History of Science, Technology & Medicine Tour

 
Site of Edinburgh physic garden 1. Edinburgh Physic Garden
From 1675 to 1763 the Edinburgh Physic Garden was near what is now platform 11 of Waverley Station. Read more… 
Thompson's Land, University of Edinburgh 2. Sir Godfrey Thomson Plaque
On this building you will find a plaque dedicated to Sir Godfrey Thomson, a pioneer of research into human intelligence. Read more… 
The James Hutton Memorial Garden 3. James Hutton Memorial Garden
Hidden away just off the Pleasance is the Hutton Memorial Garden, on the site of the house where James Hutton lived till his death in 1797. Read more…
The Oyster Club 4. The Oyster Club
This weekly dining club for scientists and philosophers met regularly throughout the 1770s. Read more…
surgeon's square 5. Robert Knox’s Anatomy School
At number 10 Surgeon’s Square Robert Knox ran his extra-mural anatomy school from the death of its original proprietor, John Barclay, in 1826 until 1844. Read more…
Peter Higgs' former house 6. Peter Higgs Plaque
Peter Higgs is famous for predicting the existence of a new fundamental subatomic particle, now named in his honour the ‘Higgs boson’, while a Lecturer at the Tait Institute of Mathematical Physics in Edinburgh. Read more…
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 7. The Edinburgh Seven
A notorious riot took place on this spot at the doors of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1870 when male medical students attempted to prevent female students from taking an anatomy class. Read more…
Surgeons' Hall Museums 8. Surgeons’ Hall Museums
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh was founded in 1505. Read more…
Old College, University of Edinburgh 9. Old College, University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh was first established on this site in 1582. Read more…
Former University Natural History Museum 10. Old University Museum of Natural History
Until 1861 Edinburgh University’s museum was housed in what is now the Talbot Rice Gallery. Read more…
National Museum of Scotland 11. National Museum of Scotland
The oldest part of the building that houses the National Museum of Scotland was called the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art when it was opened by Prince Albert in 1866. Read more…
phrenology museum 12. Phrenological Museum
Until 1886 this was the site of Edinburgh’s phrenological museum, founded by the president of the Edinburgh Phrenological Society, George Combes. Read more…
Charles Darwin's lodgings 13. Charles Darwin’s lodgings
It was here that Charles Darwin lodged in the house of Mrs Mackay when a medical student in Edinburgh in 1825-27. Read more…
Dawson Fyers Duckworth Turner's house 14. House of Dawson Fyers Duckworth Turner
Dawson Fryer Duckworth Turner was a physician who had worked at a number of Edinburgh hospitals. Read more…
Joseph Black's house 15. Joseph Black’s House
Up an alleyway here you will find the house where the great chemist Joseph Black lived in around 1740. Read more…
Tomb of Sir Robert Sibbald 16. Grave of Sir Robert Sibbald
Sir James Sibbald was a graduate of the University of Leiden, then the foremost centre for medical education in Europe. Read more…
Tomb of Colin Maclaurin 17. Grave of Colin Maclaurin
Colin Maclaurin was an important figure of the first years of the Scottish Enlightenment. Read more…
Old Edinburgh cistern 18. Old Edinburgh cistern, Castlehill
This ornate drinking fountain marks the site on Castle Hill where the mathematician George Sinclair constructed a cistern to supply water to the city of Edinburgh in around 1675. Read more…
observatory 19. City Observatory
An observatory on Calton Hill was first proposed by Colin Maclaurin, Edinburgh’s professor of mathematics, in 1736. Read more…
General Register House 20. General Register House
James Tytler, who made the first successful balloon ascent in Britain in Edinburgh, exhibited his ‘Grand Edinburgh Fire Balloon’ here in Robert Adam’s Register House in 1784. Read more…
The Royal Society of Edinburgh 21. The Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh was set up in imitation of the Royal Society of London in 1783. Read more…
Challenger Expedition offices 22. Challenger Expedition offices
Between the December 1872 and May 1876 the Challenger Expedition circumnavigated the globe and laid the foundations for modern oceanography. Read more…
James Young Simpson's house 23. House of James Young Simpson
In this house on 4 November 1847 James Young Simpson, professor of medicine and midwifery at Edinburgh University, discovered the effects of chloroform, the first widely used anaesthetic. Read more…
Birthplace of James Clerk Maxwell 24. Birthplace of James Clerk Maxwell
Now home to a museum of his life and work, this was the childhood home of James Clerk Maxwell, famous for his revolutionary work on electromagnetism and the kinetic theory of gases. Read more…
Fleeming Jenkin's house 25. House of Fleeming Jenkin
Fleeming Jenkin was appointed by Queen Victoria as the first Regius Professor of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. Read more…
David Brewster's house 26. Sir David Brewster’s Edinburgh residence
This house was Sir David Brewster’s Edinburgh residence until his death in 1868. Brewster is today best known as the inventor of the kaleidoscope. Read more…