Edinburgh Castle has kept its position as Scotland’s most popular paid-for attraction, according to figures from VisitScotland.

According to the marketing body’s annual Visitor Attraction Monitor, 1.2 million visitors took a trip to the castle last year a 1.9% increase on a year ago.

It was enough to maintain the attraction at the top of the list where it has been since the start of the monitor in 1991.

Edinburgh Zoo and Edinburgh Bus Tours also made the top three of paid-for attractions.

The reopened Glasgow Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum was the most popular free attraction and had 1.88 million visitors in 2006.

Visitors to Scotland increased 6% year-on-year to 45.3 million last year.

Philip Riddle, VisitScotland’s chief executive, said: "Scotland’s wide range of visitor attractions are a crucial part of our tourism industry. They all play an important role in helping the tourism industry to reach its shared ambition of growing revenues from tourism by 50% by 2015."

View the full list here >>

VisitScotland casts doubt on 2015 tourism target >>

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Edinburgh Castle website >>

Kelvingrove Art Gallery website >>

Visit Scotland website >>

By Chris Druce

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