Context Travel, a walking tour company offering small-group, scholar-led walking seminars, is expanding operations to Edinburgh. Working with local historians, Context is offering six tours to help visitors understand and appreciate Edinburgh’s history and heritage. “Edinburgh is a big archeological site,” said Coinneach Maclean, one of Context Edinburgh’s docents. “We have Celtic, Roman and medieval structures overlapping in the city, making it a great place to weave an extraordinarily rich and entertaining narrative of the past lives of Edinburgh's residents.”

As with its tours elsewhere, Context will cap its group walks in Edinburgh at six participants. Most walks will last three hours and be led by local Ph.D.-level scholars and other experts -- Context’s signature. Walking seminars are aimed at independent travelers who want to acquire a deeper understanding and appreciation for Edinburgh and its history.

Initial offerings include tours such as Worship and Religion, History of Medicine and the Miracle of Glasgow, a day trip to Glasgow exploring its art scene. The History of Medicine focuses on the period between 1751 and 1800, when Edinburgh was a major center of medical science, home to discoveries in anesthesia and antisepsis, and to such famous practitioners as Alexander Fleming, Elsie Inglis (a pioneer in women’s medicine), and Conan Doyle, who evolved his method of detecting criminals from his Scottish medical tutor. Walks will be offered both privately on request and as regularly scheduled group walks. Private walks will cost between £230 and £250 for the group, while group walks will cost £65 per person.

Founded by National Geographic writer Paul Bennett and designer Lani Bevacqua, Context Travel is a network of English-speaking scholars and professionals, including art historians, writers, architects and gastronomes, who organize and lead walking seminars in 20 world cities, including: Florence, Rome, Venice, Naples, Paris, London, Edinburgh, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., Istanbul, Athens, Beijing, Shanghai, Vienna, and Prague.