Doors Open Days in Edinburgh are on 28 and 29 September 2018.

This is an opportunity for you to see places in Edinburgh that are hidden behind closed doors. There are also venues which you might visit for an event but don’t really get the chance to look around properly. Well now is your chance.

Book the weekend out with all the places you want to go and visit.

Here are our suggestions :

EDINBURGH TRAM DEPOT

A visit to the Edinburgh Tram Depot will offer an insight into the training that drivers undergo. There will be a tour taking place for Doors Open Days in Edinburgh on Saturday 29 September 2018.

For the first time members of the public are invited to find out more about what happens behind the scenes at the Edinburgh Tram Depot at Gogarburn. Highlights of the visit will include an insight into training, a tour of the Operations Control Centre and workshop.

By (free) ticket only. Open between 10am and 6pm.

HARLAW HYDRO

Harlaw Hydro is generating green electricity from the Water of Leith, utilising the 150 year old dams that used to provide water power to industry in?West Edinburgh. The old water bailiff’s house is now a Visitor Centre for the Pentland Hills Regional Park where you will also be able to find out about Friends of the Pentlands, Malleny Angling Association and Balerno Village Trust. Access to the power house is down a steep and often muddy path and sturdy footwear is recommended.

INFORMATICS FORUM

Opened in September 2008 by the then First Minister, Alex Salmond, the Informatics Forum provides a Forum for Interaction that fosters synergies among the 500 researchers in Informatics. This year of 2018 marks the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Informatics Forum. Informatics Forum has a surprise garden roof terrace with views unobstructed view of surrounding area, including a view of Arthur’s Seat.

Activities: Guided tours to roof garden terrace every half an hour.

Tour must be booked in advance at https://www.ed.ac.uk/informatics/news-events/doors-open-day-2018.

JOHN KNOX HOUSE

Dating back to 1470 and now incorporated into the Scottish Storytelling Centre, John Knox House is one of Scotland’s greatest cultural treasures and is associated with the most dramatic events in Scotland’s turbulent history.

This Category A Listed Building is located in The Netherbow, the house was the home of James Mossman, goldsmith to Mary Queen of Scots, and became known as the final residence of John Knox, the Protestant reformer.

While you are there visit the Cockburn Association office next door.

Moubray House

Next to John Knox House is Moubray House. Although the frontage dates from c. 1630, the house was originally built around 1477, by Robert Moubray.  Andrew Moubray built a new house at the rear in 1529. It was restored by the Cockburn Society in 1910. Here Daniel Defoe edited the Edinburgh Courant (1710) and the shop was the premises of publisher Archibald Constable (1774-1827). Outside on the street is one of the wells which used to provide the water supply to the Old Town.  The office of the Cockburn Association is located in the old cellars of Moubray House and accessed from the garden at the back of the building. Limited wheelchair access to the garden only, down a steep close.  Come and find out about the Cockburn Association’s work for the past 142 years in the conservation and enhancement of Edinburgh’s landscape and historic and architectural heritage.

Barnton Quarry ROTOR Bunker

Edinburgh opens a ROTOR Bunker for Doors Open Days 29th and 30th September.

Despite facing decades of neglect; looting, vandalism, flooding and fire the surviving remains of the Barnton Quarry ROTOR bunker (Cold War nuclear fallout shelter) are being opened to the public for the first time!

Turn a corner from suburban Edinburgh and you find the entrance to this atmospheric tunnel complex.  Begun as an RAF command centre during WW2 the complex was expanded underground in the 1950s to create a nuclear bunker to serve Edinburgh if the bombs fell. The centre of the cold war facility is still being restored but the entrance and 1940s section are open. The site is currently being restored by volunteers, come and explore its dark corridors and find out how you might get involved in the project.

7N Architects 

7N Architects’ studio on Randolph Place sits behind Charlotte Square at the west end of the New Town and was originally built as “St. Cecilia’s Hall”, a sister music venue to the Old Town’s equivalently named building.

First time visitors will be surprised to find the generous space of the former performance hall concealed behind the traditional Georgian townhouse façade. Information on the history of the building will be on display alongside an exhibition of 7N’s work in Edinburgh.

Bridgend Farmhouse

Late 18th century traditional farmhouse building with surrounding steadings, on Craigmillar Castle estate. Fragments of early 16th century chapel remain. A hub for local farming life, long before Craigmillar and the Inch housing estates grew around it. Has been a dairy farm, pig farm, cattle farm. Left derelict for 17 years, restored with Lottery funding and reopened as community-owned hub; a place for learning, eating, nourishing of well-being and collecting of local memories.

Chapel of St Albert the Great

Just off George Square this is a real hidden gem. The Chapel is part of St Albert’s Catholic Chaplaincy, which serves the spiritual and pastoral needs of university students and staff.  The chaplaincy is home to a community of students, staff and others who life together flows for Mass and prayer in the Chapel, but includes a wide range of activities, including weekly community meals, talks, discussions, and work with the homeless.  Built in 2012, the Chapel has won several awards and is now in several guidebooks to the city.

Corstorphine Hill Tower

This Tower on the summit of Corstorphine Hill was built as a viewpoint and as a memorial to Sir Walter Scott in 1871, 100 years after Scott’s death. It is built of local stone and is ascended by an internal staircase to the viewing platform. From above the surrounding trees there are magnificent views of the City, the Pentland Hills, the Ochils, the Fife Coast and the Firth of Forth. It is opened by volunteers from The Friends of Corstorphine Hill.

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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.