Distance between Birmingham and Edinburgh (straight line)
The straight-line distance between Birmingham and Edinburgh, both in the United Kingdom, is 245 miles (395 km), as the crow flies, measured from one city centre to the other. It is the shortest path over the Earth's surface; any road between them is longer.
Straight-line distance
245 miles
395 km · straight line
Heading from Birmingham
348° (north-northwest)
initial compass bearing to Edinburgh
Flight time estimate, not a booking
~30 min
at about 800 km/h, in the air only
Straight-line (great-circle) distance, as the crow flies. The road distance is longer.
BirminghamEdinburghThe line is the great circle: straight over the globe, curved on a flat map.
Measure your own two places
Pick any two cities, addresses or coordinates in the calculator, or start from where you are standing. It gives the same straight-line distance, in miles and kilometres.
Birmingham to Edinburgh at a glance
- Straight-line distance
- 245 miles (395 km), as the crow flies
- Heading from Birmingham
- 348° (north-northwest) to Edinburgh
- Heading from Edinburgh
- 167° (south-southeast) to Birmingham
- Midpoint
- 54.2185° N, 2.5209° W, halfway along the straight line
- Flight time estimate, not a booking
- About 30 min in the air at a cruising speed of 800 km/h along the straight line. Take-off, landing, the real flight path and any stops add more.
- Birmingham, United Kingdom
- 52.4814° N, 1.8998° W (city centre)
- Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- 55.9521° N, 3.1965° W (city centre)
Nearby city pairs
Other distances from Birmingham
- Birmingham to Manchester70 miles
- Birmingham to Liverpool78 miles
- Birmingham to London101 miles
- Birmingham to Glasgow252 miles
Other distances from Edinburgh
- Edinburgh to Glasgow42 miles
- Edinburgh to Manchester175 miles
- Edinburgh to Liverpool176 miles
- Edinburgh to London332 miles
Questions
Is 245 miles (395 km) the driving distance from Birmingham to Edinburgh?
No. 245 miles (395 km) is the straight-line distance between the two city centres, as the crow flies. A road route is always longer, because roads bend around terrain and water, and MapGO does not measure driving distance or travel time.
How is the distance between Birmingham and Edinburgh measured?
Along a great circle: the shortest line over the Earth's surface, from Birmingham's centre (52.4814° N, 1.8998° W) to Edinburgh's (55.9521° N, 3.1965° W). This is what "straight-line distance" and "as the crow flies" mean on a globe. On a flat map the line can look curved.
How accurate is this distance?
Within about 0.5% for the two centre points. The figure treats the Earth as a sphere (the haversine formula), while the real Earth is slightly flattened, which shifts a long straight-line distance by up to about 0.5%. Measuring from another part of either city changes it more, since a large city can be tens of kilometres across.
Computed by MapGO from each city's centre point (GeoNames) with the haversine formula. All distances on this page are straight lines over the Earth's surface, not road distances.