Parking in the Old Town & Grassmarket

I'll be honest with you: the Old Town is the hardest, priciest place to park in the whole city. It's central Zone 4 — top rate, max stays, and busy from morning till night. You can park here, but for most visits you'll save money and a lot of stress in a car park or a Park & Ride. Here's the full picture.

On-street parking in the Old Town

The Royal Mile closes, the Grassmarket, King's Stables Road, Lauriston and the streets around the Castle all sit in central Zone 4 — the most expensive and most heavily enforced zone in Edinburgh. During controlled hours you pay at the machine or on the RingGo app, at roughly £6.80 an hour, and crucially most central bays have a maximum stay (often only an hour or two), so you can't simply feed the meter all day. A lot of the kerb space is also residents' permit or loading only. In short: spaces are scarce, pricey and fiercely contested.

When is parking free in the Old Town?

Hardly ever, unlike the suburbs. Because Zone 4 is a central zone, it's charged six days a week and on Sunday afternoons. The only free windows on-street are:

• After 6:30pm, any evening; and
• Before 12:30pm on a Sunday (Sunday charging doesn't start until 12:30pm).

Outside those, you're paying the top rate — and the double yellow lines threaded all through the Old Town apply at all times.

Visiting the Castle or the Royal Mile?

The single most‑asked question I get. For the Castle and the top of the Royal Mile, the parking near Edinburgh Castle guide walks through your closest options — Castle Terrace being the main one. If you're coming from out of town, a Park & Ride plus the tram or a bus up to the centre is genuinely the least stressful way to do it.

Quick recap

• Central Zone 4, about £6.80/hr, with maximum stays.
• Charged Mon–Sat 8:30am–6:30pm and Sun 12:30pm–6:30pm.
• Free on-street only after 6:30pm and before 12:30pm on Sundays.
• For most visits, a car park or Park & Ride is cheaper and easier.
• Double yellows apply at all times.