Events

The Annual Dinner of the Club is held in May each year. Among other meetings there is a Joint Lecture with the University of Edinburgh English Department.

Forthcoming Programme 


  • Lecture: Tuesday, 3rd March 2026, 7pm, Edinburgh: "Tartan in the Age of Scott"
  • Rosie Waine.
  • From the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century, tartan as we know it was born. Many of the patterns still in use today can trace their origins to this transformative period in Scottish history. This lecture explores how the living traditions of the Gael converged with the Highland myth of the Romantic era, laying the foundation for our modern tartan landscape.


  • Excursion: Saturday 14th March 2026, from noon, visit to 39 North Castle Street, Sir Walter Scott’s former home from 1801-1826.
  • Richard Wiseman
  • Sir Walter Scott lived at his home in Castle Street from 1801 to 1826, until financial ruin necessitated its sale. It hosted many visitors and saw the creation of much of his literary work. Join the current owners on the 200th anniversary of Scott’s last day in the property. Refreshments will be served. Space is limited. 


  • Excursion: Tuesday 7th April 2026, 7pm, visit to Blackie House Library and Museum
  • Dr Bill Zachs.
  • It has been over a decade since the Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club visited Dr Bill Zachs’ collection at Blackie House - now the registered Scottish charity - Blackie House Library and Museum. At that time the Club viewed the Library’s inaugural 2014 exhibition, Breathes there the man: Sir Walter Scott 200 years since Waverley. A range of fascinating Scott material has come into the collection since then. Bill has kindly invited us for a return visit to see old and new Scott items and much more besides. Refreshments will be served. Space is limited. 


  • Lecture: Tuesday, 21st April 2026, 7pm, Edinburgh: "King Dan and the King’s man: Daniel O’Connell and Sir Walter Scott"
  • Dan Mulhall.
  • Daniel O’Connell was the most prominent Irishman of the first half of the 19th century while Walter Scott was the leading personality of that era in Scotland. On account of his success in delivering Catholic Emancipation in 1829, O’Connell, who was a fan of Scott’s novels, became known in Ireland as ‘King Dan’. Scott played a major role in Scottish public life, including as chief orchestrator of King George IV’s historic visit to Scotland in 1822. O’Connell and Scott were contemporaries and their respective achievements can throw light on the course of Irish and Scottish history during their lifetimes and beyond. 


  • 116th Annual Dinner: Thursday 7th May 2026, 6.30pm, Edinburgh:
  • Prof Peter Garside
  • We are honoured to have as our President Prof Peter Garside, who is of course very well regarding in Scott scholarship and to the Club, having long served as Committee member, Secretary and Chairman. We look forward to his toast and to the reply which will be given by Dr Donald Smith, a well known Edinburgh figure for his work with the Scottish Storytelling Centre and Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland.


  • Colloquium: Scott’s Journal, Saturday 16th May 2026, 12.00pm, Online.
  • For many this is perhaps the most accessible and interesting of his varied writing. Begun on the eve of his financial collapse its account of his own determined struggles and captures a fascinating period in Edinburgh and Scottish life. Contributions on any aspect of the Journal are warmly encouraged. Please get in touch to discuss. 

 

  • Lecture: Tuesday, 16th June 2026, 7pm, Edinburgh: "‘’Twas thus the Latest Minstrel Sung’: The Making of Scott the Poet"
  • Ali Lumsden.
  • This paper will draw on research being undertaken for the forthcoming edition of The Lay of the Last Minstrel for the Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry, including recently recovered manuscript evidence. It will discuss the creative evolution of the poem and explore the ways in which Scott works out theories of poetry in it. It will suggest that a younger and more tentative Scott grapples with how best to capture the past through verse and in doing so discovers the concept of a layering of historical moment that will inform his later narrative poems and indeed his fiction. In doing so Scott ensures his place not at the ‘last minstrel’ but the ‘latest’ poet.

