Seeing seals in Scotland (from an Edinburgh base)
 

My daughter is very interested in seals. I thought maybe we could do a daytrip somewhere to see Scottish seals when we visit Edinburgh in late August. I've found this site which mentions seals with newborn pups being around in October and November:
http://www.seabird.org

Any suggestions as to the best way to see seals, using public transport, or possibly a guided bus tour?

I've not actually been to the Sealife Centre, but it's very easy to get a train to North Berwick.

An alternative nice day out, if the weather's good & you have time (how many days are you coming for ?) is to visit South Queensferry, see the Forth Bridge & the Forth Road Bridge, & get the 'Maid of the Forth' boat over to Inchcolm island. The only time I personally have seen a seal in the wild is from that boat. You can get a bus to South Queensferry, or get the train to Dalmeny & walk down the hill. Or get the train to North Queensferry and walk over the road bridge (if it's not too windy !). South Queensferry itself is quite quaint and historic and you could have a pub lunch at the Hawes Inn almost under the rail bridge.

Most of the seal populations throughout the year are on the west coast and the easiest to reach them from Edinburgh would be to take the train to Oban and then go on a boat trip from Oban.

The Seabird Centre at North Berwick is very good and they have cameras set up on the islands which you can operate to see what is going on on these islands but as they say the main time for the seals in that area is October and November.

You may be lucky enough to see one or two if you went on the Maid of the Forth ww.maidoftheforth.co.uk and went round Inchcolm Island but there is not a large population in the Forth Estuary.

There is a website
www.pbase.com/lindabuckell/scotland_seals
with lots of recently taken photgrpahs of Scottish Seals and you may wish to contact them to find out which boat tour they took.