The Hairy Coo – Edinburgh’s Favourite Tour Operator

Ryan

Ryan is an Edinburgh boy, born-and-bred. A family man, Ryan’s a dad to 4 kids who’ve turned his hair grey pretty quickly over the last few years.

A natural tour guide, and suffering from a mid-life crisis, he wants to “run a marathon before he dies” (…better hurry up!!), and enjoys discovering Scotland’s lesser-known spots with his family, on his time off from work. An ex-boyband member, they don’t come friendlier than Ryan.

Just ignore his bad jokes (…it’s the only way to make him stop!). Ryan joined the company in early 2016, and has proven quite a hit with our guests. He’s passionate about showing our passengers the very best of Scotland, each and every day that he is out on the road.

“We were in Scotland celebrating my birthday and our wedding anniversary and I am so glad we decided to take this trip. Ryan was our guide and he was phenomenal. He was super knowledgeable and I have learned more about Scotland and it’s history in that day than all the studying I’ve done since finding out about my Scottish heritage”.

– June M

“Our bus driver/ guide (Ryan) really knew the land around him. Not only did he tell us the stories of such people as Mary Queen of Scots, William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, Sean Connery, etc., but he also gave us a good scientific overview of the geological formations we were driving on and the general use of the land up to modern day and looking into the future.”

– Blair C

Graham

Graham hails from Hamilton, in West Central Scotland, and lists our only Theme Park as a nearby landmark. He has been with Ness Bus since early 2017 and has become a firm favourite with our guests.

It was was a combination of his love of Scotland and his own love of travelling which convinced him to enter the world of tour-guiding. Having been on numerous tours around the world, he knew he had the personality (and patience!) to do the job. Graham goes out of his way to make everybody on his tours feel at home and will no doubt be asking plenty of travel tips for your own country!

He’s passionate about music, having recently been to see Celine Dion and Elton John in Las Vegas, and regularly serenades his guests with Christmas ballads… be warned! Aside from music, Graham’s other passions in life are “Christmas and Halloween” (apparently), Snowboarding and Hockey. He’s a massive Ottawa Senators fan!

He can’t wait to welcome you all on tour!

“The Ness Bus tour was by far one of the best tours I have ever experienced. Our driver come guide, the very very fun Graham made us laugh throughout the journey with his jokes and stories. It was so enjoyable. We learnt so much about Whisky, and we are now using those very valuable tips when we make our purchases.”

-Rajes S

“I had a fantastic, fun and informative day on the Hairy Coo bus seeing some of the wonderful sights of Scotland. Our tour guide for the day was Graham, and he made the day a very enjoyable experience. He was informative, fun and made sure we were all looked after.

I would highly recommend this tour, and this company. Although I only went on the one tour it was obvious that they take their work seriously, ensuring they provide an informative, enjoyable and fun tour of beautiful Scotland. I can’t wait to go back and enjoy some more experiences!”

-Anne G

Paddy

Paddy grew up in the Scottish Borders, in a village called Innerleithen, 30 miles south of Edinburgh. An avid fan of Edinburgh’s premier football team, “Heart of Midlothian” aka ‘Hearts’ (named after Sir Walter Scott’s infamous novel of the same name), Paddy’s interests are football (normally watching Hearts), beer (sometimes whilst watching Hearts play), and listening to his favourite band, Coldplay..

Paddy spends a couple of days a week in the office, so if you phone or email us, he might be the one to reply. Paddy will enchant you with his dry sense of humour, and will share with you his keen love of Scottish history and folklore. 

Donald

As you can see, Donald is a Scot. And a proud one at that.

So in 2010, he co-founded ‘The Hairy Coo’ tour company. It was an instant hit. Within just two months, we were top of the ‘TripAdvisor’ ranking for ‘Things to do in Edinburgh’.

In fact, one of our first ever guests on tour wrote to say this:

“The knowledge of Donald is remarkable, I’m sure you could pretty much ask him any question about Scotland or Scottish people (alive or dead!) and he’d have an interesting answer. His stories are also all very entertaining, and it’s not like other tours where you get bored of someone talking at you – I was surprised by how engaged I was throughout the day.” 

– Liz M

…But Donald wasn’t always a tour guide.

You see, he is a Civil-Engineer by trade – started out building roads. And when he watched the tour buses drive past, he noticed they were missing all the best bits. As an amateur historian, Donald thought he could do better. So he bought a bright orange bus and started showing people the REAL Scotland. Before long, he was getting comments like this…

“Amazing tour. Our tour guide Donald had the best stories and we stopped at so many places that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to see on such a short trip. A must see for visitors to Edignburugh and I truly mean it…Hope you will all visit them and support their business because its a great tour with honourable ethics.” 

– Dani T.