X-Nico

38 unusual facts about Edinburgh


A.G. Visser

He received teacher's training at Normaal College in Cape Town en studied medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland from 1901 to 1906.

All Creatures Will Make Merry

Following the critical acclaim of the band's debut album, Pissing On Bonfires / Kissing With Tongues, a newly extended version of Meursault recorded All Creatures Will Make Merry in the winter of 2009, in Stockbridge, Edinburgh.

Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll

On 12 March 1678, he married Elizabeth Tollemache (daughter of Elizabeth and Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Baronet of Helmingham) at Edinburgh, Scotland.

Barns Ness Lighthouse

Taking approximately 2½ years to construct, it was constructed from stone quarried from Craigree (near Cramond) and Barnton.

Caledonian Club

There are reciprocal arrangements with clubs in Scotland (the New Club in Edinburgh, The Western in Glasgow, Royal Northern and University Club in Aberdeen and the Royal Perth Golfing Society) and County and City Club, London and the south east, and some 60 clubs worldwide, including the Hong Kong Club, the Hurlingham Club in Argentina, the Royal Bachelors' Club in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the Australian Club.

Chuck Blair

Blair was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and while still an infant, he immigrated with his family to Canada.

Edinburgh Northern Tramways

A second line opened on 17 February 1890 from George Street along Frederick Street and Howe Street through Stockbridge to Comely Bank.

Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway

The loop via Piershill and Abbeyhill was retained and used as a diversion for slower trains, and in both 1970 and 1986 a temporary passenger halt at Meadowbank was built for the duration of the Commonwealth Games.

Edinburgh's Telford College

River City star Jenny Ryan (a former student of Edinburgh College (Granton Campus)) conducted an acting workshop for the students in sharing their experiences of the acting industry with the students and gave them advice on acting for camera, auditioning and contacting casting directors.

Edward William Elton

Before the termination of the season he accepted an engagement of a month from William H. Murray of the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh.

Edwin Muir

A memorial bench was erected in 1962 to Muir in the idyllic village of Swanston, Edinburgh, where he spent time during the 1950s.

Ekaterine Gabashvili

In 1958, a movie Magdanas lurja (Magdana’s Donkey), based on Gabashvili’s one of the most remarkable novels and directed by Tengiz Abuladze and Revaz Chkheidze, won prizes at the international film festivals at Cannes and Edinburgh.

Fishing industry in Scotland

A recent inquiry by the Royal Society of Edinburgh found fishing to be of much greater social, economic and cultural importance to Scotland than it is relative to the rest of the UK.

French Institute for Scotland

The French Institute is located in Randolph Crescent in Edinburgh's West End.

Holy Cross Church, St Helens

Fr Thomas Seed, the head of the Jesuits in Britain, who also founded Sacred Heart Church in Edinburgh laid the foundation stone of the church on 3 May 1860, what was then Feast of the Finding of the True Cross.

Hububb

The show was filmed and set in the Scottish Capital City, Edinburgh and the tower featured in the show was Melville Monument in St Andrew Square.

Jack Pratt

John "Jack" Pratt (b. 13 April 1906 in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom - d. 11 January 1988) was a professional ice hockey player who played 37 games in the National Hockey League.

John Dowie

John Dowie (innkeeper) c.1800, owner of the infamous John Dowie's Tavern on Liberton Wynd in Edinburgh's Old Town

John Lawrence Toole

Encouraged by Dickens, he made his professional stage debut in 1852 at the Queen's Theatre in Dublin, under the management of Charles Dillon, and by 1853 became the principal "low comedian" at the Theatre Royale in Edinburgh.

John Wilson Murray

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland and came to North America as a young boy.

Joseph Ebsworth

Ebsworth became established in Edinburgh as teacher of music and singing, and accepted the position of leader of the choir at St. Stephen's Church, which caused him to give up acting; but he continued to write and to translate dramas, which played in London and the provinces.

Lady Margaret Sackville

In 1922 she published "A Masque of Edinburgh." This was performed at the Music Hall, George Street, Edinburgh, and depicted the history of Edinburgh in eleven scenes from the Romans to a meeting between the poet Robert Burns and the writer Sir Walter Scott.

