interest in old Edinburgh.

Going on the Rebustour was the best field trip of my life
- Jane, student, University of Wisconsin, USA

These days Edinburgh has no shortage of literary tours but the Rebustours stand out from the crowd by offering something just that little bit different
- www.travelscotland.com

One of my favourite parts was when you read the excerpt about the man on top of Salisbury Crags while we were looking right at them
- Stephanie, Manchester, England

Take the tour and you can even drink in Rebus’ favoured pubs and pick up a dab of local history besides. Rankin himself has even been along and said: “I learned quite a bit – I remembered things about my own books I’d managed to forget”.
-Toronto Star, January 2003

Your tour was - as they say in California - awesome. Thank you so much!
- American Women's Club of Central Scotland