 

  • Lecture: Tuesday 8th September 2026, 7pm, Edinburgh:  "Waverley and the problem of history"
  • Prof Kathryn Sutherland.
  • In her 2017 Reith lectures, Hilary Mantel described the job of the historical novelist as putting the reader in the moment. But which is the moment and whose is the moment? If fiction offers a challenge to history; history is a challenge to the novel. The challenge was keen in 1814, when, after decades of war, the redrawing of national boundaries, and displacement of peoples, history, in the words of Georg Lukács, became ‘a mass experience’ (The Historical Novel, 1937; in English 1962). Literature is good at distilling the many into the one, making the public personal and private and therefore universal. But how might it deal with mass experience, making the many count and still be many, irreducible to one? 


  • Excursion: Monday 21st September 2026, Smailholm Tower, Scott’s View and Dryburgh Abbey.
  • A full day excursion to the Scottish Borders and some of the places most associated with Walter Scott. Starting at Smailholm Tower, home of his ancestors and childhood inspiration. The scenic Scott’s View was a favourite lookout, en route to Dryburgh Abbey, burial place of Scott and his family. The nearby Dryburgh Abbey Hotel is available for lunch. An exact schedule and costs will depend on group size, travel and easting options. Please register your interest and further details will follow.


  • Lecture: Tuesday 6th  October 2026, 5.15pm, Edinburgh: "Imagining Scotland: Walter Scott vs Hugh MacDiarmid"
  • Dr James Robertson and Alexander Linklater.
  • Walter Scott and Hugh MacDiarmid could scarcely have had more opposing visions of Scotland’s past, present and future - or could they? James Robertson and Alex Linklater discuss these two giants of our culture and their respective projects for inventing or reinventing the nation. 


  • Lecture: Tuesday 3rd  November 2026, 7pm, Edinburgh: "Keeping the Memory Alive: Building the Scott Club Website"
  • Lee A. Simpson.
  • This talk explores the journey of transforming over a century of the Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club’s history into a living digital archive. Drawing on thousands of pages of bulletins, speeches, recordings, and documents, Lee will share the stories, discoveries, and human connections behind the website — from unexpected historical finds to the quiet work of preservation that keeps memory alive. 

 

  • Lecture: Tuesday 8th December 2026, 7pm, Edinburgh: "Walter Scott and his Literary Friends"
  • David McClay.
  • Walter Scott’s ‘human capacity for friendship’ has been much admired. This study of his literary friendships with Lord Byron, James Hogg, Francis Jeffrey, John Wilson, George Crabbe and William Wordsworth, shows the contrasting attitudes towards literary fame, provocations of satire and critical reviews, alongside providing amusing anecdotes and the importance of enduring friendships.
Apply to Attend Events

Past Talks and Papers

All previous Club lectures and articles since 1894

(excluding Annual Dinners and Summer Excursions)


2026




2014 


Lt Cdr Dairmid Gunn  - Russia and Scottland: Russia’s debt to Sir Walter > [transcript]


Margaret Bennett and Lori Watson- Beyond the Border: Sir Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy in Story and Song >[video]


Professor Claire Lamont  and  Professor Peter Garside  - A Colloquium on Waverley >  [transcript]


Sir Hew Strachan - Kaiser Wilhelm II 1914 – Napoleon Bonaparte 1814 > [video] 


Paul H. Scott - The Letters to Malachi Malagrowther (n/a)


David McClay - Discovering Walter Scott in the John Murray Archive


John Malden - The Artist and the Bride of Lammermoor (n/a)


William Zachs - “Breathes There the Man”: Sir Walter Scott 200 Years Since Waverley. 

An exclusive visit to a private exhibition at Blackie House, Lady Stair's Close (n/a)


Professor Ian Duncan - Scott and the “Science of Man” (n/a)

2013


Lucy Macrae  and Kaye McAlpine - Reiving and Bereaving: Walter Scott and the rich ballad tradition of the Scottish Borders (n/a)


Lt Cdr Dairmid Gunn  - Scott and Malta: A Mediterranean Adventure >  [transcript]


Fiona Robertson  - Scott in 2013: New Scholarship, Old Connections, and the Case of Rokeby >  [transcript]


Professor David Purdie - An IVANHOE for the 21st Century (n/a)


Richard and Caroline Wiseman - 39 North Castle Street: A Private Viewing > [photos]