Leith Harbour

It is named after Leith the harbour area of Edinburgh, Christian Salvesen's home town.

Longmore House

Longmore House, formerly Longmore Hospital, on Salisbury Place, Newington, Edinburgh, is the headquarters of Historic Scotland.

Michael Proffitt

Raised in Edinburgh, Proffitt attend the University of Oxford, where he studied English language and literature.

New York High School

It opened in March 1825 under the leadership of educator John Griscom, and was modeled on Edinburgh high school in Scotland.

Niddrie, Victoria

By 1871, Stevenson had built a house he named Niddrie, after his birthplace of Niddrie, a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Penfield railway line

The line then went north west and then turned north through Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) in Edinburgh.

Philip Palin

Philip Palin was born in Edinburgh on 8 August 1864, the son of Lieutenant-General C.T. Palin of the Bombay Army.

Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America

In response to the King's attempts to change the style of worship and form of government in the churches that had previously been agreed upon (covenanted) by the free assemblies and parliament, a number of ministers affirmed their adherence to those previous agreements by becoming signatories to the "National Covenant" of February 1638 at Greyfriars Kirk, in Edinburgh.

Roderick Ross

He retired to Portobello, Edinburgh and died on 6 March 1943 after a short illness in a nursing home at 19 Great King Street, Edinburgh.

Ronnie Shade

Shade was born in Edinburgh and grew up playing golf at Dudddingston Golf Club in that city.

Sighthill Stadium

Sighthill Stadium was a proposed stadium to be located in the Sighthill district of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Silvermills

Mill lades serving the mills led from the Water of Leith at a point just north of Stockbridge, through the area and on to Canonmills Loch at Canonmills.

Simon Kassianides

At the University of Edinburgh he was the producer and executive producer of a sold out run of Grease at the George Square theatre.

Trinity Academicals RFC

Trinity Academicals RFC, nicknamed "Trinity" or "Trinity Accies" is a rugby union based in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland, originally for the former pupils of Trinity Academy, Edinburgh.

University of Edinburgh School of GeoSciences

The institutes of Ecological Sciences and Earth Science are located at the King's Buildings, whilst the Institute of Geography is located on Drummond Street in the Central Area.

Vioearth Holdings

Vioearth Holdings is a computer energy tracking and efficiency management company based in Edinburgh, Scotland.


20 March 2003 anti-war protest

The Edinburgh demo saw 500 people at midday march to the foot of The Mound, the rally was addressed by MSPs Tommy Sheridan and Lloyd Quinan.

A Fictional Guide to Scotland

This reading tour visited places as far and wide as Wigtown, Ullapool, Inverness, Edinburgh, Stirling, Lanark and Glasgow and was supported by the Scottish Arts Council.

Ancient universities of Scotland

In modern times, former college names may refer to specific university buildings, such as the King's College and Marischal College buildings in Aberdeen, the Old College and New College at Edinburgh and the 'Old College' to refer to the former buildings of the University of Glasgow before its move in the 19th century to Gilmorehill.

Andrew Combe

Early in 1836 he received the appointment of physician to King Léopold I of Belgium, with Dr. James Clark's recommendation, and moved to Brussels ; but his health again failed, and he returned to Edinburgh in the same year.

Bertrand M. Tipple

He was a delegate to the world convention of the YMCA at Robert College in Constantinople in 1911 and a delegate to the Ecumenical Conference in Edinburgh, 1913.

Bootham Crescent

The ground is located just over a mile away from York railway station, which lies on the East Coast Main Line between London's King's Cross station and Edinburgh's Waverley Station.

Buckfast Tonic Wine

In February 2013, J. Chandler & Company applied to the Court of Session in Edinburgh to stop Strathclyde Police from marking bottles of Buckfast so they could trace where under-age drinkers bought them.

Carlos Alexander

Alexander has sung with companies in Buenos Aires, Vienna, Brussels, Canada, Copenhagen, Paris, Athens, Bayreuth (Beckmesser in Wieland Wagner's Die Meistersinger, 1963), Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart, Florence, Mexico City, Basel, Geneva, Zurich, Edinburgh, Glyndebourne, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Fort Worth, Hartford, etc.

