Margaret Dickson: Half Hangit Maggie
The Remarkable Tale of Margaret Dickson: The Woman Who Survived the Hangman’s Noose In 1724, a young woman from Edinburgh named Margaret Dickson was accused of concealing her pregnancy and killing her newborn child. Despite her insistence on her innocence, she was sentenced to be hanged at the age of just 22. Against all odds, […]
Books and Borrowing 1750-1830
Access the new Books and Borrowing Database The Books and Borrowing Database, containing borrowing records covering eighteen different Scottish libraries active in the period between 1750 and 1830, is now available. Using formerly unexplored and underexplored borrowing records, the Books and Borrowing project has created a new resource that reveals hidden histories of book use, […]
Reviving the Trinity Stones: Easter update
Last week Jill Harrison was out and about in Edinburgh looking for more pieces of her Trinity Stones jigsaw puzzle and gives us her Easter update. “I had been alerted to an exciting new fragment in a secret location and it would indeed appear to be another example of a fascinating medieval stone. A […]
Reviving the Trinity Stones: A Treasure Hunt and a Jigsaw Puzzle
The two year Reviving the Trinity Stones project will be an exciting combination of a treasure hunt and jigsaw puzzle.. It is enabled by a Jean Guild Grant from the Old Edinburgh Club The Back Story In 1460 Mary of Guelders built her ambitious charitable foundation of a hospital and the Trinity Collegiate Church below the Calton […]
Table Tennis: A Notable Absence
Capturing vanishing Edinburgh history The Old Edinburgh Club has a mission to uncover and capture vanishing evidence of Edinburgh’s history. Table tennis is, I believe, a clear example of a portion of Edinburgh’s history in danger. Many people have played the game in a social context or on the kitchen table but its existence as […]
OEC Bibliography updated
A rich resource of Edinburgh’s past The Bibliography of Edinburgh History has been updated by the Old Edinburgh Club, forming an extensive collection of nearly 3,000 items. These books, chapters, journal articles and dissertations illuminate the rich heritage of the city, dating from William Maitland’s 1753 History of Edinburgh and Leith. Easily searchable online, the Bibliography covers prehistory to […]
Get up-to-date on Edinburgh Archaeology
Videos of talks given at the 2023 Edinburgh, Lothians and Borders Archaeology Conference are now online. This is always a popular event, held at Queen Margaret University. It was supported by the local authorities, AOC Archaeology, GUARD Archaeology and Historic Environment Scotland. The Edinburgh sites that featured were: Dunsapie Fort, Holyrood Park West Craigs – […]
Jean Guild Grants: first awardees
We have announced the first successful applicants for the Jean Guild Grants programme, which offers small awards for projects and research which expand what we know about the city and bring our history to life. The successful projects are: James Gillespie’s High School: Gaelic in Edinburgh – A History Northlight Productions: Visiting 1700s Edinburgh through virtual […]