A round stone neoclassical temple building on a hill with a city roofscape below and a stone castle on a hill in the distance it’s walls red from the setting sun. The sky is dark and cloudy above.

Edinburgh celebrated its 900th anniversary as a city in 2024, now in 2025 it’s time to celebrate thirty years as a World Heritage Site!

The city’s origins go far back into pre-history, when the castle rock was first fortified. King David I made it a royal burgh by 1125, and as you can imagine, it’s changed a great deal since.

Jump to 1995, the significance of this city was recognised when The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Applying to UNESCO

Digital publications were not common in 1994, so the World Heritage Site nomination submitted to UNESCO was a printed document that had to be delivered in person to Paris! Now there is a fully accessible digital version available to everyone.

Looking at the nomination document is like travelling back in time to 1994. It doesn’t seem so long ago, but much has changed in the world around us.

This is true of Edinburgh too but the attributes of the site that make it of ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ remain. You can see it in the original nomination photos… Let’s take a look!

A massive golden stone neoclassical building on the far side of a wide street with people and traffic. There is a flag on a pole in the middle and a large equestrian statue on a tall stone podium in front.

Register House, Princes Street, 1994 (© Historic Environment Scotland) and in 2025 (© Neil Hanna)

A wide street junction with people walking on a pavement on the far side. Behind them is a large neoclassical stone building. It is two storeys high with a triangular pediment in the centre and high domes towers on two ends.

Old Edinburgh

The Old Town of Edinburgh has survived with its medieval ‘fishbone’ street layout almost intact.

A black and white map of Edinburgh. On the right a castle on a large hill, then the city with long narrow streets of densely packed buildings along a wide central street. To the left the buildings are further apart with long narrow gardens, and a palace complex.

The Canongate tollbooth is one of the oldest buildings on the Royal Mile and had many uses. This includes as a courthouse, the burgh jail and for the town council to meet in. It was built in 1591 for Sir Lewis Bellenden, and his initials can still be seen above the arch into Tolbooth Wynd. The building now houses the People’s Story Museum as it did in 1994!

A large rustic stone building with a tall square tower in the middle which has a conical grey slate roof with a metal weather vane on top. A large square clock projects from the tower. There is a road with two cars parked on it in front of the building.

The Canongate Tolbooth 1994 (© Historic Environment Scotland)

: An empty street with a large stone building on the opposite side, it has a tall tower rising from the middle with a square metal clock jutting from it at the front and a conical slate roof with a weather vane on the top.

…and 2025 (© Neil Hanna)

A historic city

At the other end of the Royal Mile are Parliament Square and St Giles’ Cathedral, which has been a working church for nearly 1000 years! Throughout that time, it has witnessed many significant events in Scottish history.

It was the parish church of John Knox during the Scottish Reformation. It is also home to the chapel of the Order of the Thistle and continues to host important civic and royal services. The coffin of HM Elizabeth II lay in state there in 2022 before starting its journey to London.

A wide junction of three streets, the middle one stretches into the distance. There are people and a yellow and white coach and large neoclassical buildings to both sides and an impressive church with ornate tower further away.

Parliament Square and St Giles’ Cathedral in 1994 (© Historic Environment Scotland)

A wide paved street junction with large pale sandstone neoclassical buildings on two corners. A street beyond with a stone gothic church with a high square tower topped by a delicate stone crown.

and 2021 (© Neil Hanna) the statue of David Hume in front of the High Court was placed there in 1997.

Just along from Parliament Square is the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street. The oldest part of the building is from the mid-19th century. Including the impressive Grand Gallery, a great hall of wooden ribbed construction with an expansive glass ceiling that floods the hall with light. The museum has been extended since 1994, but the Grand Gallery itself has not changed much at all.

A large three storey room with two deep galleries held up by decorative white cast iron columns around three walls. Light floods from above, the ceiling is high and supported by white iron framework. The floor is pale marble busy with people, two large rectangular ponds and a wooden totem pole.

The Grand Gallery in 1994

A large three storey room with two deep galleries held up by decorative white cast iron columns around three walls. Light floods from above, the ceiling is high and supported by white iron framework. The floor is pale marble, many people, two large rectangular ponds and a wooden totem pole.

…and on World Heritage Day, 18th April 2015 (© Historic Environment Scotland)

Home of the Scottish enlightenment

Edinburgh played an important part in the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, and this is recognised in its World Heritage Site status.

The University of Edinburgh was a centre of the Enlightenment and many of its students were directly involved in it. This includes David Hume, philosopher and economist, Joseph Black, chemist and James Hutton, the ‘Father of Modern Geology’.

During the same period Edinburgh had direct and indirect links with 18th and 19th century colonialism and transatlantic slavery.  It’s important that we continue to research, understand and highlight the legacy of Edinburgh’s role in this history. You can read Edinburgh Council’s report on slavery and colonialism in Edinburgh here, or read our blog on Edinburgh’s links to the slave trade.

A wide expanse of circular patterned paving. There is a stone plinth with a large metal light on it to the left. The massive round neoclassical building behind has elaborate carved decorations, a large wooden door on the ground floor but no windows in its tall stone walls.

The McEwan Hall in Bristo Square, part of the University of Edinburgh, in 1994 (© Historic Environment Scotland)

A wide circular paved area with people walking across it, deep steps around it and a low modern circular building with black slats around its top set into the steps. Behind that a huge round sandstone building with a domed roof topped by a spire. To the right sandstone tenements with regular windows.