Clan Kerr

Newbattle Abbey or Newbattle Castle near Edinburgh became a secular lordship for the last commendator, Mark Kerr, 1st Earl of Lothian (Ker) in 1587.

Cyril Aldred

He died peacefully at his home in Edinburgh in 1991 but is remembered as one of the leading characters in improving archaeology in Scotland at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow.

David Burn

He failed to qualify for a land grant returned to Edinburgh in 1829, divorcing his wife there.

David Wilde

He has recorded for HMV, Decca Oiseau Lyre, Lyrita Saga and CRD, and now records exclusively for Delphian Records of Edinburgh, who have already issued a recordings of music by Dallapiccola, Busoni, and Liszt, Schumann and Brahms.

Demography of Scotland

Around 70% of the country's population live in the Central Lowlands — region stretching in a northeast-southwest orientation between the major cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and including major settlements such as Paisley, Stirling, Falkirk, Perth and Dundee.

Dunbar railway station

A year later in May 2011, all Scotrail services between Dunbar and Edinburgh introduced a one intermediate stop at Musselburgh to allow the connection of Dunbar students to Queen Margaret University.

Duncan Cameron

Duncan Inglis Cameron (1927–2006), founding secretary of Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

Duncan Inglis Cameron

He served as justice of the peace for several decades and was a highly respected session clerk of St Ninian's Church in Corstorphine, Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Institution

Stewart's Melville College, formerly Edinburgh Institution for Languages and Mathematics

Edwin C. May

His technical expertise is well respected, and he has given presentations at the famous World War II site Bletchley Park (UK), Harvard University, the Universities of California at Los Angeles and at Davis, Stanford University, the University of Edinburgh, Trinity College Cambridge, Eötvös Loránd University, the University of Stockholm, Imperial College London and others.

Emily Lyle

She was appointed as a Research Fellow at the School of Scottish Studies of the University of Edinburgh from 1970 to 1995 and as a Lecturer from 1995 to 1998.

Fernando Screpis

Screpis signed a three-and-a-half-year deal with the Edinburgh club during a trial period in Austria in the summer of 2007, however it did not take effect until January 1, 2008, with Screpis agreeing to spend six months with Vladimir Romanov-sponsored FBK Kaunas before defecting to Scotland.

Geogaddi

The album premiered in six cities around the world: London, New York, Tokyo, Edinburgh, Paris, and Berlin.

Glitters Like Gold

'Glitters Like Gold' featured throughout the February and March 2012 tour at venues in London, Edinburgh, Brighton and Leeds, and opens fifth LP In the Belly of the Brazen Bull.

Guy Warrack

Guy Warrack (6 February 1900, Edinburgh - 12 February 1986, Englefield Green) was Scottish composer and conductor.

James Craig Annan

James Annan subsequently joined his family’s photographic business, T. & R. Annan and Sons of Glasgow, Hamilton and Edinburgh, and in 1883 went to Vienna to learn the process of photogravure from the inventor, Karel Klíč.

Jesse Moren Bader

From 1937 onwards he attended all the major ecumenical gatherings related to the formation and establishment of the World Council of Churches including Oxford and Edinburgh (1937), Amsterdam (1948), Evanston (1954), New Delhi (1961) and the annual meetings of the World Council of Churches executive committee once it was set up in 1948.

John Lazar

Born in Edinburgh, Lazar came to Sydney in 1837 where he worked as an actor and theatre manager.

John Somerville, 4th Lord Somerville

The historian only found one charter signed by John at Edinburgh in 1510 connected with his coming-of-age, and assumes the Lord spent most of his life at Cowthally Castle near Carnwath.

Joseph Ebsworth

In 1828 he opened an "English and foreign dramatic library and caricature repository" at 23 Elm Row, at the head of Leith Walk, Edinburgh, and for fifteen years maintained it successfully as the main bookseller's shop for periodical literature.

