Where to buy used books in Edinburgh

Updated 01/10/2026

Edinburgh's second-hand trade gathers in several districts, and the central ones can be walked in a morning. The West Port, the street running down from the Grassmarket under the castle rock, holds Armchair Books, Edinburgh Books and, round the corner on Bread Street, Main Point Books, all within about 140 yards of each other, while John Kay's sits on Victoria Street at the Grassmarket's other end. North of the New Town, Canonmills and Stockbridge give you The Gently Mad, the St Columba's Hospice book shop, the new Cooper Hay branch on Cumberland Street, and the Oxfam and Shelter Scotland bookshops on Raeburn Place. The Southside has Tills on the edge of the Meadows, the Nicolson Street Oxfam and the Amnesty shop in Marchmont, while the road down to Leith starts with McNaughtan's and the Bethany Bookshop on Haddington Place and carries on to the monthly Drill Hall flea market, the Community Bookshop, Choose Books and the Sunday car boot at Ocean Terminal. Further out, PortaLibri serves Portobello from its High Street. Where a price appears, it is in pounds sterling.

Selling here mostly starts with a photograph or a message, not a box: Armchair, Main Point, McNaughtan's, The Gently Mad and Tills all expect an email, a text, a call or a form before anything is carried in. Time Out reported in March 2026 that Choose Books buys collections too. On the charity side nothing is bought, only donated, which suits a clear-out more than a sale.

Two moves in 2026 date the older guides. Typewronger Books, long tucked in beside McNaughtan's, moved across town to Bruntsfield in July 2026 according to The Herald, and it sells mainly new titles. Cooper Hay Rare Books of Glasgow opened an Edinburgh branch at 70 Cumberland Street, which it was showing off on Facebook in August 2026. Peter Bell, a West Port name for decades, says on its website that its shop opens by appointment only.

Spot map

The best spots

Second-hand bookshops

Armchair Books

72-74 West Port, Edinburgh EH1 2LE

A West Port shop on the slope below the castle, about 1,000 yards south-west of Waverley station as the crow flies, which sums up its own shelving as very nearly alphabetised chaos and warns that its threadbare rugs may catch an eye or a foot. In its 24 August 2026 round-up of the city's bookshops, the library blog of Edinburgh Napier University called it a wonderful starting point for anyone who loves a traditional second-hand shop. Selling is email-only to begin with: send one sharp photo of the books lined up spine-out on a shelf, allow up to ten days for a provisional offer, and never arrive with boxes unannounced, because the shop cannot dispose of whatever it turns down. The website gives ten until half past six every day, "more or less", and says a locked door inside those hours means cover fell through at the last minute.

Hours: Daily 10am–6:30pmWebsite

Second-hand bookshops

Edinburgh Books

145-147 West Port, Edinburgh EH3 9DP

About 110 yards further along the West Port from Armchair, the former West Port Books, which by its own account narrowly escaped being turned into a café in 2006 and spreads over a ground floor and four basement rooms, one of them let to Alba Musick of Glasgow for sheet music. Prices run from 50p to £500 for antiquarian pieces, with a whole room of Scottish material and a science section the shop rates as the largest second-hand one in Edinburgh, and only around a tenth of it appears on AbeBooks. Its buying list favours military history, Scottish books, travel and topography, leather bindings, illustrated books and theology, while thrillers, romance, coffee-table books and twentieth-century encyclopaedias are less welcome. On 8 May 2026 the shop's Facebook page wanted to know who remembered Nebula Bookshop on Willowbrae Road, prompted by the price marked in a 1973 edition of C.S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain.

Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–6pmWebsite

Second-hand bookshops

Tills Bookshop

1 Hope Park Crescent, Edinburgh EH8 9NA

On the eastern rim of the Meadows, a small second-hand shop founded in 1985 by Rick and Ann Till and taken over and renovated in 2019, with literary fiction, quirky science fiction, history, philosophy and the odd antiquarian piece. It buys second-hand books, asking sellers to ring or use its online form first, and sends buyers out to larger collections across Scotland and into the borders of northern England, while formal valuations are charged from a £65-plus-VAT minimum. The Herald reported on 21 May 2026 that Tills was one of 44 UK shops awarded a Penguin Random House Children's Bookshop Grant, each worth between £1,500 and £5,000. Rare stock is catalogued on the shop's Substack, and the doors are open seven days a week.

Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–6pm, Sun noon–6pmWebsite

Antiquarian and second-hand bookshop

McNaughtan's Bookshop

3a & 4a Haddington Place, Edinburgh EH7 4AE

At the top of Leith Walk, two basement "laigh" shops in an 1825 New Town tenement, bought in 1957 by the couple whose surname is still over the door; the shop describes itself as the oldest second-hand and antiquarian bookshop in Scotland, belongs to the ABA and has no wheelchair access. Thousands of second-hand books on its shelves never reach the website, which lists a selection of the rarer stock. It buys antiquarian, rare and collectable books and takes general second-hand collections when space allows, but asks for details by email first because its buyer is not in every day, and it will not value books by phone or email. The Scotsman reported on 24 September 2025 that staff sorting an antique collection here found a mummified spider, possibly two centuries old, pressed inside an 1822 copy of Gems: Principally from the Antique.

Hours: Mon–Wed 11am–5pm, Thu 11am–8pm, Fri–Sun 11am–5pmWebsite

Second-hand bookshop and café

Choose Books

126 Newhaven Road, Edinburgh EH6 4BR

In Leith, at the Ferry Road end of Newhaven Road, a second-hand shop that opened in late February 2026 behind a frontage borrowing the orange and lettering of the Trainspotting posters. Time Out reported on 3 March 2026 that its shelves run from horror to romance to children's books, next to LPs, comics, cassettes, VHS, vintage toys and coffee, and that the shop takes donated books and will buy whole collections. On 10 April 2026 the Edinburgh Evening News quoted the owner saying almost all of its books had been bought from charity shops until locals started bringing stock and donations in. The first write-ups in March had an 8.30am weekday start and Saturday-only weekends; the April report and the shop's Instagram bio both give the later start and the Sunday opening shown here.

Hours: Tue–Fri 9am–3pm, Sat–Sun 9am–4pmWebsite

All spots by type

Second-hand bookshops

Main Point Books

77 Bread Street, Edinburgh EH3 9AH

Just round the corner from Edinburgh Books on Bread Street, a shop that doubles as a publisher of Scottish literature, with general stock leaning towards post-colonial studies, labour history, feminism, Scottish history, spirituality and indigenous peoples, plus collectable old books and nineteenth-century prints. Only a small part of what sits on the shelves appears on AbeBooks, so a visit in person pays off. Sellers are asked to email a photo of the spines to the shop first. Its events page listed the Edinburgh launch of two Willy Maley poetry collections in the shop on 28 November 2025 and its blog carried a new post on 20 May 2026, but the site gives no opening hours, so ring 0131 228 4837 before setting out.

Website

Antique and second-hand bookshop

John Kay's Shop

8 Victoria Street, Edinburgh EH1 2HG

On the curving street that drops from George IV Bridge to the Grassmarket, a small shop that the City of Edinburgh Council's reuse directory describes as selling a carefully curated range of second-hand and antique books, and whose Instagram profile pitches its collections at book lovers and antique collectors alike. An Instagram post of 27 August 2026, in the middle of the city's busiest month, invited visitors to find a moment of peace in its wee bookshop and repeated that it opens every day. The timetable shown here is the one on that Instagram profile, and the PBFA's George IV Bridge fair hall is about 190 yards away.

Hours: Mon–Sat 11am–7pm, Sun 10am–6pmWebsite

Bookshop and bindery

The Gently Mad

2 Summer Place, Edinburgh EH3 5NR

Near the Royal Botanic Garden at Canonmills, a family-run bookshop opened in 2012 with its bindery integrated into the shop, stocking natural history, illustrated children's books, Scottish interest, architecture, classic fiction and science alongside nineteenth-century prints and postcards. It buys second-hand and antiquarian books against a detailed wishlist (bindings designed by Talwin Morris, Ethel Larcombe or Albert Angus Turbayne, illustrations by Rackham, Dulac or Jessie M. King, fairy tales older than 1930) and rules out law, politics, encyclopaedias, Reader's Digest and most paperbacks, so text the mobile number on its selling page before carrying a bag in. On 15 June 2025 the shop told its Instagram followers that 1000 Libraries had nominated it among the ten most beautiful bookshops in the world, and Wanderlust reported on 26 August 2025 that it had finished fourth on that list, describing it as a seller of used and antiquarian books that also offers bookbinding.

Hours: Daily 11am–5:30pmWebsite

Antiquarian bookseller

Cooper Hay Rare Books (Edinburgh)

70 Cumberland Street, Edinburgh EH3 6RE

An Edinburgh branch of the Glasgow antiquarian firm with a shop on Bath Street, set on Cumberland Street in the northern New Town. The firm's website places the new shop right beside St Stephen's Church and Circus Lane, its Facebook page posted a video tour of the Edinburgh premises on 28 August 2026, and it appears in the PBFA members' directory. The opening times in that directory belong to the Glasgow shop and neither source gives any for this one, so phone the Edinburgh number on the website before making the trip. Expect rare and antiquarian stock, not a cheap paperback dig.

