Edinburgh International Film Festival (various locations within Edinburgh) – held in late June every year, the Edinburgh International Film Festival is renowned around the world for discovering and promoting the very best in international cinema – and for heralding and debating changes in global filmmaking. Intimate in its scale, ambitious in its scope, and fuelled […]
Edinburgh International Festival (downtown Edinburgh) – held throughout the month of August, the Edinburgh International Festival has been connecting audiences and artists for over sixty years. Founded in 1947, the Festival grew out of the rubble of the Second World War with the aim of providing ‘a platform for the flowering of the human spirit’ […]
Edinburgh Dungeon (31 Market Street, Edinburgh) – this theater production is the ultimate thrill-filled adventure through Scotland’s murky past, going back 1,000 years. Spectators come face-to-face with sinister characters from Scotland’s gruesome past, including murderous twosome Burke and Hare and Scotland’s Warrior Hero William Wallace. Experience the ghostly presence on Mary King’s Close, the fearsome […]
Travelling Gallery (various locations within Edinburgh) – this is a mobile art gallery that goes from place to place – bringing contemporary art exhibits into school and communities within the Scottish capital and other parts of Scotland. The Gallery usually tours two exhibitions per year for about four months at a time and is often […]
The Writers’ Museum (Lady Stair’s Close, Edinburgh) – this museum pays tribute to the lives of three major Scottish writers: Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Tourists can see portraits, rare books and personal objects including Burns’ writing desk, the printing press on which Scott’s Waverley Novels were first produced, and Scott’s […]
The People’s Story (Canongate, Royal Mile, Edinburgh) – this museum is located within the 16th century structure known as Canongate Tolbooth. Unlike other museums, this one uses oral history reminiscence and written sources to reveal the accounts of those ordinary individuals who’ve lived and worked in Edinburgh from the 18th century to the present. Admission: […]
Stirling Castle (Castle Wynd, Stirling) – located an hour northwest of Edinburgh, Stirling Castle is a great symbol of Scottish independence and a source of national pride. Knights, nobles and foreign ambassadors once flocked to the Royal Court at Stirling Castle to revel in the castle’s grandeur. In addition, several Scottish Kings and Queens have […]
Scottish National Portrait Gallery (1 Queen Street, Edinburgh) – tourists can see one of Edinburgh’s most iconic buildings and explore a fascinating overview of Scotland’s past and present though a wealth of imagery encompassing painting, photography, sculpture and film. Such individuals are those who helped shape the nation’s identity at home and abroad: from Mary […]
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (73/75 Belford Road, Edinburgh) — Home to Scotland’s outstanding national collection of modern and contemporary art, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art comprises two buildings, Modern One and Modern Two. Set in beautiful parkland close to the Waters of Leith you can explore sculpture by major artists such […]
Queensferry Museum (53 High Street, South Queensferry) — located in the historic former royal burgh of Queensferry (just west of Edinburgh), the museum commands magnificent views of the two great bridges spanning the Forth. Its collections trace the history of the people of Queensferry and Dalmeny, the historic ferry passage to Fife. Admission: free. Hours: […]