Extension: Prestonfield House

USA 250

Jun 292026

Priestfield Road, Edinburgh EH16 5UT

This mansion on the edge of Holyrood Park was a place where Edinburgh’s Enlightenment elite convened, Benjamin Franklin among them. Sir Alexander Dick, owner of Prestonfield, was a physician, seven times President of the Royal College of Physicians, and a founding member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He welcomed the leading thinkers of his age to his home.

*The Benjamin Franklin Suite at Prestonfield House © Patrick Hogan*

Franklin visited Prestonfield during his Edinburgh stays and the house, now a hotel, today honors that connection with a Benjamin Franklin Suite, named after the Founding Father who slept within its walls.

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New Curious Edinburgh USA tours

See our new Edinburgh & USA tour and the celebratory USA 250 tour showcasing the relationships between Edinburgh and the United States. The USA 250 tour has been developed with the US consulate in Edinburgh to celecrate the Semiquincentennial and the other toue is developed by Graeme Cruickshank who has been leading tours through Edinburgh for many years.

We are also working on the development of coastal trails, in collaboration with Traveltech for Scotland and the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy Scotland’s Coastal Knowledge map. Check out our birding trail or go swimming with our tidal pool tour.

We recently launched the following tours:

History of Witchcraft in Edinburgh during an event at the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

a new tour featuring locations in Edinburgh connected to important women scientists working in a wide range of STEM fields on International Women’s Day.

the Second World War tour developed by academics from the schools of Social and Political Science and History, Classics and Archeology.