A historic room, two minutes off the Royal Mile.
Riddles Court sits in a close just off the Royal Mile, deep in Edinburgh's Old Town — a restored historic building with wood-panelled rooms, tall windows and the kind of age and character you can't build new. It's a genuinely atmospheric setting for a wedding: the sort of room that does most of the work for you before a single word of the ceremony is spoken.
Rebecca & Cameron's day
Rebecca and Cameron married here on a Friday afternoon in July, in one of the wood-panelled rooms with guests packed in close and a quaich passed between two families. It was my first ceremony at Riddles Court, and my first wedding in Edinburgh altogether — the room made that a very easy introduction. Read Rebecca & Cameron's full wedding story here — a Clapham pub, a proposal by Krakow Castle, and a very unusual chat-up line.
Why Riddles Court works
I'll be upfront: this is new territory for me. My usual patch is Glasgow, Ayrshire and the west of Scotland, so I'm still building up the same depth of venue knowledge in Edinburgh that I have elsewhere. What I can say from having stood at the front of the room is that Riddles Court's period features — panelling, tall windows, genuine age — give a ceremony real warmth and gravity without any extra dressing, and its size makes for an intimate, guests-close-in kind of day rather than a cavernous one. Scottish traditions sit naturally here: a quaich toast works beautifully in a room with this much history, and because humanist ceremonies are legally binding anywhere in Scotland, there's real freedom in how you shape the day. I'm happy to travel through to Edinburgh for the right couple — it isn't part of my usual no-travel-fee patch, so travel is simply arranged individually once we're talking dates. Couples coming from England, or planning something more low-key, may also want to look at the destination weddings page, and the paperwork guide if you're marrying away from home.
More venues & places I know inside out: The Cruin · Ross Priory · Ardoch · Fruin Farm · Kinlochard Village Hall · Isles of Glencoe · Skye · South Uist · Òran Mór · Cottiers · Cats Castle