Edinburgh Markets: Which Market Is On Which Day (2026)

Q: Is Leith Market worth the journey?

Not on its own - it is a good Saturday market of much the same size and character as the Grassmarket. It is worth it as part of a Leith day, combined with The Shore, the Port of Leith Distillery and the Royal Yacht Britannia. On the first Saturday of each month it hosts a Vegan Quarter alongside the usual traders.

Every article about Edinburgh markets buries the only fact you actually need. You do not want to know that Stockbridge Market has a nice atmosphere. You want to know that it is on Sunday, and that if you have come looking for it on a Saturday you have walked twenty minutes to an empty street.

So the day-of-week table is the first thing on this page. After it: walking times from Princes Street, what each market is actually good for, the monthly and seasonal ones almost nobody lists, and the honest verdict on which are worth the journey and which are a pleasant twenty minutes if you happen to be nearby. Days and hours were checked against the markets’ own listings in October 2026.

Giant pan of seafood paella being cooked at a street-food market stall — Edinburgh’s weekly markets are small, local and genuinely useful — but they run on fixed days, and turning up on the wrong one is the classic visitor mistake.

Which Market Is On Which Day

Market	Day	Hours	Where	From Princes St
Edinburgh Farmers’ Market	Saturday	09:00–14:00	Castle Terrace	c. 8 min walk
Grassmarket Market	Saturday	10:00–17:00	Grassmarket	c. 12 min walk
Leith Market	Saturday	10:00–16:00	Dock Place, Leith	Tram c. 15 min
Stockbridge Market	Sunday	10:00–16:00	Saunders Street	c. 20 min walk
Ocean Terminal Market	First weekend of the month	Varies	Ground floor, Ocean Terminal	Tram c. 20 min
Edinburgh Flea Market	Last Saturday of most months	10:00–15:00	Drill Hall, Leith	Tram c. 15 min plus a walk
The Pitt	Street food and events	Sat and Sun, 12:00–17:00	West Shore Road, Granton	Bus, c. 30 min
Castle Street Market	Much of the year	Varies	Castle Street, off Princes Street	On it
The West End Fair	August only	Festival hours	St John’s Church grounds, West End	c. 5 min walk
Edinburgh Christmas Market	Mid-Nov to early Jan	Daily	East Princes Street Gardens	On it

Days and hours from the markets’ own listings, checked October 2026. Walking times are our own, measured at an ordinary pace from the middle of Princes Street.

At a Glance

Saturday is market day in Edinburgh. Three of the four weekly markets run on it, and you can walk between the Farmers’ Market and the Grassmarket in five minutes.
Sunday has exactly one: Stockbridge. It is the best of them, which is inconvenient.
The Farmers’ Market closes at 14:00 — the earliest finish of any of them, and the one people miss.
Leith Market’s first Saturday of the month is a “Vegan Quarter” — the usual traders plus an all-plant-based line-up.
The Grassmarket, Leith and Stockbridge markets share one operator, which is why they never clash and why the trader lists overlap.
Stockbridge Market ran to roughly 38 stalls on a recent trader list: bakery, produce, cheese, street food from several cuisines, crafts and jewellery.
Bring cash as a backup. Most traders take cards; a few small ones do not, and the phone signal in the Grassmarket is patchy.
Nothing here is indoors. These are open-air street markets in a city where it rains. Check the forecast before you build a morning around one.
Best single visit: Stockbridge on a Sunday, then walk the Water of Leith. Best half day: Farmers’ Market at 09:30, then the Grassmarket.

The Four Weekly Markets, in Order of How Far You Should Go for Them

Stockbridge Market — Sunday 10:00–16:00, Saunders Street

The best of Edinburgh’s markets, and the one worth planning a Sunday around. It runs every Sunday all year on Saunders Street, EH3 6TQ, in a small square by the Water of Leith, and a recent trader list ran to roughly 38 stalls — bakery, fruit and vegetables, cheese, street food from several cuisines, crafts and jewellery.

What makes it work is the setting. Stockbridge is a genuine Edinburgh neighbourhood rather than a visitor district, the market fills a square rather than a road, and the surrounding streets — St Stephen Street, Raeburn Place, Circus Lane — are full of independents and charity shops that are open on a Sunday. So the market is a reason to be there rather than the whole visit.