Website

Second-hand bookshop and coffee bar

PortaLibri

167-171 Portobello High Street, Edinburgh EH15 1EU

In Portobello, almost three miles east of the centre, a second-hand bookshop with a coffee counter that took over the premises of Tills & Company; its Substack introduction of 21 September 2025 says as much, calling itself a secondhand bookshop with a coffeeshop. On 17 January 2026 its Instagram announced its first book offering of the year, built around the 1752 killing of Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure, the case behind Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped. The newsletter's tagline says "Bring Us Your Books!" without spelling out whether that means a donation or a sale, and no opening times are published, so look at its Instagram before making the trip to the seaside.

Website

Charity shops

Charity bookshop (St Columba's Hospice Care)

St Columba's Hospice Care Canonmills Book Shop

14-15 Brandon Terrace, Edinburgh EH3 5EA

On Brandon Terrace at Canonmills, about 250 yards from The Gently Mad, the book-only branch of St Columba's Hospice Care, listed on the charity's own shop page as its Canonmills Book Shop. Its Facebook page says it moved here from Goldenacre into bigger premises, and the page posted a photo on 20 December 2025. Everything on the shelves comes from donors, and the sales help fund the hospice's palliative care, so bring your own cast-offs along when you come to browse.

Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–4pmWebsite

Amnesty Bookshop

Amnesty Bookshop Edinburgh

12 Roseneath Street, Edinburgh EH9 1JH

In Marchmont, a volunteer-run Amnesty International bookshop open since 2016, with shelves of Scottish authors, local interest, collectibles, social sciences, art, poetry, politics, history and children's books. On 25 October 2025 the Scottish charity Seat Spot announced on Instagram that the shop had joined its scheme, and Amnesty's page for it mentions a folding ramp at the step and seats inside. Small donations can be handed in whenever it is open, but anything more than one person can carry in a single trip needs a phone call first, and books should never be left outside a closed door.

Hours: Mon–Sat 10:30am–5:30pm, Sun 11:30am–4:30pmWebsite

Community charity bookshop

Edinburgh Community Bookshop

179-181 Great Junction Street, Edinburgh EH6 5LQ

In Leith, a volunteer-staffed shop on Great Junction Street selling donated books and passing the majority of its profit to a different local charity each month; its charities page puts the total handed over since it opened in October 2022 at £52,464.72. The events page listed its No Homework Book Club meeting in the shop on Tuesday 6 January 2026, themed on reading resolutions for the new year. The homepage gives ten till four daily with Thursdays running to seven, while the contact page gives ten till four with no late night, so check before planning a Thursday-evening visit.

Website

Oxfam Bookshop

Oxfam Bookshop Raeburn Place

25 Raeburn Place, Edinburgh EH4 1HU

On Stockbridge's main street, an Oxfam bookshop whose own listing calls it a long-time city favourite with quality second-hand titles and a team of enthusiasts ready to help hunt down an elusive book by phone or email. Books are the one donation the listing names, and it gives no fixed hours, telling visitors to get in touch for them. An Internet Archive snapshot of the listing taken on 15 June 2026 shows the same text and address, and Cooper Hay's new branch is roughly 590 yards east on Cumberland Street.

Website

Oxfam Bookshop

Oxfam Bookshop Morningside Road

210 Morningside Road, Edinburgh EH10 4QQ

Nearly two miles from the centre, towards the south-west, the Morningside branch where Oxfam keeps its books at number 210, while the general Oxfam shop next door at 204-206 lists clothing and homewares. Oxfam's page for the bookshop runs from modern fiction and specialist subjects to classics and collectables, adds records, CDs and films on DVD, and lists books and music as the donations it accepts. No opening times are published there, and a copy of the page held by the Internet Archive from 19 April 2026 shows the same shop and address.

Website

Oxfam Bookshop

Oxfam Bookshop Nicolson Street

116 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9EJ

In the Southside, the Oxfam bookshop at 116 Nicolson Street, a few doors from a separate Oxfam shop at 120-122 that handles clothes and homewares. Its Oxfam listing adds donated CDs, DVDs and vinyl, plus greetings cards, to the books and publishes a seven-day timetable with a later Sunday start. The Internet Archive's capture of that listing from 19 May 2026 shows the same grid, and Tills is about 380 yards to the south.

