A Guide to Arts & Culture in Edinburgh

Edinburgh’s reputation as a festival city is well earned, but what many visitors don’t realise is how deeply the arts are woven into its everyday life. Culture here isn’t seasonal—it’s constant. You’ll find it in historic concert halls and tucked-away artist-run spaces, on hillsides and in old police boxes, in grand galleries and in studios still hand-weaving contemporary tapestries.

The Old Town has its share of highlights. St Cecilia’s Hall is the city’s oldest purpose-built concert venue, housing a remarkable music collection. Just around the corner, the Scottish Storytelling Centre blends exhibitions, theatre and workshops—neatly paired with the Haggis Box café for something warm and traditional. Nearby venues like the Royal Lyceum and Festival Theatre keep the performance calendar full, while Stills and the Fruitmarket Gallery maintain a strong foothold in photography and contemporary art.

In the New Town, you’ll find some of the country’s most important cultural institutions. The Scottish National Gallery and Portrait Gallery are both housed in landmark buildings, with major works inside. Places like the City Art Centre and Collective Gallery continue to push boundaries, while the Playhouse ensures big-name musicals pass through town.

Beyond the centre, Southside and the West End offer some of the city’s most distinctive venues. Summerhall thrives as a multi-arts complex. Dovecot Studios keeps the craft of tapestry alive while operating as a design-focused gallery space. In Stockbridge, Saorsa Gallery and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art show that size isn’t everything when it comes to impact. Whether you’re drawn to bold sculpture, fringe theatre or quiet exhibition spaces, Edinburgh’s creative scene remains broad, accessible, and full of surprises.

St Cecilia’s Hall and Music Museum
Old Town
Sitting south of the Royal Mile, this is Scotland’s oldest purpose-built concert hall. It’s also home to Edinburgh university’s remarkably impressive collection of musical instruments, showcasing everything from bagpipes and basset horns to harpsichords and hurdy-gurdies. The historical concert room hosts regular events.

The Scottish Storytelling Centre
Old Town
An Old Town arts venue dedicated to the great Scottish art of spinning a tale, with workshops, exhibitions and storytelling as well as dance, music and theatre. Its modern frontage stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the John Knox House, a medieval dwelling with a layered history.

Festival Theatre
Old Town
David Bowie, Laurel and Hardy, Fats Domino and Charlie Chaplin are among those to have trodden the boards at this longstanding venue (known as the Festival Theatre only since 1994, but dating back as far as 1928). There’s a seating capacity of more than 1,900, and the stage itself is Scotland’s largest performance area.

Andy Goldsworthy’s Hutton Roof
Old Town
The roof of the National Museum of Scotland provides a lofty setting for this work by sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. Comprising a quartet of carved sandstone blocks, quarried from Dumfriesshire and representing the four points of the compass, the sculpture is partly inspired by the work of pioneering Edinburgh geologist James Hutton.

Stills
Old Town
This photography-centred venue in the Old Town runs courses and events, as well as staging three major exhibitions a year.

Royal Lyceum Theatre
Old Town
This is the city’s leading dramatic playhouse, home to the widely respected Royal Lyceum Theatre Company and still staging a diverse range of plays, festival events and family productions, as well as various courses and workshops.

Fruitmarket Gallery
Old Town
Always bang on trend, Fruitmarket is a well-reputed cultural venue in the heart of town, with exhibitions and events focused on contemporary art and culture. There’s a bookshop and café alongside the exhibition spaces.

Scotsman Picturehouse
Old Town
Beneath the baroque bulk of the Scotsman Hotel – a fixture on North Bridge for more than a century – you’ll find a cinema with a difference. 48 leather armchairs, complete with individual tables and empire lamps, gaze up towards a screen that shows a mixture of old classics and cult masterpieces. Trailers are kept to a minimum, so be sure to give yourself enough time to settle in with a cocktail.

Physicians' Gallery
New Town
Scotland’s medical history comes under the stethoscope at this fascinating college exhibition space, which showcases rare books, vintage scientific illustrations, wax models and medicines. The gallery’s open from Monday to Friday and needs no booking, but if you want to see the reading room and/or physic garden, prearrange a visit by emailing library@rcpe.ac.uk.

Embassy Gallery
New Town
Away from the big-name galleries and museums, Edinburgh has some bona fide artistic gems. On the edge of the New Town, this artist-run organisation, which puts on performances and exhibitions in its own space and elsewhere, is one of them.

Edinburgh Playhouse
New Town
The one and only. The Playhouse is the largest working theatre in the UK, its three levels holding more than 3,000 seats. Expect big-name musicals and big-budget plays. The venue is Grade I listed and was inspired by New York’s Roxy Cinema.

Scottish National Gallery
New Town
Sitting on the Mound, close to Princes Street, the National boasts a high-class and extensive collection of priceless art, with works by the likes of Rembrandt, Titian, Constable and many more. Scottish painters such as Phoebe Anna Traquair and Henry Raeburn also figure heavily. Definitely not a place to be rushed through.

City Art Centre
New Town
Set in the heart of the city, just steps from Waverley Station, this nine-storey former warehouse showcases historic and contemporary Scottish visual and applied arts. Painting, photography and arts and crafts all get a look-in, and there’s a regular programme of exhibitions.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery
New Town
With a collection that encompasses everyone from Bonnie Prince Charlie to Emeli Sandé – and all housed in a vast neo-gothic bastion of red sandstone – this was the first purpose-built portrait gallery in the world when it opened in 1889. It’s still a wonderful attraction.

Collective Gallery
New Town
Edinburgh locations don’t come much more plum than an observatory on top of Calton Hill, but there’s more to this unique contemporary art space than its setting. As well as running exhibitions and workshops, it also puts on artist-led activities for young people.

6 Times
The Water of Leith plays host to a permanent art installation – or, to be precise, half a dozen of them – with six of Antony Gormley’s signature human sculptures dotted along its length. One of the works is actually found outside the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, with the other five standing in the water itself.

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Stockbridge
Made up of two separate venues – Modern One and Modern Two, which sit across the road from each other – these excellent galleries have a hugely impressive permanent collection, with sculpture-dotted grounds and large numbers of Dada and Surrealist works.

Saorsa Gallery
Stockbridge
Saorsa (meaning Freedom in Gaelic) Gallery in Stockbridge might be small, but it packs a real punch. Inside you can find bold, vibrant works by owner and landscape artist Tommy Fitchet.

BirdsNest Gallery Meadows
Southside
The sister gallery to BirdsNest’s main hub in Southside, this beautifully kooky exhibition space is set in an old police box on the east side of the Meadows. It calls itself Scotland’s Smallest Gallery.

Dovecot Studios
Southside
In situ for more than a century, this large-scale tapestry studio still makes superb rugs and tapestries and now doubles as a gallery and design museum, with regular events and exhibitions. There’s a good café on site.

Summerhall
Southside
Hosting everything from Fringe shows to Science Festival events, this arts complex and live venue also stages live music, theatre, cinema and more. It’s based in a grand ex-university building near The Meadows, and has garnered a reputation as a ground-breaking arts hub.

King’s Theatre
West End
An ornate institution in place for well over a century, the King’s has a lively programme of events year-round. West End-style shows are the norm.

Edinburgh Printmakers
West End
Still, as its name suggests, a centre for printmaking, this inspiring venue has two galleries and a shop selling prints, as well as a studio space offering courses to all-comers.

Traverse Theatre
West End
Staging diverse productions from visiting companies as well as present-day playwrights, this is where to come for serious drama and high-quality writing. It’s always busy in the summer festival season.