E d i n b u r g h b i c y c l e t o u r s
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Bike tour exploring JK Rowling's real Edinburgh where she writes, lives & faces her trials with an award-winning Harry Potter fan ✨

life & passions

Rowling made a special effort to write Harry Potter in much loved cafes around Edinburgh's Old Town, her imagination thriving admist the bustle & caffeine. For Rowling cafes are a thread to the real world anchoring her as she explores her fantastical ones.

As the tide of Potter-mania began a cycle of retreat, Rowling was thankful for the rapture her work had received & spread her love. She said Edinburgh's Old Town, heaving with Hogwartian sights, surely rubbed off a little. But did you know she never lived there?

She's actually lived all over. Swanky Malfoy mansions & mice ridden hovels, she's hid out in ice cream bars, walked red carpets besides albino Holywood peacocks &, of course, her sleepy suburban cafes.

Wanna go see?

Glyph tap time

Through forested grounds glimpse the most gothic building in Scotland & turn the page of truth

Dip a toe in the Loch alleged to have inspired a rite of passage at Hogwarts. Perhaps spy Hermione's Patronus

View the location an author & renowned lecturer asserts inspired the sword of Gryffindor & dive into Rowling's mythology

Discover the House of God now dedicated to a dashing rogue, Hogwart's most glamourous Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Peel JK's thought process

Portrait of JK Rowling staring into the distance. Explore her secret Edinburgh on a Harry Potter bicycle tour

Learn about the friend who became a corner stone of Harry Potter & rescued Rowling from being eaten by rats. Why alone did they have faith when all else doubted?

The most demanding sprint of Rowling's career: unpack JK's "zombie" year & how she excelled

"If you can talk with crowds & keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch"

How does JK walk it?

Rowling on family & regrets

Harry Potter inspirations far from the madding crowd

4 hours, 15+ Rowling related stops, ice cream at many, whatever larks your heart desires en-route.

Ethos
This is the original Harry Potter bike tour, other outfits strive to pump information out of me, who to choose... What does your heart tell you?
Presently JK Rowling is the world's preeminent storyteller, tax & philanthropy wise she's the century's greatest Briton. My tour is dedicated to understanding how Rowling manages the arrows of fate, her world & family.  Rowling's a powerhouse, perhaps there's something we can we learn from her example to live better, more fulfilled lives. 

Arguably the best Harry Potter experience is a walking tour of Edinburgh's Old Town, because the Old Town is dense with Hogwartian sights & rich with story.

This tour is refreshing, you'll breathe in surf tossed air & drink in sweeping panoramic city-scapes. You'll wind your way through woods, circle around lochs, be greeted by corpulent North Sea gulls. If we're lucky we may even see Azkaban squatting grimly on the horizon. You'll see swathes of Scotland's capital you'd never see unless you lived here a decade.

Join my tour to escape the bustle of the Old Town's numerous zagging "Diagon Alleys" & learn a little more about the real texture of Rowling's life & the city she cherishes - her city. I hope you'll become like Rowling, Edinburgh will become meaningful to you.

Absolutely stupendous brake charms

A tour for people who think Harry Potter is important, or would simply love an expansive bike tour to blow out the Aragog-webs. Cast aside the books, clickbait & refresh buttons, put the polyurethane to the pedal & have a blast.

Ridgeback velocity tour bike
Ridgeback Velocity
Daily maintained disc brakes, some Muggles don't know they're alive!
Flat handlebars for quick, agile turns
Reflectors to dazzle like a Bludger to the head
Norwegian dragon hide puncture resistant tyres
Mud guards are abs-condio, if you fear a drizzle I can upgrade you to a swish 'Vaneto Disc' with guards & a pannier rack for £10 per bike. Anoraks also work
They're the Cleansweeps of bicycles, they won't sail past Mach 1, but they'll get you there safe & happy
You're very welcome to BYOB. Bring Your Own Bike. This reduces the price by £15 per bike

A wizard bike tour leader stands in front of St Margret's Loch in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh
All that hair & so, so, SO many lice. Wizards... they're not normal

WOAH! That was a lot of reading 👏 must be time for a practical. I call this my...

Squib test
As each new school year commences I deploy it to weed my classes of Dunderheads, so the true, ripe, fruit of each generation can thrive. Predictably Neville failed.

