Day trip from Edinburgh via train suggestions

During our own visit in June we enjoyed a stop at Rosslyn Chapel - about 40 minutes by car from the city center. Can book one of the ride share services to get there and back.
Even if you're not fans of The Da Vinci Code the ancient chapel and its environs are beautiful and worth a half day of exploration.
https://www.rosslynchapel.com/

I liked Rosslyn Chapel, too. There's city-bus service out there (to the town of Roslin). It takes less than an hour. That gives you more flexibility than a bus tour. I find those don't usually allow enough time on site for me. I don't think there's a rail option, unfortunately. I don't remember a bunch of curves on the road, so I wonder whether this particular trip would be manageable for you. (I have had occasional issues with buses on mountain roads myself.)

Stirling's less than an hour from Edinburgh by train. I haven't been there, but many people have really liked Stirling Castle. Perhaps there would be other things there that are down your alley.

For the list of options in your link I can make a few comments:

• I'm a big fan of 20th century architecture and loved tracking down the Charles Rennie Mackintosh buildings in Glasgow, but I guess that city doesn't align particularly well with your stated interests.

• Dundee has some very good museums, including the new V&A Design Museum, but again not really what you asked for.

• St. Andrews is a cute town but after traveling to Leuchars by train there's a short bus ride required.

• Newcastle, like Glasgow, has a lot of architecture I find really attractive, but it's a big city.

• Loch Lomond, Loch Ness and the Cairngorms are not pure-train trips (as detailed in the article), so you probably want to eliminate those.

Unfortunately, I haven't been to the smaller places on the list, but perhaps I've helped a bit by suggesting places you might want to eliminate! If others don't comment soon, you might try the Search function here to see if you can find earlier posts about the smaller places. I definitely remember seeing Pitlochry mentioned, and I've read elsewhere that North Berwick is nice.

We took the train to Stirling and it was easy and took less than an hour. We concentrated on the castle and its history; we didn’t see much of the town itself but we had a good day.

Someone told me there was a mini-golf course or something associated with St. Andrews. That might be a fun thing to do. You could tell people you played golf at St. Andrews, which would be true, sort of.

How about North Berwick, a lovely small harbour town? If you get a good sunny day, you could aways do the walk up North Berwick Law, for the views. This is a lump of volcanic rock that dominates the surrounding area. Details, including a map here. It's roughly an hourly service and takes about 35 minutes.

Alternatively, there is Dunbar about 20 minute journey) with its harbour and ruined castle. There is a lovely cliff top walk which you could extend into John Muir Country Park if time (and weather) allow... This gives details of a longer walk combining the two.

wasleys, thanks for mentioning North Berwick and Dunbar. After watching a few videos on Dunbar, I am adding it to my list of day trips for my trip in May. I have 8 nights in Edinburgh.

Enjoy it. Dunbar and North Berwick tend to be ignored by many tourists which is a shame as they are both attractive small towns.

Another vote for Stirling. We did that as a day trip in June and loved it - and we skipped the castle (I'm sure that's great of course - we just ran out of time). The town is good for walking, has lovely Holy Rude (15th century church with lovely adjacent cemetery) and Mar's Walk (ruined 1570s stone townhouse) just down the road, an emerging distillery giving whisky tasting, and lots of good pubs and shops, all within walking distance of easy to use train station. Easy to get to and perfect for a day out from Edinburgh.

First of all please remember in December our daylight is short. Working 9-5, what a way to make a living, means in December and Jan I will be travelling to work in the dark and coming home in the dark.

My suggestion is this. Get a map. A decent scale map, and a pair of compases. Set them to a circle of about 80 km / 50 miles from your base.

If you are based in the capital, this will place Glasgow, Linlithgow, Stirling, Perth, Dundee, Dunbar, St Andrews all within that circle. Then get a guidebook and decide what and where you fancy to go tomorrow. Finally, check the weather. The regional news are on BBC One Reporting Scotland, and on ITV, broadcast as STV in Scotland, the STV News. If you are in Edinburgh STV has a regional optout STV Central East for Edinburgh.

Thank you for all your suggestions. Given we’re from Seattle we understand short days and unpredictable weather. We will
look towards Dunbar (if we have a good weather forecast) or Sterling.