The honest verdict: go at 11:00 rather than 10:00 — the first hour is thin — and treat it as the start of a walk rather than a shopping trip. From the market it is fifteen to twenty minutes along the Water of Leith walkway to Dean Village, and about twenty minutes back up to Princes Street. That is a genuinely excellent Sunday morning and it costs nothing but lunch. Our Stockbridge area guide covers the rest of the neighbourhood.

Cobbled street in Stockbridge Edinburgh near Dean Village — Stockbridge on a Sunday. The market is on Saunders Street, and the streets around it are where the visit actually happens.

Edinburgh Farmers’ Market — Saturday 09:00–14:00, Castle Terrace

The serious one. It runs every Saturday, year round, on Castle Terrace — directly under the castle rock, on the road that curves round beneath the crag — and it is a producers’ market rather than a general one. Meat, game, fish, cheese, bread, eggs, preserves, and the people who made them standing behind the table.

It closes at 14:00. This is the single most important time in this article, because it is two to three hours earlier than every other market and it is the one visitors assume runs all afternoon. Traders start packing before two.

The honest verdict: as a shopping trip for a visitor without a kitchen, this market is limited — you cannot take raw venison back to a hotel room. As a place to buy edible souvenirs that will survive a flight, it is the best in the city: bakery shortbread, tablet, hard cheese, preserves, smoked things. And the setting, with the castle rock directly overhead, is better than any market has a right to be. Get there before 11:00.

Grassmarket Market — Saturday 10:00–17:00

Every Saturday in the Grassmarket itself, and the most convenient market in the city for anyone staying in the Old Town. It is a general market — crafts, street food, gifts, some produce — rather than a producers’ market, and it sits in a wide cobbled square under the castle with pubs down two sides of it.

It runs latest of the weekly markets, to 17:00, which makes it the fallback if you have slept in. It is also five minutes’ walk from the Farmers’ Market, so the obvious Saturday is Castle Terrace first for the food, then down the steps to the Grassmarket for everything else.

The honest verdict: it is the least distinctive of the four — a good general market rather than a special one — but it is the easiest to reach and it is attached to one of the best squares in Edinburgh. If you have one Saturday and are staying in the Old Town, this is the low-effort answer. Our Grassmarket area guide covers the square, its pubs and its vintage shops.

Leith Market — Saturday 10:00–16:00, Dock Place

On Dock Place, off The Shore, every Saturday. The interesting wrinkle is the first Saturday of each month, when it becomes a “Vegan Quarter” — the usual line-up of traders plus an entirely plant-based section. That is unusual enough to be worth timing a visit around if it matters to you.

Getting there is easy: the tram runs from St Andrew Square to The Shore stop in about fifteen minutes for £2.40, or you can take a Lothian bus down Leith Walk at the same fare. Walking from Princes Street takes about 44 minutes and the top half of Leith Walk is not a pleasant walk.

The honest verdict: the market alone does not justify the journey. Leith does. Combine it with The Shore, the Port of Leith Distillery, and — if you are going that far — the Royal Yacht Britannia at Ocean Terminal, and you have a full day rather than a market trip. See Leith and The Shore for the day, and the Royal Yacht Britannia guide if you are adding it.

The Monthly and Seasonal Ones Nobody Lists

These are the markets that do not appear in the standard listicles because they do not run every week. Several of them are better than the ones that do.

Edinburgh Flea Market — last Saturday of most months, 10:00–15:00, Drill Hall, Leith. Indoors, which in Edinburgh is a significant advantage, with around 50 stalls, and no market in December. Vintage, secondhand, records, bric-a-brac. If you are in town on a last Saturday and it is raining, this is the answer.
Ocean Terminal Market — first weekend of each month, on the ground floor of Ocean Terminal in Leith. Indoors. Note that Ocean Terminal itself is a shopping centre partly under demolition, so come for the market rather than the mall.
The Pitt, 20 West Shore Road, Granton. A street-food and events venue rather than a shopping market, out on the waterfront north-west of the centre. It is open Saturday and Sunday, 12:00 to 17:00; check its own listings before travelling.
Castle Street Market, on the pedestrianised block of Castle Street running north off Princes Street, for much of the year. Small, central, and the easiest market in the city to stumble into.
The West End Fair, August only, in the grounds of St John’s Church at the west end of Princes Street. A festival-season craft fair in a churchyard, and one of the more civilised places to be during the Fringe.
Edinburgh Christmas Market, mid-November to early January, in East Princes Street Gardens. Enormous, and a completely different proposition from everything else on this page — see below.

