Edinburgh

Monthly Meetings and Other Events

Monthly Meetings

Monthly meetings, normally held on the third Wednesday at 2:30 pm, are open to all members. There will be no meeting in August.

From September the meetings will move to the Greyfriars Charteris Centre, 138-140 Pleasance, Edinburgh EH8 9RR. This can be reached from the same Nicholson Street bus stops as the Methodist Church by a four-minute walk east along Richmond Street towards Salisbury Crags. The new venue has adequate space and good facilities.

Other Events

Dates and venues for other events are also listed. Those events listed as Outings are open to all Edinburgh u3a members. Members able to travel outside the Edinburgh area might be interested in the Events page of the Third Age Trust which lists some of the more major events in other centres. [You will need to register and/or log-in to access the page.]

Other Group Events can be found on the Follies Programme, Science Group Programme, Astronomy Group Programme pages and the Art Appreciation B Newsletter.


Dates for your Diary
April 2024
Thu Apr 11thOutingVISIT TO St. Mary’s, Haddington & Museum of Flight

If you are interested in going, please download the Visit to East Lothian application form. This form is password protected.
Wed Apr 17thMeetingIan Buchan: The Life and Times of a Children's Entertainer.

Ian Buchan is a multi-award-winning magician and past President of Edinburgh Magic Circle. For the last 35 years Magic Ian has been entertaining children at parties and events, and his talk takes us on a light-hearted and amusing trip down memory lane as to how birthday parties, in particular, have evolved over the years, a.nd how the role of a children's entertainer has become an important and popular choice for parents. What it takes to be a children's entertainer and the highs and lows along the way are explored.
May 2024
Wed May 15thMeetingLocal Edinburgh Men in the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915

Clarke gave us a fascinating talk last year on Scots in Africa. This year he will explore his "consuming passion": In 1914 at the outbreak of war, Edinburgh's "Weekend Warriors", the Territorial battalions of the Royal Scots, expected to be used for little more then coastal defence duties. Instead, they found themselves amongst the first troops in, and the last troops out, of the doomed Gallipoli campaign, the invasion of Ottoman Turkey. Using dozens of first-hand accounts, this is a very local and very personal story of Edinburgh's "Terriers" and follows their fates throughout the campaign, backed with hundreds of rare photographs taken in the campaign.
Thu May 16thMeetingVisit to the Kelpies and Culross

If you are interested, please download the attached booking form. This form is password protected. Kelpies and Culross.
June 2024
Wed Jun 19thMeeting Ailsa Clarke: Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Women's Hospitals.

This talk touches aspects of the life of the formidable and resourceful Dr Elsie Inglis. Dr Inglis is best known in Edinburgh for the maternity hospital that was opened as a memorial to her work, but she was also an active suffragist, one of the early female students to achieve degrees in medicine, and later surgery, and the founder of the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service, which she established at the outbreak of the First World War. It will deal with the social and familial context which led to Dr Inglis' career in medicine, her links to prominent suffrage campaigners, the founding of the SWH and the experiences of the units during their war service.
Wed Jun 19thMeetingNew members meeting
This is an informal welcome meeting for anyone who has recently joined Edinburgh u3a. Invitations will be sent out before the meeting to people who have recently joined but anyone is welcome to attend if they would like to get to know other new members. Committee members and group leaders will be available to answer any general questions about Edinburgh u3a. For specific information about group meeting times and vacancies, please visit the groups page on this website. Please contact newmembers@edinburghu3a.org.uk for further details if you would like to attend this meeting.
July 2024
Wed Jul 17thMeetingIntroduction to the Patient and Public Involvement Project at the Advanced Care Research Centre, University of Edinburgh

Anna Crawford and Daria Ihnatenko
Topics to be discussed include benefits and dangers of AI, especially with regard to older people, and the concept of patient and public involvement in planning research, including opportunities for u3a member participation.
August 2024
Tue Aug 20th
→Thu Aug 22nd
Summer Schoolu3a in Scotland is holding a Summer School at Stirling University 20 - 22 August.

All details can be found within SS 2024 Courses