Enrolling now: Edinburgh Dance Academy offers free taster lessons

Edinburgh Dance Academy, recently voted highest ranked dance school in the UK and Ireland are ENROLLING NOW!!!

All of our taster lessons are free to make sure that we are the right fit for any dancer, and this month we are offering …

✨ TWO WEEKS FREE AT ALL EDA STUDIOS ✨

We offer classes in: Pre School Dance, Teenie Toes (parent and child), RAD Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Competition Teams, Contemporary, Commercial, Acro, Turns, Limbering, Body Conditioning, Mini Musical Theatre, Progressing Ballet Technique, & our Everybody Dance Now (ASN class)!

We would love to have you join our amazing dance family!

For more information please get in touch.

Email hello@eda.scot to book your free taster lesson now!

St Columba’s: Waterfront Art Walks

Have you experienced loss in the past two years? Join us for gentle, creative walks, designed especially for those navigating grief.

Together, we’ll explore the local landscape through art-making, reflection and connection. ​

Facilitated by Caledonia Funeral Aid’s Emma Ritchie and St Columba’s Hospice’s community artist Isla Macleod, you will be warmly welcomed to share space with others who understand and find comfort in nature and community.

Happy 15th Anniversary, NEN blog!

NEN PUBLISHED OUR FIRST BLOG POST ON THIS DAY IN 2011

The very first NEN blog post was published on this day in 2011. The post read:

Hello, and welcome to the brand new NEN blog.

For those of you not already familiar with the newspaper, we are a local community paper serving the North Edinburgh community. We’ve been here for over thirty years.

This blog, along with our new Facebook page and Twitter stream, represents our first foray into the world of social media.  We really want to encourage more participation, more questions and ideas from the North Edinburgh community – both online and offline – and hope that these new tools will help us to do that.

We already have a good website, where you can always find the latest edition of the printed newspaper. The blog won’t be replacing that, but will instead be there to show people the latest news about the area, and also to help us cover the current funding crisis we are facing as an organisation.

Above all, we want to include your input on the blog – be it ideas for stories, comments, pictures and events. So get in touch!

The NEN’s website was sadly deleted when funding ceased but our social media presence continues on both Twitter and Facebook and the blog is still going strong with 10 – 12 posts daily.

2025 was the NEN blog’s busiest ever year with 36,000 visitors. As I write this we’ve published more than 38,000 posts – all of these remain accessible online – and we’re currently on a run of publishing on 2749 consecutive days.

When the NEN office in Crewe Road North closed much of the NEN archive material was lost, but thankfully some of our picture library was salvaged and can now be found at granton:hub (Madelvic House), where the volunteer archive team has also collated all remaining hard copies of the North Edinburgh News newspaper.

Hopefully, between the physical archive and the NEN blog, you can find all you need to know about our community’s rich history – and we’re adding to that history every day!

St Columba’s Light Up a Life success

We’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported our 2025 Light Up a Life appeal. Thanks to the generous support of our community, the appeal raised over £110,000.

This incredible sum is already making a difference to people across Edinburgh and East Lothian, and will help us to expand our work to reach even more people in 2026. Thank you for your support!

St Columba’s Hospice Care announces opening of Manor House Therapies

We’re proud to announce the official opening of Manor House Therapies, a new social enterprise providing high-quality, holistic wellbeing treatments while directly supporting hospice services across Edinburgh and the Lothians.

Housed in a beautiful B-listed villa in Trinity with stunning views across the Firth of Forth, Manor House Therapies offers clients a unique and serene setting for a range of accessible services that support mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.

Treatments include massage therapies, reflexology, and facials, and a dedicated counselling service. Every therapy purchased contributes to sustaining essential hospice care for patients, families and the wider community.

The new venture also plans to collaborate with organisations such as Edinburgh College and Complementary Therapy School (CTS) to provide training and work experience opportunities for young people and those retraining in the therapies industry, helping them develop skills and progress in their careers.

As an independent business, Manor House Therapies offers the public a professional, welcoming environment where wellbeing and social purpose go hand in hand.

Jackie Stone, CEO of St Columba’s Hospice Care, said: “Manor House Therapies demonstrates the innovative approaches we are taking to support our community.

“At a time when funding across the hospice sector is increasingly challenging, we see initiatives like this as an important way to help sustain the delivery of compassionate, specialist care for people across Edinburgh and the Lothians into the future.”

Manor House Therapies is now open for bookings. For more information, visit manorhousetherapies.org.uk or contact enquiries@manorhousetherapies.org.uk.

Tattoo donates over £157,000 to St Columba’s Hospice Care following 75th Anniversary Show

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo has announced that its special 75th Anniversary fundraising initiative has raised a remarkable £157,161.75 for St Columba’s Hospice Care, following the conclusion of this year’s Show.

The donation, generated from 75p from every ticket sold in 2025, aimed to resonate with the message of this year’s performance, The Heroes Who Made Us, celebrating and supporting those that go above and beyond in our society.

This donation will enable St Columba’s Hospice Care to continue providing compassionate, free-of-charge palliative and end-of-life care to individuals and families across the region.

During the 75th Anniversary Show, each performance included a special moment honouring different individuals, highlighted as Spotlight Heroes, whose dedication and service enrich communities and the lives of those they encounter. Among those celebrated was Liz Gallagher, a valued fundraising volunteer at St Columba’s Hospice Care.

Liz has been part of the hospice’s fundraising team for six years, giving countless hours to bucket collections, events, and creative fundraising ideas. In her day job supporting people with additional needs, Liz involves her clients in St Columba’s Hospice Care fundraising activities, helping them feel part of the hospice community.

The donation from The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will be put towards St Columba’s Hospice Care’s continued specialist care provision for people across Edinburgh and the Lothians ensuring that individuals and families can access the support they rely on at such an important time.

This donation goes above and beyond the Tattoo’s usual charitable giving which sees surplus profits distributed annually to military and arts charities in the UK. St Columba’s Hospice Care was chosen by the community with over 50,000 votes cast to select from a selection of non-military charities that provide vital services in the local community.

Jackie Stone, CEO at St Columba’s Hospice Care, said: “Incredible donations like this don’t come along very often, and at a time when hospices across Scotland are facing significant funding challenges, we are especially grateful.

“Support from our community has never been more vital and we are deeply thankful to everyone who voted for us and helped generate this remarkable sum, simply by going along to enjoy the Show.

“It was also wonderful to see our volunteer, Liz, recognised as one of the heroes of the Tattoo’s 75th Anniversary. Her energy, creativity and dedication truly reflect the spirit of our entire hospice community.

“We would like to thank the Tattoo once again for this generous donation. It comes at an important time, helping us continue to provide specialist, compassionate care for people across Edinburgh and the Lothians and ensuring that individuals and families can access the support they rely on, when they need it most.”

Jason Barrett, Chief Executive, The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, said: “Our 75th Anniversary was a tribute to the people who have built and sustained the Tattoo over the years, and it was a privilege to extend that celebration to community heroes like Liz and the team at St Columba’s Hospice Care.

“This donation was made possible entirely thanks to our wonderful audience, whose support enables us to contribute to partner charities and champion the military, traditional arts, and—this year—an extraordinary cause.

“We are proud to stand behind such an exceptional organisation and the dedicated volunteers who give their time so selflessly.”