The Christmas Market Is a Different Thing Entirely

It runs from mid-November to early January in East Princes Street Gardens, it is one of the biggest draws in Edinburgh during those weeks, and it bears almost no relationship to the weekly markets above. It is a commercial Christmas event with fairground rides, a big wheel, mulled wine and a great many stalls, laid out in a public park below the castle.

The honest verdict: the setting is genuinely spectacular — the gardens below the Old Town ridge, lit, in December — and it is worth seeing once. The prices are event prices, the crowds after 17:00 on a December Saturday are severe, and the stalls are largely the same continental Christmas-market operators who work a circuit of British cities. Go on a weekday afternoon, walk through, look up at the castle, and do your actual shopping at the Farmers’ Market. Our Edinburgh Christmas markets guide covers dates, prices and the quieter alternatives.

Baubles and decorations on a stall at the Edinburgh Christmas market — The Christmas market in East Princes Street Gardens. Spectacular to walk through, and not where to do your actual shopping.

Two Market Weekends, Planned

The Saturday

09:30 — Edinburgh Farmers’ Market, Castle Terrace. Buy things that travel: tablet, shortbread, hard cheese, preserves.
11:00 — down to the Grassmarket, five minutes away, for the general market and the vintage shops around it.
13:00 — lunch in the Grassmarket or up Victoria Street.
14:30 — tram to Leith for the market on Dock Place, which runs to 16:00, and stay for The Shore in the evening.

The Sunday

11:00 — Stockbridge Market, Saunders Street. Eat here rather than before.
12:30 — St Stephen Street and Raeburn Place for the independents and charity shops. Golden Hare Books at 68 St Stephen Street opens every day 10:00–18:00.
14:00 — the Water of Leith walkway upstream to Dean Village, fifteen to twenty minutes.
15:00 — up into the New Town, or on to the Royal Botanic Garden, which is free to enter.

Note for the Sunday: Scotland has no equivalent of England’s Sunday trading restrictions, so the shops around Stockbridge are open normal hours rather than the shortened Sunday hours you may be used to elsewhere in Britain.

What to Look For on the Stalls

A market is only as useful as your ability to recognise what is on it. Scottish produce has a handful of things that are genuinely regional, genuinely good, and almost impossible to buy at home — and a handful more that are simply the same thing you can get anywhere with a saltire on the label. These are the ones worth stopping for.

Tablet. The crumbly, grainy sugar confection that Scots will tell you is emphatically not fudge. Hard to buy outside Scotland, cheap, travels perfectly, and the single most underrated thing on any Edinburgh market stall.
Oatcakes from a producer rather than a packet. Thicker, rougher and considerably better than the supermarket version, and they keep for weeks.
Hard Scottish cheese. Vacuum-packed at the stall, it will survive a flight in hold luggage. Ask — most cheesemongers at the Farmers’ Market will do it while you wait.
Smoked fish. Cold-smoked salmon and smoked haddock are both Scottish specialities and both travel well when properly packed.
Game in season. Venison, pheasant and grouse appear on Castle Terrace in autumn and winter at prices that would be absurd in a city butcher. Useless to a visitor without a kitchen; excellent if you have a self-catering flat.
Bakery shortbread. Shorter, saltier and more buttery than anything in a tartan tin, and roughly half the price.
Preserves and honey. Small jars, sealed, and comfortably under the liquid limits for hold luggage.

The honest verdict on market food as souvenirs: this is where Edinburgh’s markets beat its shops. A bag of tablet or a vacuum-packed cheese from Castle Terrace makes a better gift than a tartan tin from the Royal Mile: they were made by the person who sold them to you, and they are the sort of thing people actually finish. Our guide to Scottish food in Edinburgh covers what to eat while you are here rather than what to carry home.