So, say the charm aloud, LOUD. But in your head, with gusto & a tap. Ready?
3-2-1...

Lucerna kaleidoscope
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 __  _.-._ / '-.        -  ,._  \) 
|  `-)_   '-.   \       / < _ )/" }
/__    '-.   \   '-, ___(c-(6)=(6)
 , `'.    `._ '.  _,'   >\    "  )
 :;;,,'-._   '---' (  ( "/`. -='/
;:;;:;;,  '..__    ,`-.`)'- '--'
;';:;;;;;'-._ /'._|   Y/   _/' \
      '''"._ F    |  _/ _.'._   `\
             L    \   \/     '._  \
      .-,-,_ |     `.  `'---,  \_ _|
      //    'L    /  \,   ("--',=`)7
     | `._       : _,  \  /'`-._L,_'-._
     '--' '-.\__/ _L   .`'         './/
                 [ (  /
                  ) `{
                  \__)
            _            _.,----,
 __  _.-._ / '-.        -  ,._  \) 
|  `-)_   '-.   \       / < _ )/" }
/__    '-.   \   '-, ___(c-(6)=(6)
 , `'.    `._ '.  _,'   >\    "  )
 :;;,,'-._   '---' (  ( "/`. -='/
;:;;:;;,  '..__    ,`-.`)'- '--'
;';:;;;;;'-._ /'._|   Y/   _/' \
      '''"._ F    |  _/ _.'._   `\
             L    \   \/     '._  \
      .-,-,_ |     `.  `'---,  \_ _|
      //    'L    /  \,   ("--',=`)7
     | `._       : _,  \  /'`-._L,_'-._
     '--' '-.\__/ _L   .`'         './/
                 [ (  /
                  ) `{
Yer a WIZARD!     \__)
 
What are you waiting for? Apparate your Galleons.


£100 hire-bike damage deposit per group
£45 per person. Alas minimum cost for a party £100. So 2 people costs £100, 3 people £45 × 3 = £135
50% off if you bring your own bike & a spare inner tube for punctures - Rotam reparo!
Free cancellation if ill
Free cancellation
While I perfect the tour it's a maximum of 8 pedallers
Group photos may be used on my website; life's cheerier when you've had porridge
Leisurely 4 ➤ 5 hours, depending upon ice cream consumption. We can stop for lunch & make it the days activity if you wish to treat me!
Requires 3 weeks notice. More notice, more love

Think you're a hot shot wizard boy know-it-all eh? Sure you are.

And Neville's toad is missing because he's off trying out to be Seeker. Can't be too hard given how often the incumbent crashes to the ground.

Try this one fly-boy, out LOUD, but in your head.
3-2-1...

Lumos Maxima! JK Rowling dreams of a better future AND her own Harry Potter bicycle tour!
Dreaming of a brighter future
JK Rowling dreams of Hogwarts on Victoria Street, Edinburgh

 


If interested please contact Sam as soon as possible with your email, party size & availability.

S M S

Disclaimer
George Heriot's castled school pictured^ rising above Edinburgh's winding wizarding street, inside JK Rowling's mind is Not Harry Potter's Hogwarts; however it is other things to her.

This tour is not affiliated with Warner Brothers, JK Rowling or Bloomsbury. It's not official, those folk make magic & I wish them all the best. I'm just a Harry Potter fan who likes to cycle.

Art Credits
Thanks to Charlotte Brooke for her charming pencil of JK Rowling working the press. Available to purchase on Etsy.
Salute to Christopher Johnson for the much loved Harry Potter on a broom ASCII art.
Hopeful JK Rowling in charcoal by the talented Jewlian, danken danken.
Drop cap inspired by the shimmering folk at Pottermore 🤟

Copyright
🐍

Oy, Brains, don't steal! Do unto others as you'd have done unto yourselves, or impoverish others if that's what you'd want for yourself.

For everyone else who isn't part of the tourism industry, please don't enable the tour snakes to steal my livelihood by recording sections of the tour & making it publicly accessible to them. I spent a few years living on £25 a week, in part because of industry snakes & their vile networks. I don't wish to return to it.

A detective's magnifying glass indepth
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JK Rowling's writing pad writing strategies
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Award icon awards
reviews stink