Newsletters
September 2026
OTA’s founding meeting in September 1976 and concerns then and now. Increase in housing then, reduction now. Local needs vs tourism then and now. Update on short-term lets. Tourist tax benefits. Open spaces then and now. Moving around, switch from car-centred proposals then to pedestrianisation now. New Fringe Central. Traffic cones on statues. Entrance charges at St Giles. Heritage Fair. Change of address for OTA. Things to do and OTA activities.
April 2026
Change: New gardens in Castle Wynd North. Jenny Ha’s, then Kilderkin, now Parliament Arms … with proposed Westminster logo. Holyrood elections. Former Armenian Restaurant to be holiday let … for railway lovers. Fringe Central in South Bridge Primary School soon to open. Memorials at The Hub and Mercat Cross. Memories of Dunn’s hardware store. A wheelchair user’s perspective. Calculating the world’s most tourist-dense cities. Photo-essay on telephone kiosks.
January 2026
Fifty years of the Edinburgh Old Town Association, founded in 1976: reflection from founding secretary, Barbara Logue; The Otd Town, then and now: road schemes, population, schools, shops, accommodation for tourists. Plus North Bridge; Edinburgh Alphabet: tourist, thistle, tartan; new home for the Fringe in South Bridge Primary School; Photo-essay on the 2025 Christmas decorations.
September 2025
Walking in Edinburgh; Cycling in Edinburgh; Road repairs – 1908 style; Future plans for the Tron Kirk; 150 years of the Cockburn Association; Too many tourist shops? New Parliament Wall quotations; Book Review: Campaigning for Edinburgh; Grant to 6VT Youth Café; Things to do and places to visit; OTA activities and ticket form.
April 2025
Signs of spring; displays of flowers in cherry trees, flower beds and planters; St Giles photographed from moorland; new lighting in Chambers Street; paint job at The Hub, repairs to setts; new hotel on the Tannery site; notes from the AGM; grant to Royal Mile Primary School; things to do and places to visit; OTA activities and ticket form.
January 2025
Change and Decay: reuse of church buildings: Trinity Apse, Tron Kirk, King’s Gallery, The Hub, Crisis offices. Changes in churches: St Giles High Kirk, Greyfriars Kirk, Canongate Kirk. Public Buildings and Hotels: French Institute, Leonardo Royal Hotel, Radisson Blu Hotel, Calton Gaol governor’s house. Latest on former Royal High School. Edinburgh Gin in Jeffrey Street arches. Buildings in the Cowgate: St Patrick’s, St Cecilia’s Hall, Tailors’ Hall, Magdalen Chapel. Responsible Tourism conference. Photo-essay of statues wrapping up warm. Things to do and places to visit,
OTA activities and ticket form.
September 2024
Reflections on the summer; Overtourism and the visitor levy; New Things: statute of Tom Gilzean (Oor Tom), mural of King David I and the stag, mural in Hastie’s Close, Fountain Close lighting, artwork by Ghanaian Artist El Anatsu in Old Quad, filming of Frankenstein; Old Eyesores: G & V Hotel on Melbourne Place, telephone kiosks; Edinburgh’s 900th anniversary; the OTA’s upcoming 50th anniversary; things to do and places to visit.
April 2024
Outsiders’ views of the Old Town; management of the World Heritage Site; Edinburgh’s Future Street proposals; Queen’s Gallery now King’s Gallery; conservation plan for Greyfriars Kirkyard; summer festivals; photo-essay of things you may have missed … and things you can’t have missed; places to visit and things to do; activities.
January 2024
Canongate corbie and reflections on the past and future; committee members wanted; control of short-term lets; low emission zone; Christmas decorations; new scottish galleries on The Mound; initial results from 2022 census; photo-essay on stumps.
September 2023
Royal events from funeral to royal week; Cycling World Championships road race in Edinburgh; festivals back to pre-pandemic levels; colourful bollards; regulation of short-term lets; littering is no joke; commenting on planning applications; telephone kiosks to let; Robin Tait Collection found new homes.
May 2023
Past, Present and Future: South Bridge School to be Fringe Hub; lost schools and lost children; lost art; loss of Bank of Scotland Royal Mile branch; coronation post box; nonocentenary of St Giles in 2024; Grassmarket proposals that never happened; progress with North Bridge; progress with High Street barriers; progress with Spaces for People; a camel in the Canongate; coffee with a smile, OTA activities and other things to do.
January 2023
Looking back, looking forward; The Queen’s cortège; Old Town interest in City Art Centre exhibitions; OTA archive shows some things never change; plethora of applications for short-term lets as deadline approaches; Amsterdam’s action against rowdy tourists; the perils of Buddleia; roadworks; American candy stores; wildlife in The Meadows; Christmas decorations; OTA activities and other things to do.
Newsletter Archive
The archive contains pdf copies of all our previous Newsletters from 2009. Newsletters going back to 1976 will be gradually added to the archive.
