7^th and 14^th July, 2012

War Poets Museum, Craiglockhart

Four groups of members and their guests visited the War Poets Museum at Craiglockhart over a couple of Saturdays in July.     Each group had a guided tour of the Museum with Curator Catherine Walker and a talk from Joyce Caplan on the historical, literary and social background of the war years.

14^th & 19^th June and 4^th July

The Breweries of the Canongate - walking tour

Conducted by John D. Martin of the Scottish Brewing Archive Association

30^th May 2012

Riddle’s Court,  Lawnmarket 

This late 16^th- century building, with late 17^th- century additions, is well-known as one of the finest surviving merchant’s houses in the Royal Mile.  It has recently undergone a new lease of life, becoming the headquarters of the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust. 

16th July 2011  

Visit to St John’s Episcopal Church and Churchyard

On a day punctuated with torrential showers of rain we visited the church which stands at the West end of Princes Street. By good fortune the rain stayed away during our visit.

8th June 2011
The Queen’s Bodyguard for Scotland (the Royal Company of Archers)
This illustrious institution was set up in 1676 although there is evidence of even earlier activity. The Company was granted a Royal charter by Queen Anne in 1703 and many famous personages have passed through their ranks since then including; Robert Burns, Sir Henry Raeburn, Sir Walter Scott and even the flamboyant balloonist Vincent Lunardi.

18th May 2011
Amid a plethora of conferences, seminars, special lectures, and exhibitions, all marking the tercentenary of the birth of David Hume, the OEC arranged a Hume Walk as part of its summer programme.

7th July 2010
Originally Royston House, Caroline Park House is a privately-owned 17th century country mansion. What is surprising is that it stands in its own grounds near the Forth Estuary at Granton, surrounded by industry and modern street landscaping.

Monday 7th and Wed 9th June 2010
In the late 13th century some of the records of Scotland were removed by King Edward I. In 1650 Oliver Cromwell also ransacked our records and some were lost in the North Sea when they were being returned in 1660, so by the second half of the 18th century, Scotland’s records, by then housed in various places in the Old Town, were in a sorry state of neglect.  

May 11th 2010
Members and friends of the OEC were privileged to hear two excellent, informed speakers; Yvonne Holton on Scottish Heraldry and Elizabeth Roads describing the Thistle Chapel.

7th and 9th July 2009
Old Edinburgh Club members were treated to a unique event.
After his success last summer in conducting a walk around Edinburgh’s walls (exactly 100 years after the Old Edinburgh Club had organised a similar outing), Graeme D.R. Cruikshank, of Edinburgh Historical Enterprises and OEC council member, volunteered to organise a trip around sites associated with the poet Robert Burns who was born 250 years ago.

Summer Visit to the Faculty of Advocate’s Library - 23rd June 2009
Fifty-five Club members were welcomed by Mungo Bovey QC, Keeper of the Advocates Library.
Our group, one of three being conducted by library staff, began the tour in Parliament Hall which was the location of the Scottish Parliament until 1707.

A walking tour round the old city walls, 18th July 2008
On the 18th of July 1908, John Geddie, Assistant Editor of The Scotsman, conducted a ‘Ramble’ around the remnants of Edinburgh’s walls. The trip was a joint meeting of the Edinburgh Photographic Society and the Old Edinburgh Club. Exactly 100 years to the day, historian Graeme Cruickshank guided Club members and guests around the walls.

26 July 2007
In the 15th century, the merchants of Edinburgh, builders, ship-owners, farmers, etc, formed a corporation called the guildry from which the Merchant Company of Edinburgh was founded by Royal Charter in 1681.

Tues 3^rd July 2007
On the evening of the above day, forty-seven Old Edinburgh Club members and guests enjoyed a double treat. We were privileged to have a tour of the Old College conducted by Dr. Andrew G. Fraser and a rare viewing of the rooms of The Speculative Society revealed by Prof. David Purdie. Both Andrew and David are OEC council members.

19th June 2007
As every school boy knows the Bank of England was founded by a Scotsman, William Paterson in 1694, but how many of us knew that the Bank of Scotland was founded by an Englishman?

Sunday 30 July 2006, Visit and wine reception.
By kind permission of the owners, Richard & Grace Ellis, we were invited to see round their fascinating home, first occupied in 1844 by David Ramsay Hay, the Queen’s Limner (Painter) who worked on interiors at Abbotsford House, Holyrood Palace and many Playfair buildings.

Edinburgh, Sat 1st July, 2006

Drumsheugh Baths were designed in a Moorish style in 1882 by Sir John J. Burnet (1857–1938) who is better known for his former R.W. Forsyth store in Princes Street (now Burton’s).

Edinburgh, Sat 17th June 2006

The Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh was founded in 1670 on a modest plot adjacent to Holyrood Palace by two Physicians, Andrew Balfour and Robert Sibbald.