Dr. Matthew Withey - A Private Tour of Sir Walter’s newly restored home > [photos]


Alasdair Hutton  - Marmion, A Tale of Flodden Field: A Marketing Triumph >  [transcript]


Lindsay Levy - Abbotsford Library Catalogue 1838 and 2013 (n/a)


Dr. Sigrid Rieuwerts - Editing Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (n/a)

2012


Prof. David Purdie - Scott and the Pharos: The Lighthouse Tour of 1814 Revisited (n/a)


Sandra McNeil - Abbotsford: an Exciting Future  (n/a)


Dr Gillian Hughes  - Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg: A City and Country Friendship > [transcript]


Dr Susan Rennie - Besoms, Keelies, and Merry Men: Scott’s contributions to Jamieson’s Dictionary > [transcript]


William Payne and Lee A. Simpson - A Colloquium on The Antiquary (n/a)


Joanna Cooke and Matthew Withey - Out and In: The Decant and Recant of Sir Walter Scott’s Collection at Abbotsford (n/a)


Professor Christopher Harvie - Scott, The Brothers Grimm and the Lost Union  (n/a)


J. H. Alexander  - Editing Scott’s Last Edition > [transcript]


2011


Professor Claire Lamont - Story-telling in the Introductions to the Magnum Edition of the Waverley Novels (n/a)


Lt. Cdr. Dairmid Gunn  - Scott, Newman and Abbotsford > [transcript]


Dr. John Morrison   - Walter Scott and the Painting of Scottish History > [transcript]


Professor Kathryn Sutherland   and Professor David Hewitt- Colloquium on Redgauntlet > [transcript]


Dr. Alison Lumsden - Retuning the Harp of the North: Editing Scott's Poetry (n/a)


Dr. Michael Buck - William Stark, and the Cottage that Never Was: Early Planning at Abbotsford, 1811-12 (n/a)


Prof. Peter Garside - Illustrating Scott's Fiction > [transcript]


Dr. Robert Irvine - Scott, India, and the Muslim Gentleman  > [transcript]



2009


Brian Gill and Paul H. Scott - Colloquium on The Heart of Midlothian


Jacquie Wright - Abbotsford: Past, Present and Future > [transcript]


Dr. R. A. Silvester - Scott as Poet, Critic and Historian > [transcript]


Lindsay Levy - Walter Scott – bibliophile or bibliomaniac?   (n/a)


Alasdair Hutton   and Professor David Hewitt- Colloquium on Rob Roy  >[transcript]


2002


Lt. Cdr. Dairmid Gunn – The Pirate > [transcript]


Allan Massie - Why We Should Read Scott Today > [transcript]


Dr. Alison Lumsden  - Textual Messaging: The Making of Meaning in the Waverley Novels


Anne Lorne Gillies and Rhona Mackay - The Lady of the Lake > [programme]


2000


Arnold Kemp  – Sir Walter Scott and Politics > [transcript]


Richard D. Jackson – Scott and St. John’s > [transcript]


Rod Paterson - A Recital of Scottish Songs at Abbotsford (n/a)


Dr. Iain Brown - Collecting Scott for Scotland 1850-2000 (n/a)



1992


Alex Cameron - Illustrated Talk on the Border County (n/a)


Professor Peter Garside – Scott and the Borderlands of Romance > [transcript]

1989


John McQueen  – On Editing Rob Roy > [transcript]


Sir Eric Anderson – Scott: The Author as Actor. In light of the death of Dr. J.C. Corson the title of this talk was changed to The Building of Abbotsford.


1988 


Margaret Bennett and Martyn Bennett – Scott's Border Songs  



1986 


Dr. Iain Gordon Brown - A private viewing of the Interleaved Set of the Waverley Novels (the so-called ‘Magnum Opus’) and the Pforzheimer Scott Manuscripts repatriated from the United States

Newspaper Cuttings

Newspaper clipping of articles from all the mayor Scottish Newspapers on stories about Sir Walter Scott or The Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club.

1927-1933 View them here: [1927 Newspaper Cuttings]


1933-1949 View them here: [1933 Newspaper Cuttings]