“Every crease is a story.”
United Kingdom
The Atlas lists 43 independent bookshops in Edinburgh, 13 of them selling secondhand books — including 4 antiquarian booksellers. 2 have a café recorded in the listing; confirm its hours before visiting. The densest cluster offers 6 possible stops over an estimated 1.8 km; actual walking routes may be longer.
Secondhand
Floor-to-ceiling shelves, narrow aisles and a lamp-lit atmosphere that feels lifted from a novel. Armchair is loved for its Victorian and older fiction and for the sense that something good is always on the next shelf up.
Antiquarian
A substantial secondhand and antiquarian shop on the West Port, the street that has long been Edinburgh's bookish quarter. Rooms run down into the basement, one is given over entirely to Scotland, and a whole room of pound books keeps bargain hunters busy.
Secondhand
A small, independent secondhand shop round the corner from the West Port, strong on Scottish history, labour history and radical politics, with old prints for the walls. It is also a small poetry press, so its own chapbooks sit beside the secondhand stock.
Antiquarian · since 1957
Scotland's oldest surviving secondhand and antiquarian bookshop, in the same basement at the top of Leith Walk since 1957. A Georgian tenement holds a well-chosen general stock alongside rare and collectable books, and a small gallery shows original art. Open daily, and late on Thursdays.
Antiquarian · since 1978
On the curve of Victoria Street, one of the Old Town's most photographed streets, this shop has dealt in antiquarian, rare and secondhand books since the late seventies. Scottish books, art and architecture are the strengths, and the drawers of old Scottish maps and prints reach back to the seventeenth century.
Secondhand · since 1985
One of Edinburgh's longest-running secondhand shops, on the edge of the Meadows, with a coal fire glowing at the back of the room. Good literary fiction, quirky science fiction, history and philosophy, and the occasional antiquarian gem make it a natural stop between the university and the Southside.
New & secondhand · 126 Newhaven Road, EH6 4BR Edinburgh
Antiquarian · 8 Victoria Street, EH1 2HG Edinburgh
Charity bookshop · 116 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh
Charity bookshop · 25 Raeburn Place, Edinburgh
Charity bookshop · Morningside Road, EH10 4QQ Edinburgh
Charity bookshop · 106A Raeburn Place, EH4 1HH Edinburgh
Charity bookshop · 12 Roseneath Street, Edinburgh
The Atlas currently lists 43 active bookshops in Edinburgh. This is the number in our directory, not a claim that every shop in the area has been recorded.
13 listed shops are categorised as selling secondhand books. Stock changes frequently; ask a shop directly if you need a particular book.
The Atlas displays available source information. A listing without opening hours or access details is incomplete, not necessarily closed or inaccessible. Check each shop's website and confirm anything essential before travelling.
Use the map and the crawl planner to choose stops close together. Displayed route distances are estimates, not turn-by-turn walking directions. Check crossings, hills, opening times and the actual walking route before setting off.
Plan a bookshop crawlYes. Send the shop's name, location and a reliable website or other source. Suggestions and corrections are reviewed before changing the Atlas.
Suggest a shopShop data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence, with descriptions of featured shops by Creasy Spines. Opening hours change — check before a long journey. Suggest an edit