Edinburgh’s popular Beltane Fire Festival returned to Calton Hill last night - a celebratory event that attracts thousands each year. The ancient event, that goes back 3,000 years, celebrates new life and purity and marks the end of the darker seasons and the arrival of summer on May Day. The age old tradition, was revived for modern times in Edinburgh in 1988 and is now one the largest celebrations of its kind in the world. Around 8,500 people attended the event where they followed the...
A delightful theme park will try and spin a magic spell on visitors: convince them they've entered another realm for a while. And while, indubitably, the Disney Theme parks excel at spinning that sorcery on visitors, whoever is picking up the check is likely to be yanked out of the reverie by the money they're haemorrhaging on seeing Mickey and co. Enter Holland's Efteling, an altogether less expensive family trip out, albeit one that still provides an immersive sense of wonder for, if not the...
Hearts are investing in players and training facilities throughout this year in a bid to improve standards at Riccarton. A strong league campaign sees them on the cusp of securing third place and £5m in European cash through guaranteed league-stage football after the summer. Club officials are already looking at spending with the future in mind. Three new players will arrive after pre-contracts were agreed with the Ross County midfielder Yan Dhanda, Livingston left-back James Penrice and...
At both Hearts and Hibs, there may already be glances towards what is to come next season. The Jambos are within touching distance of securing third place, with an 11-point gap on fourth-placed Kilmarnock with 12 left to play for. Hibs chiefs meanwhile have slammed a bottom six finish as unacceptable and will be keen for improvement next term. Both Steven Naismith and Nick Montgomery have decisions to make when it comes to contract talks. There are two current first-team Jambos out of contract...
An airline has announced it is doubling the number of flights this summer from Edinburgh to Turkey. Leisure airline SunExpress, jointly owned by Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, will offer 11 flights a week from the Scottish capital to Antalya (seven per week), Dalaman (two per week) and Izmir (two per week). SunExpress has flown between Germany and Turkey for more than 30 years but only entered the UK in summer 2022. However, it has expanded from operating 74 weekly flights from the UK last year...
On May Day mornings gone by the slopes of Arthur’s Seat were once as crammed with pedestrians as the paving slabs of Princes Street. The tradition of washing one’s face in the morning dew persisted in Scotland for hundreds of years, having only fallen out of favour fairly recently. In Edinburgh each May 1, thousands of people, mostly young ladies, would set their alarms for before sunrise to traipse up Arthur’s Seat, Calton Hill and Blackford Hill and partake in the ancient rite of washing their...
He’s earning his coaching stripes - and Christophe Berra hopes to one display what’s learned in Scotland. The former Hearts defender is currently interim head coach at Huntsville City FC until the end of the MLS Next Pro season. He has previously had experience in the coaching realm with Livingston, Falkirk and Scotland U21s before taking on an American adventure. He did arrive as a coach but Jack Collison’s departure as head coach threw him into the dugout earlier than expected. A feeder side...
As his first season in charge at Hearts edges towards a conclusion, Steven Naismith is content with the progress made. Two more points will secure the Edinburgh club third place in the Premiership and guarantee European league-stage football. They also reached both national cup semi-finals and Naismith is satisfied with his maiden campaign as head coach. He will continue to strive for better in the months ahead but, speaking to the Edinburgh News, he explained that finishing third and playing in...
Edinburgh locals have been left wondering if a new artwork that has mysteriously appeared pays homage to a local legend. The image, which depicts an elderly woman brandishing a walking stick and a can of spray paint, was spotted on a building wall in Henderson Street in Leith. The artwork by The Rebel Bear – an anonymous artist dubbed the “Scottish Banksy” – has locals debating who inspired it. When the Evening News visited Henderson Street to check out the artist’s latest creation, passers-by...
Under the heading “Cancer trial is a game changer” we were told that Edinburgh had been chosen as one of eight centres in the UK to take part in trials of a new treatment. Hailing the “world-first cancer therapy” the accompanying article stated “The worlds first personalised mRNA cancer jab for melanoma - which also has the potential to stop lung, bladder and kidney cancers – is being tested in British patients. "The ‘game changer’ jab, which offers hope of a cure, is custom-built for each...
The event was called “Bairns without Borders” and featured a short film which told the story of some of the Ukrainian, Sudanese and Syrian refugee children who fled their war-torn countries to find refuge in Edinburgh. Last year the school was awarded Scottish book trust funding for the refugees to create their digital story about their journey to Leith. Acting headteacher, Lisa Black, said “We were thrilled to be awarded funding to create our “Bairns without Borders” writing project. This...
In the nine centuries since our city has gone through seismic and profound changes. I’m really proud that in the coming months we’ll be able to collectively explore what makes our city the unique, inspiring and fascinating place we know today. This is one of the fundamental aims of the programme to explore, examine and reimagine our collective past. The full aims and themes can be found on our website. As part of the wider programme, we’re allocating £100,000 to the Edinburgh 900 Community Fund....