Our annual World Heritage Day lecture sees a prominent figure from the heritage world delving into fascinating aspects of our city’s history or addressing contemporary challenges facing the sector.

This year is no exception, and we can expect a fascinating key note lecture from Loyd Grossman, former Chair of Heritage Alliance, in one of our city’s fine civic spaces.

6pm, Thursday 16 April 2020. Tickets on sale around a month in advance.

This year, our two summer walking tours will take in the youngest and oldest buildings in the city centre.

Ancient roots: Interested to discover more about the remaining traces of our city’s Medieval beginnings and Reformation era developments? Join us for this early evening promenade up the Royal Mile where we will learn about Edinburgh’s early cityscape and architecture.

Fresh shoots: Hidden amongst 17th and 18th century tenements and Georgian townhouses, Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns World Heritage Site contains a number of important contemporary architectural additions. This new tour will shed light on some of the most striking and interesting post-war buildings in our city.

Both walks will culminate in a summer drinks reception.

Dates in June and July to be confirmed.

A  look at Edinburgh World Heritage’s events from the past year

Every year we host our Christmas Party in a historic and unusual location which is either a past or present conservation project. Previous venues have included St. Cecilia’s Hall, 25 Learmonth Terrace and the Tron. 2019 was no exception – on Tuesday 10 December we were joined by supporters in the beautiful setting of the French Institute in West Parliament Square for a warm and fun seasonal celebration.

On Tuesday 26 November 2019 we were joined by author John Fulton for the launch of his new book. Set in 66 Queen Street, this publication tells the story of extraordinary people and events associated with the house for 210 years from 1790 whose lives were empowered by the Scottish Enlightenment. The story reflects how our modern world is shaped, with Edinburgh emerging from its medieval past to become an intellectual and prosperous capital city.

This autumn, Edinburgh World Heritage celebrated the start of its 1,500th project in the city, as well as 20 years as an independent charity.

To mark the occasion, we held a fundraising gala dinner on Saturday 23rd November 2019, an opportunity to thank our friends and supporters for their commitment over the years, and, importantly, to raise funds for the next stage of our journey.

On 5 September 2019, Adam Wilkinson, Director of Edinburgh World Heritage shared a new lecture on the background and significance of the original North Bridge, the development of the first New Town, and some new finds from the archives.

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The city’s monuments and public works of art mark Edinburgh out as a great capital city and are one of the reasons for our UNESCO World Heritage inscription. To celebrate the publication of Professor Ray McKenzie’s new book ‘Public Sculpture of Edinburgh’, on 12 June 2019 we led groups around a specially curated tour of our city’s most important sculptures.

Scotland’s pre-eminent historian, Professor Sir Tom Devine, delivered the 2019 World Heritage Day lecture. Sir Tom explored the extraordinary success of late Victorian Edinburgh – as banking house to the British Empire, as patron of the arts and architecture, and as a city of considerable luxury and opulence.

The video of his talk can be viewed here:

On Friday 15 March, Edinburgh World Heritage hosted a special half-day maintenance CPD event to explore the issues and solutions presented by the needs for regular maintenance of our historic building stock in the face of a changing climate.

In this sell-out members-only lecture on 28 February 2019, architect and former Director of Development at Panmure House, Chris Watkins, told the story of the building from the time of the Scottish Enlightenment to the present day.

Panmure House was the final residence of Adam Smith, who lived there from 1778 to 1790. This important 17th century Canongate house has recently been the subject of major conservation, adaptation and restoration work, partly funded by Edinburgh World Heritage, and has recently opened as a centre of learning for the Edinburgh Business School.