One caution about street food. The hot-food stalls at the weekly markets are priced as a lunch out rather than as market food. That is fair for what it is and it is not cheap eating. If you are on a tight budget, cheap food in Edinburgh has better options.

Practical Notes

Weather: all the weekly markets are outdoors. The Flea Market and Ocean Terminal Market are indoors and are the wet-weather answers.
Payment: most traders take cards, but carry £20 in cash. Small craft stalls are the usual exception.
Getting between them: Castle Terrace to the Grassmarket is five minutes on foot. Princes Street to Stockbridge is about twenty. Leith is a £2.40 tram, and the contactless daily cap is £5.70.
Alcohol: if a stall is selling bottles, remember that nothing alcoholic can be sold in a shop or from a stall in Scotland before 10:00 or after 22:00.
Flying home: cheese and cured meat need to be vacuum-packed and go in hold luggage. Ask the trader — most will do it.

Days, hours and locations checked against the markets’ own listings in October 2026. Market operators change hours seasonally and occasionally cancel for weather or events — check before making a long journey for one.

Frequently Asked Questions

What day is Stockbridge Market in Edinburgh?

Sunday, every week, all year round, from 10:00 to 16:00 on Saunders Street, EH3 6TQ. It is the only one of Edinburgh’s four weekly markets that runs on a Sunday — the other three are all Saturday — and it is the best of them. Arrive around 11:00; the first hour is thin.

When is the Edinburgh Farmers’ Market?

Every Saturday, year round, on Castle Terrace beneath the castle rock, from 09:00 to 14:00. The early close is the thing to note — it finishes two to three hours before the other markets and traders begin packing before two. Go before 11:00.

Which Edinburgh market is best?

Stockbridge on a Sunday, for the setting, the number of stalls and the neighbourhood around it. The Edinburgh Farmers’ Market on Castle Terrace is the best for actual food and the best for edible souvenirs that survive a flight. The Grassmarket is the most convenient if you are staying in the Old Town.

Are there any indoor markets in Edinburgh?

Two worth knowing. The Edinburgh Flea Market runs on the last Saturday of most months, 10:00 to 15:00, at the Drill Hall in Leith, with no market in December. The Ocean Terminal Market runs on the first weekend of each month on the ground floor of Ocean Terminal. Both are indoors, which matters here — every weekly market is open-air.

How far is Stockbridge Market from Princes Street?

About twenty minutes on foot, downhill most of the way, through the New Town. Lothian buses 8, 9, 23 and 27 stop at the Botanic Garden’s East Gate, and the day’s timetable is on Lothian Buses’ site. The walk back is uphill, so if you are carrying shopping, take the bus one way.

Is Leith Market worth the journey?

Not on its own — it is a good Saturday market of the same size and character as the Grassmarket. It is worth it as part of a Leith day, combined with The Shore, the Port of Leith Distillery and the Royal Yacht Britannia. Note that on the first Saturday of each month it hosts a Vegan Quarter alongside the usual traders.

Can you buy souvenirs at Edinburgh’s markets?

Yes, and they are better than the Royal Mile equivalents. The Farmers’ Market is the place for edible souvenirs — bakery shortbread, tablet, hard cheese, preserves — and Stockbridge has craft and jewellery stalls. The Flea Market is where to look for something secondhand and genuinely Scottish rather than wholesaled.

When is the Edinburgh Christmas Market on?

From mid-November to early January, in East Princes Street Gardens. It is a large commercial Christmas event with rides and a big wheel rather than a produce market, it is extremely busy after 17:00 at weekends, and the stalls are largely the same operators who work a circuit of British cities. Go on a weekday afternoon.

Where to Go Next

Read our complete guide to shopping in Edinburgh for the streets and centres, and the best Scottish souvenirs to buy for what to actually put in your case. For the neighbourhoods the markets sit in, see Stockbridge, the Grassmarket and Leith and The Shore. If you are working to a budget, free things to do in Edinburgh and cheap food in Edinburgh both lean on the markets heavily.

More Edinburgh Shopping Guides

Photo Credits

Food stalls at Stockbridge Market: Stockbridge Market – geograph.org.uk – 8052813 by Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.