From Scotland with love: murals, music, steamships and birds
the newsletter for curious & creative travellers
Mansfield Traquair Centre Murals Open Days 2025
Edinburgh
2nd Sunday of each month
Open days for Phoebe Traquair’s Mansfield Church murals are on the second Sunday of each month. If you missed today’s there are some options in June, July and at the Fringe and later in the year at Doors Open Day. No need to book, just show up. The volunteers will give you a tour of the murals and answer any questions. You can also book a private tour of the church or hire it as a venue. I can still remember nights out here when it was a bar venue long before the murals were cleaned up and cherished.
Jupiter Artland
Edinburgh
from 10th May
Two new Jonathan Baldock exhibitions have opened at the sculpture park in Edinburgh
WYRD (until 28 September)- a textile and clay installation and Warm Inside (until 27 July ) - 12 hanging sculptures
Happy Birthday Victoria Crowe
Edinburgh
from 24th July
One of my favourite artists Victoria Crowe celebrated her 80th Birthday on VE Day. Edinburgh will also celebrate her birthday this summer at The Scottish Gallery and Dovecot Studios.
Shifting Surfaces opens at Dovecot Studios 28 July - 11 October. Decades will open at The Scottish Gallery 31 July - 30 August including a major new body of work
Special event - book now:
Victoria Crowe in conversation, an evening celebrating the artist at Dovecot Studios on 24th July will include an early preview of Shifting Surfaces. Book now before it sells out here.
Return of the Stirling Sightseer bus
The hop-on hop-off bus has returned for another summer, linking up some of Stirling’s best loved attractions. There’s plenty of pit stops for the creative and curious traveller:
Bridge of Allan, a former spa-resort visited by Robert Louis Stevenson and Charles Dickens
University of Stirling art collection
National Wallace Monument for panoramic views and Wallace’s sword
Stirling Old Bridge: medieval arched masonry bridge
Mote Hill, where sits an ancient beheading stone
Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum
Stirling Castle: lots to see here, including the unicorn tapestries
Find out more here
Hidden Door at The Paper Factory
Edinburgh
11-15 June
Every year the volunteer-led Hidden Door Festival takes on an abandoned or dilapidated building, turning it into an arts festival showcasing emerging artists. This year the festival takes place on a 15.5 acre site of a former paper and card manufacturing facility. Get your tickets now. If you apply to volunteer, you can get free tickets.
New Fair Isle Bird Observatory Hotel open for bookings
Fair Isle, Shetland
12th May
Bookings are open for the new Fair Isle Bird Observatory hotel on 12th May, six years after a fire destroyed the old observatory.
Sir Walter Scott Steamship is 125 years old
Loch Katrine, Trossachs
7-8 June
June 7-8th is the 125th anniversary weekend of Sir Walter Scott Steamship at Loch Katrine. The vintage vessel was named after Scottish author Sir Walter Scott. His poem The Lady of the Lake (1810) was inspired by Loch Katrine from the viewpoint at Roderick Dhu. This viewpoint was once home to two wicker huts built in the late 1780s for artists and writers to stay and take inspiration from the landscape, including Keats and Wordsworth. The viewpoint watch tower has quotes from Scott’s poem and the original pathway has been reinstated with a hand-finished stone and a board walk.
The historic steamship is one of the last surviving screw-propelled steamships in regular service. It is now wheelchair accessible. Plus you can stay overnight lochside in an eco-pod lodge
Heavenly Sound: Music in Early Modern Paintings
St Cecelia’s Hall, Edinburgh
Edinburgh’s musical instrument museum is the venue for an informal lecture on the representation of music in early modern European paintings, delivered by Lesley Fraser an art historian at University of Edinburgh.
That’s all for this week.
from Scotland, with love.