Hours: Mon–Sat 9:30am–5:30pm, Sun 12:30pm–5pmWebsite

Charity bookshop (Bethany Christian Trust)

The Bethany Bookshop

33A Haddington Place, Edinburgh EH7 4AG

Where Leith Walk begins, about 200 yards along Haddington Place from McNaughtan's, the book shop of Bethany Christian Trust, whose shop sales help fund its work to end homelessness in Scotland. The charity's list of shops gives it a separate name and phone line from its other branches, and an Internet Archive capture of that list from 10 June 2026 records the identical entry, with a Monday-to-Saturday timetable that closes an hour earlier than its general shops in the city. Bethany asks donors to drop goods at their nearest branch, so a bag of books can simply be handed over the counter here.

Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–4pmWebsite

Charity bookshop (Shelter Scotland)

Shelter Scotland Stockbridge Book Shop

106a Raeburn Place, Edinburgh EH4 1HH

In Stockbridge, about 200 yards west of the Oxfam bookshop on the same street, the housing charity's book-only branch, with a level, wheelchair-accessible entrance. Its page asks for good-quality books only, handed in during opening hours rather than piled on the step after closing, and wants a phone call before any large delivery. A Wayback Machine snapshot dated 19 April 2026 matches the live seven-day timetable, Sunday's shorter hours included.

Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–6pm, Sun 11am–4pmWebsite

Car boot sales & markets

Car boot sale

Edinburgh Car Boot Sale (Corn Exchange)

Edinburgh Corn Exchange, 10 New Market Road, Edinburgh EH14 1RJ

Out at the Corn Exchange in Slateford, almost three miles south-west of the centre, a year-round car boot which, according to its organiser, trades every Saturday and Sunday apart from Christmas and New Year, letting buyers in from 7.15am on Saturdays and wrapping up at noon. The website puts Sunday buyers' entry at 7.45am while an organiser's Facebook post says 7.15am, so the earlier time is the safer bet; sellers pay £15 a car and need no booking. Neither the organiser's site nor its posts mention books, so treat any paperbacks as a bonus among the general stalls. Its Facebook page was trailing a weekend of bargains on 17 September 2026.

Website

Car boot sale

Ocean Terminal Car Boot Sale

Red Car Park (Level F), Ocean Terminal, Ocean Drive, Edinburgh EH6 6JJ

On the Leith waterfront, about 1.9 miles north of the centre, the Ocean Terminal shopping centre turns level F of its Red Car Park over to a car boot every Sunday, from 7.30am to roughly 12.30pm by the centre's own timing. Its page named Sunday 14 December 2025 as the last sale of that year and Sunday 11 January 2026 as the first of 2026. Sellers turn up without booking and pay £14 a car, and since the centre says nothing about books, any paperbacks among the stalls are pure luck.

Hours: Sun 7:30am–12:30pmWebsite

Monthly flea market

Drill Hall Flea Market

Out of the Blue Drill Hall, 36 Dalmeny Street, Edinburgh EH6 8RG

The Out of the Blue arts trust holds its flea market in the old Drill Hall off Leith Walk on the last Saturday of each month, and its own page lists books among the pre-loved goods on 50 stalls, naming a £1 novel as the sort of find to expect. The next dates it publishes are Saturday 31 October and Saturday 28 November 2026, with the Drill Hall Arts Café serving through the day. Traders pay £40 a pitch, book only in person or by phone, and may not book every market.

Hours: Sat 31 October and Sat 28 November 2026, 10am–3pmWebsite

Book fairs

PBFA book fair

PBFA Edinburgh Book Fair

Augustine Church Hall, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1EL

The Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association brings its members to this church hall on George IV Bridge for one-day fairs where members sell antiquarian and secondhand stock, from books to maps and other printed matter, with £1 at the door. Its calendar gives Saturday 7 November 2026 as the third and final one of the year, following a fair in the same hall on 19 September 2026. The two-day Premier fair, run with the ABA, took place at the George Hotel on George Street on 20 and 21 March 2026 and was organised from McNaughtan's. Parking is tight, and the PBFA points drivers to the car park at Lauriston Place.

Hours: Sat 7 November 2026, 10am–4pmWebsite

Scan before you buy

At every one of these spots, snap the shelf with BiblioScan: the AI identifies each book and shows its real resale price. Walk out with profitable books, not random boxes.

