National Galleries Scotland: Portrait on Queen Street

National Galleries Scotland: Portrait is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. Portrait holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Collection.

Since 1889 it has been housed in its red sandstone Gothic revival building, designed by Robert Rowand Anderson and built between 1885 and 1890 to accommodate the gallery and the museum collection of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. The building was donated by John Ritchie Findlay, owner of The Scotsman newspaper. In 1985 the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland was amalgamated with the Royal Scottish Museum, and later moved to Chambers Street as part of the National Museum of Scotland. Portrait expanded to take over the whole building, and reopened on 1 December 2011 after being closed since April 2009 for the first comprehensive refurbishment in its history, carried out by Page\Park Architects. (Full article...)

Lothian Buses is a major bus operator based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the largest municipal bus company in the United Kingdom: the City of Edinburgh Council (through Transport for Edinburgh) owns 91%, Midlothian Council 5%, East Lothian Council 3% and West Lothian Council 1%.

Lothian operates the majority of bus services in Edinburgh, and is a significant operator in East Lothian, Midlothian and most recently West Lothian. It operates a comprehensive night bus network, three routes to Edinburgh Airport, and owns the subsidiary companies Lothian Country, East Coast Buses, Edinburgh Bus Tours and Lothian Motorcoaches. (Full article...)

Little France is a suburb of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is on the A7, approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) south of the city centre.

The area falls within the parish of Liberton in the south-east of the city. It acquired its name from members of the entourage brought to Scotland from France by Mary, Queen of Scots, who took up residence at nearby Craigmillar Castle. The French left the city following the siege of Leith, under the terms of the Treaty of Edinburgh. (Full article...)

View up the Mound towards the Bank of Scotland

The Mound is an artificial slope and road in central Edinburgh, Scotland, which connects Edinburgh's New and Old Towns. It was formed by dumping around 1,501,000 cartloads of earth excavated from the foundations of the New Town into Nor Loch, which was drained in 1765 and forms today's Princes Street Gardens. (Full article...)

• ... that George Parks was president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and his son Rowan Parks became president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh?
• ... that Prince Philip was the first member of the British royal family to fly in a helicopter?

The Edinburgh School refers to a group of 20th century artists connected with Edinburgh. They share a connection through Edinburgh College of Art, where most studied and worked together during or soon after the First World War. As friends and colleagues, they discussed painting and were influenced by one another's work. They were bound together as members of Edinburgh-based exhibition bodies: the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA), Society of Scottish Artists (SSA) and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW). They predominantly painted still life and Scottish landscapes, and shared an interest in working both in oil and watercolour.

Art critic Giles Sutherland, writing in The Times, has suggested: "The work of the Edinburgh School is characterised by virtuoso displays in the use of paint, vivid and often non-naturalistic colour and themes such as still-life, seascape and landscape." (Full article...)

Heriot-Watt University (Scottish Gaelic: Oilthigh Heriot-Watt) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and subsequently granted university status by royal charter in 1966. It is the eighth-oldest higher education institution in the United Kingdom. The name Heriot-Watt was taken from Scottish inventor James Watt and Scottish philanthropist and goldsmith George Heriot.

The annual income of the institution for 2022–23 was £259.5 million of which £33 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £266.7 million. Known for its focus on science as well as engineering, it is one of the 23 colleges being granted university status in the 1960s and sometimes considered a plate glass university similar to the likes of Lancaster and Warwick. (Full article...)

Turnstiles and grandstand adjacent to the rugby pitch

The Goldenacre Sports Ground is located in the Goldenacre area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is owned by the George Heriot's School. Several sports are played here including cricket, association football, tennis, and rugby. It is also the home ground of Heriot's Rugby Club and Heriot's Cricket Club.

The cricket pitch hosted seven matches (two of which are warm ups) for the 2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier. (Full article...)

The Church of Scotland offices are located in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland (in the New Town) at 121 George Street. These imposing buildings are popularly known in Church circles as "one-two-one". They were designed in a Scandinavian-influenced style by the architect Sydney Mitchell and built in 1909-1911 for the United Free Church of Scotland. Following the union of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church of Scotland in 1929 the church offices were henceforth used by the newly united church.

A matching extension, incorporating a ground floor bookshop, was built in the 1930s on the east side (119 George Street). A proposed matching extension on the west side (replacing the still-existing buildings at 123 George Street) was never built. 123 George Street is, however, owned by the Church of Scotland and has been incorporated into the offices. The church offices also incorporate a chapel near the main entrance and a staff canteen in the basement. (Full article...)