Covid in Scotland: Huge drop in visitors to Edinburgh Castle
- Published
The castle reopened in August after closing in March
Edinburgh Castle is to remain open despite seeing a huge drop in visitor numbers due to tighter Covid restrictions.
One of the top visitor attractions in Scotland, it usually sees 10,000 people a day through its gate but it had just 148 visitors on Monday.
Edinburgh is currently in level three of Covid restrictions which means only locals can visit the historic site.
Historic Environment Scotland said it would keep an eye on the situation.
It said visitor numbers averaged at almost three-quarters of capacity after it reopened in August.
However there were just 475 visitors last Sunday, ahead of the introduction of the new Covid protection levels in Scotland on Monday.
An Historic Environment Scotland spokesman said: "Clearly, given the current situation across Scotland and the restrictions in place to halt further spread of Covid-19, we are likely to see a temporary drop in visitor numbers to usually hugely popular sites like Edinburgh Castle.
"Since reopening the castle in August after the initial lockdown, visitor numbers have been averaging 72% of the site's current capacity which was capped due to new health and safety measure we put in place.
"However, since restrictions have again tightened under the new tier system, clearly, as is the case with many other businesses and attractions, that is going to have an effect on visitor numbers.
"As the Covid pandemic continues, we will keep an eye on the situation and review matters accordingly.
"For now however, Edinburgh Castle remains open."
- Published1 August 2020
