The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh's Botanics Lights trail is one of Scotland's most popular festive events. Every November and December, the gardens are transformed after dark by thousands of illuminated installations. And The Garden Rooms Edinburgh is right next door.
The entrance gate is approximately two minutes on foot from our own garden gate. You can walk over in the evening, spend an hour or two among the lights, and walk back. No taxi, no parking, no queueing to leave. Just a two-minute walk back to a warm studio, an outdoor bath already filling, and the rest of the evening your own.
What is Botanics Lights?
Botanics Lights is an evening illuminated trail through the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, running every year from November through to the end of December. It runs Thursday to Sunday most weeks, with some weeknight sessions added closer to Christmas.
The trail takes around 60 to 90 minutes to walk at a comfortable pace. Each year has a different theme and different installations. Some are created specifically for the event; others are returning favourites. The woodland sections are particularly beautiful: trees lit from below, coloured light filtering through the canopy, paths transformed into something genuinely otherworldly.
It is not a small local event. Botanics Lights sells tens of thousands of tickets each season and is regarded as one of the best Christmas light events in Scotland, regularly appearing in national best-of guides alongside Edinburgh's Christmas markets and the St Giles' Cathedral carol season.
Practical information for visitors
Book early. Popular sessions (weekends in late November, all of December) sell out weeks in advance. If you are planning a December visit and want to attend Botanics Lights, book your tickets at the same time as your accommodation. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh website handles ticket sales.
Weekdays are better than weekends. The crowds on Friday and Saturday evenings can be significant. A Tuesday or Wednesday session is quieter, the photos are better, and you have more of the garden to yourself.
Dress for cold. The trail is entirely outdoors and Scotland in November is cold. Warm layers, waterproof boots, and a hat. Mulled wine is available inside the gardens, which helps.
Arrive slightly early. The gardens have queuing at the entrance even when sessions are timed. Arriving ten minutes before your slot keeps the experience smooth. From The Garden Rooms, you can leave two minutes before your entry time.
After the trail
This is the part that makes staying at The Garden Rooms uniquely suited to a Botanics Lights visit. Most people attending the event are then navigating buses, taxis, or car parks. You are walking back through a gate into a private walled garden.
The bath is ready in around 10 minutes, so it is there whenever you want it. Lying in an outdoor bath in December in Edinburgh, with the remnants of all that light still in your eyes, is a particular kind of magic.
"We did Botanics Lights on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Both nights we came back and got straight in the outdoor bath. The combination of the cold air and the warm water and the garden all lit up was genuinely the best bit of the whole trip."
Guest review, December 2023
The outdoor bath in winter
We say this every season, but we mean it most in winter: the outdoor bath is at its best in the cold months. Warm water, cold air, still garden. Many guests say December or January in the bath is the finest thing about The Garden Rooms.
The bath is double-insulated, which means it holds temperature exceptionally well even in winter conditions. Guests in proper Scottish cold weather have reported staying in for well over an hour without the water cooling. The garden walls block the wind. The stone terrace retains a little warmth. It is, genuinely, a winter destination.
Everything else at Christmas in Edinburgh
Edinburgh at Christmas is excellent. The city has Christmas markets on Princes Street Gardens and East Princes Street Gardens from late November, with stalls, fairground rides, and an ice rink — busy, festive, and great fun for an afternoon or evening. George Street has a small fair. The National Museum of Scotland and the National Galleries have special programming. St Giles' Cathedral has evening carol services. The city looks extraordinary in December light, particularly around the New Town and the Mound.
The markets are a lot — crowded, loud, and a little chaotic, in the best festive sense. The advantage of staying at The Garden Rooms is that you can have it both ways: spend an afternoon working your way through the stalls and rides in the city centre, then head back to Inverleith and let the quiet of the walled garden take over. A short bus or taxi ride and you have gone from the busiest part of Edinburgh to complete privacy.
Hogmanay on 31 December is Edinburgh's biggest event of the year: a ticketed outdoor concert and street party that runs from the evening through to the early hours of January. If you are staying over New Year, book tickets very early, and expect the city to be extremely busy but extraordinarily good-natured.
Plan your winter stay.
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