King Creosote

Anderson also contributed to the Cold Seeds collaborative album along with Frances Donnelly of Animal Magic Tricks, and Neil Pennycook and Pete Harvey from Meursault; which was released on the Edinburgh-based indie label Song, By Toad Records.

Landsbanki

In 2005, Landsbanki acquired three European securities houses: Teather & Greenwood, located in London and Edinburgh; Kepler Capital Markets, headquartered in Paris; and Merrion Capital Group in Dublin.

Lawrence Macdonald

In about four years he returned to Edinburgh, and there produced busts of Professor John Wilson and George Combe, the phrenologist.

Liverpool poets

Other related poets include the Londoner Pete Brown (who wrote lyrics for Cream), Pete Morgan and Alan Jackson (both associated with the 1960s Edinburgh poetry scene), Tom Pickard and Barry MacSweeney (both from Newcastle), Spike Hawkins, Jim Bennett, Heather Holden, Mike Evans, Pete Roche and Henry Graham.

Logic programming

It emerged from a collaboration between Colmerauer in Marseille and Robert Kowalski in Edinburgh.

Louis Isaac Rabinowitz

Rabbi Rabinowitz was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, descendant of a long lineage of Lithuanian Rabbis.

Mayfield Park

Mayfield Park, Edinburgh, a recreational area in Edinburgh, Scotland (see Hibernian F.C.)

Nick Helm

His 2013 Edinburgh Fringe show, One Man Mega Myth, strongly referenced Evel Knievel and he was again nominated for Best Show in the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, losing out to Bridget Christie.

Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council

Its head office was at Polaris House in Swindon, Wiltshire, but it also operated three scientific sites: the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) in Edinburgh, the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) in La Palma and the Joint Astronomy Centre (JAC) in Hawaii.

Saira Elizabeth Luiza Shah

Her future husband, Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah, who was descended from the Sadaat of Paghman, had settled in England before the first world war and she met him in Edinburgh during that war, where he was studying medicine at Edinburgh Medical School.

Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar

Ramaswami halted at Edinburgh on way to Aberdeen to listen to the speech of the liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone while he regarded the speech given by John Bright at Birmingham as the best he had ever listened to in life.

Society for Experimental Biology

The main meeting is held in the UK or continental Europe (Swansea, Wales, 2002; Southampton, England, 2003; Edinburgh, Scotland, 2004; Barcelona, Spain, 2005; Canterbury, England, 2006; Glasgow, Scotland 2007, 2009, 2011; Marseille, France, 2008; Prague, Czech Republic, 2010; Salzburg, Austria, 2012; Valencia, Spain, planned for 2013).

Stephen Maxwell

His friend Owen Dudley Edwards, an Irish-born Edinburgh historian, remembers his press briefings as unique: "Hostile journalists were staggered to hear him explain that their objections to this or that in the party were not really rewarding subjects but that a more useful question to raise would be this other."

Steve Oram

He started as a character comedian on the comedy circuit and performed several comedy shows at the Edinburgh Fringe with comedy partner Tom Meeten during the early 2000s.

Stuart McQuarrie

McQuarrie trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) in Glasgow and soon became a highly popular actor amongst Edinburgh theatre goers before moving to London where he has played prominent roles in more controversial, new dramas by playwrights such as Sarah Kane and Anthony Neilson, amongst others.

The Journal of Sir Walter Scott

John Guthrie Tait and W. M. Parker (eds.) The Journal of Sir Walter Scott in 3 volumes (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1939-1946).

Thomas George Roddick

Earlier in 1877, Roddick traveled to Edinburgh to witness Joseph Lister's medical antiseptic system.

Thornbridge Brewery

Thornbridge's beers were originally brewed by Martin Dickie, a graduate of the International Centre for Distilling and Brewing at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, and Stefano Cossi, a graduate in Food Science and Technology at Udine University, Italy.

Tony Law

He also appeared in a series of television adverts for Gala Bingo and has had TV exposure on Edinburgh & Beyond and Comedy Cuts.

Woolamaloo Gazette

The Woolamaloo Gazette is a blog begun by Edinburgh bookseller Joe Gordon in April 2003, posting satiricial takes on news stories, comments, book reviews, photographs and general life in Edinburgh.