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Local sourcing tips

Peter Bell at 68 West Port is easy to mistake for a fourth walk-in shop on the street, but its website says the shop is open only by appointment. The firm has been bookselling since 1974 and in Edinburgh since 1980, belongs to the PBFA and lists its stock, with booklets, British history, art catalogues and Scottish material as specialities, on AbeBooks, so email before heading there.
Typewronger Books left Haddington Place for 22 Bruntsfield Place in July 2026, as The Herald reported, and its shelves are mostly new books. A Facebook post on 27 August 2026 explained the exception: copies bought from its own shelves can come back in decent condition for store credit and go out again labelled TW 2nd Hand, so look for those stickers if you are in Bruntsfield anyway.
Several charities split books from everything else between neighbouring doors, and the doors are easy to mix up. Oxfam keeps its books at 210 Morningside Road but clothing and homewares at 204-206, books at 116 Nicolson Street but the general shop at 120-122, and a music shop at 64 Raeburn Place with the bookshop at 25. Bethany Christian Trust has a general shop at 32B Haddington Place beside its bookshop at 33A, and Shelter Scotland's Stockbridge community shop, next door to its book shop, takes the other kinds of donation.
For a wider charity-shop crawl, the City of Edinburgh Council keeps an online reuse directory whose Books, film, music category lists chains such as Barnardo's alongside smaller charities such as Birthlink. An entry there does not prove that a given shop has a book shelf on the day, so treat the list as a route planner rather than a promise.
Two short walks take in a good share of the shops. The West Port trio of Armchair, Edinburgh Books and Main Point fits inside less than a tenth of a mile, with the George IV Bridge fair hall some 630 yards further east and John Kay's just below it on Victoria Street. Up at Canonmills, The Gently Mad and the St Columba's book shop are close neighbours, with Cooper Hay and the two Raeburn Place charity bookshops a little further on.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I find cheap used books in Edinburgh?

Start with the charity shelves and the bargain ends of the independents. Edinburgh Books keeps a range of £1 books and prices some records at 50p, and Out of the Blue's monthly flea market at the Drill Hall mentions picking up a great novel for £1 among its 50 stalls. Donated stock fills the Amnesty shop in Marchmont, the St Columba's book shop at Canonmills, Bethany's book shop near the head of Leith Walk, Shelter Scotland's Stockbridge book shop, the Edinburgh Community Bookshop in Leith and Oxfam's three bookshops on Raeburn Place, Morningside Road and Nicolson Street, and the takings support charity work. The car boots at the Corn Exchange and Ocean Terminal are a gamble, since neither organiser mentions books.

Where do I sell used books in Edinburgh?

Most buyers here want to see the books before you lift them. Armchair Books answers an emailed spine-out shelf photo with a provisional offer, Main Point Books also starts from a picture of the spines, McNaughtan's asks for author, title, publisher and date in writing, and The Gently Mad wants a text before you call in. Edinburgh Books and Tills will both consider whole libraries, Choose Books in Leith is another door for a full box, and PortaLibri in Portobello invites readers to bring their books in. Before emailing anyone, put that shelf photo into BiblioScan, which spots every spine it knows and pins a resale value to it, so you can keep back the copies worth listing yourself on eBay.co.uk, or on Amazon.co.uk, and offer the rest to a shop.

Are there any used book fairs in Edinburgh?

Yes. The PBFA's one-day Edinburgh fairs, where dealers bring rare and second-hand stock, take place in Augustine Church Hall, 41 George IV Bridge, and its calendar lists the next one for Saturday 7 November 2026, 10am to 4pm, at £1 entry, after a fair there on 19 September 2026. McNaughtan's organised the ABA and PBFA's joint Premier event at the George Hotel over two days in March 2026. For something rougher, Out of the Blue counts books in the mix at its Leith flea market, next held on 31 October and 28 November 2026.

Which day is best for book hunting in Edinburgh?

Saturday, and above all the month's final Saturday, when the Drill Hall flea market in Leith runs alongside the Corn Exchange car boot and every shop listed here with a published timetable is trading. Sunday is the other strong day: it is the only day for the Ocean Terminal car boot, the Corn Exchange runs again, and Armchair, Tills, McNaughtan's, The Gently Mad, John Kay's, the Amnesty shop, the Nicolson Street Oxfam, the Shelter book shop in Stockbridge, the Edinburgh Community Bookshop and Choose Books all give Sunday hours, while Edinburgh Books, the Canonmills hospice shop and the Bethany Bookshop stay shut. Monday is the day Choose Books closes, and Thursday is the late one at McNaughtan's, open until eight.

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