…and 2025 (© Neil Hanna)

The influencer of his time

One of Edinburgh’s most famous students was Sir Walter Scott, a nineteenth century superstar. He was a poet, novelist, editor, critic and historian. Scott influenced the romantic way Scotland was – and still is – viewed around the world. His historical novels were based on real events but filled with fictional characters and were very popular!

He even organised the spectacular entrance of King George IV to Edinburgh in 1822 when tartan became fashionable again. Waverley Station is named after his first novel and the monument in Princes Street Gardens dedicated to him is a key feature of the city skyline to this day.

A formal garden with green lawn and two beds filled with mostly red flowers and tall green leaved trees on both sides. A huge, tall dark stone building at the back. It is pointed like a steeple and has ornately decorated stonework.

The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens 1994 (© Historic Environment Scotland)

A public garden with people on the green grass lawn and tall green trees on both sides. There are circular beds of red, pink and white flowers. Behind a tall dark stone Gothic tower covered in ornate carved stone decorations rises high into the blue sky.

and 2024 (© Neil Hanna) even the flowers are the same!

The New Town of Edinburgh

The planned New Towns led to Edinburgh being known as ‘the Athens of the North’. This was because the buildings within it were neoclassical, taking inspiration from ancient Greek and Roman architectural styles. They were built to a high quality and influenced 18th and 19th century urban architecture and town planning throughout Europe. The first part of James Craig’s planned new town was St Andrew’s Square.

Black and white historic map with streets and squares in a grid pattern.

The grand town houses around the square were built for some of Edinburgh’s wealthiest people, including the Dowager Countess of Leven who features in one of our teaching packs!

She was in her 80s when she came to live in one of the newly built houses in St Andrew Square, close to her daughter the Countess of Northesk. When she moved in, the square was a building site with houses still being constructed, the gardens were full of mason’s shades (tents), and busy with the noise and dust of their work. Now the gardens are open to everyone and a great place to enjoy a summer’s day.

St Andrew’s Square in 1994 (© Historic Environment Scotland

…and 2024 (© Neil Hanna)

Seven towns

There were seven phases of New Town development. The fifth was the Raeburn Estate which incorporated some challenging topography including the deep valley which the Water of Leith runs through.

The Dean bridge was built to link the existing city and the new development. In 1760 a natural spring was discovered by three schoolboys fishing in the river. Alexander Naysmith was commissioned in 1788 to build a well and circular temple above that spring and people would drink the water as it was believed to cure illness. The temple has a statue of Hygeia, Greek goddess of health and cleanliness in it but was closed in the 1960s, because the water was too unhygienic!

A park with trees and lawns on either side of a central path that leads to a massive, tall stone column with a statue on top. The column is fluted and sits on a tall square plinth. The stone is darkened with age.

St Bernard’s Well in 1994 (© Historic Environment Scotland)

A park with trees and lawns on either side of a central path with many people walking there, it leads to a massive, tall stone column with a statue on top. The column is fluted and sits on a tall square plinth.

.. and 2021 (© Neil Hanna)

Model living

The Dean Village is an idyllic part of the World Heritage Site, it was originally a small milling community next to the Water of Leith, that was then encircled by the Sixth New Town, the Dean estate. Only one of the great mills survived, together with a granary and some other buildings. Well Court was commissioned by John R Findlay of The Scotsman newspaper as affordable housing for the mill workers who still lived in the village.

As part of the living agreement, residents had to attend church at the community hall on a Sunday. Well Court Inspired the later work of Sir Patrick Geddes; it was built in the arts and crafts style which is not common in Edinburgh.

Well Court, Dean Village in 1994 (© Historic Environment Scotland)

…and 2024 (© Neil Hanna)

Protecting the past, for the future

Sir Patrick Geddes led the way in regenerating the now dilapidated Old Town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Geddes was a remarkable man, once a biologist, he became a pioneer of urban regeneration. He transformed the Old Town with his method of ‘conservative surgery’ by restoring the finest houses and removing low-grade ones around them.

Narrow closes were widened changing them into courtyards, so residents had light and air, making some into ‘pocket’ gardens to benefit the communities around them. Geddes shaped the development of urban architecture and town planning throughout Europe and beyond.

In Edinburgh he protected many important historic buildings which can still be seen today, such as Riddles Court, he built Ramsay Gardens and inspired the renovation of White Horse Close

A steep grassy hill with bushes in front of a row of buildings. They are mostly white with red tiled or grey slate roofs; high gable ends, red or dark stonework and many windows in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Ramsay Gardens in 1994 (© Historic Environment Scotland)

A group of white buildings with steep red tiles roofs on the brow of a hill. Bare trees in front and behind them and blue sky above.

…and 2025 (© Neil Hanna)

Time to celebrate

The management partners, City of Edinburgh Council, Edinburgh World Heritage and Historic Environment Scotland, are planning events and activities to mark the 30th anniversary until December 2026. These offer the opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the shared understanding of the site that has grown in this time.

 

Logo: Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site. 30. 1995 to 2025

The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site is a fascinating place to learn about, with many stories to discover. At the heart of the World Heritage Site sits Edinburgh Castle with spectacular views across the city, it’s the perfect place to see all this special city has to offer.

A large public gardens with green grass and trees at the bottom of a hill. Beyond lies a city with old and new buildings and the sky blue above.

Looking across Edinburgh from the castle in 2025 (© Neil Hanna)

Share

About Author

mm

Laura Mackenzie

Laura works in the World Heritage and Heritage Policy Service supporting the management and promotion of Scotland’s World Heritage Sites.