The new season of Grange Association talks will begin on Tuesday 21 October 2025. This web page is to give you a heads-up of what to expect through the talks season – allowing you now to get the dates into your diaries.
The talks will all take place in St Catherine’s Argyle Church, 61-63 Grange Road on the third Tuesday of each month. From October to February, the doors will open at 7.00pm, with tea and coffee being available from then until the talks begin at 7.30pm – lasting about an hour, including time for questions.
In March, doors will open at 6.15pm, the Association’s AGM will follow at 7.00pm and the final talk of the season will follow that at about 7.45pm. We have a fine and eclectic range of speakers and topics lined up for you, as follows:
21 October 2025: ‘Growing Wellbeing: Harnessing the Healing Power of Nature’.
Dr Fi Brown, a social and therapeutic horticulturalist, will talk about how social and therapeutic horticulture uses gardening to support mental and physical wellbeing.Drawing on her work, with, amongst others, veterans, carers and people with dementia, she will highlight how engaging with plants and nature-based activities can boost self-confidence and support recovery.
18 November 2025: ‘Sugar, Slaves and High Society: the Grant Family of Kilgraston’.
Richard P J Blake, author of ‘Sugar, Slaves and High Society: the Grants of Kilgraston 1750-1860’ will talk about the Grant family’s connections with Edinburgh and in particular, the area around the Grange. Sir Francis Grant was the only Scottish President of the Royal Academy of Arts; sculptures by his niece, Mary, one of the very earliest professional female sculptors, can be found around Edinburgh, including in St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral; General Sir Hope Grant, a cavalry officer who served with distinction in China and India and his Sister Catherine are buried in the Grange Cemetery and the feus on Kilgraston Road, Strathearn Road and Hope Terrace were part of the family’s estate.
16 December 2025: ‘Celebrating 150 years of the Cockburn Association’.
Professor Cliff Hague OBE, is Emeritus Professor of Planning and Spatial Development at Heriot-Watt University and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He was Chair of the Cockburn Association from 2016 to 2023. With the Association celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2025, Professor Hague will discuss the planning issues which have affected the City of Edinburgh over that time, outlining some of the many developments in which the Association was involved. He will look at its role in promoting and protecting green spaces as well as historic buildings and places and will consider some of today’s pressures, such as over-tourism.
20 January 2026: ‘On a Tall Ship to Antarctica’.
James Ogilvie is a Chartered Forester, Trustee of several woodland charities and Chair of Walking Scotland. Outside the woodland environment, James is passionate about adventures, mountains and remote places. He will describe what it’s like to crew a 100-year-old tall ship through the Southern Ocean’s furious 50s and screaming 60s, from Southern Argentina to Antarctica, South Georgia and the most remote island community in the world, Tristan da Cunha.
17 February 2026: ‘Trailblazing Edinburgh Women of Science’.
In this talk Catherine Booth, who was formerly head of science collections at the National Library of Scotland and who is currently a Trustee of the James Clerk Maxwell Foundation,will give an insight into a number of remarkable early women of science with Edinburgh connections, whose work did so much to lay the foundations of our modern world – including a glaciologist, a pioneer in psychotherapy and one of the first scientists to warn of the dangers of nuclear radiation.
17 March 2026: ‘The History of the Sciennes Convent’.
Alan Cran, who is a hotelier in Edinburgh and who was for many years a local councillor in the Tollcross Community Council will provide a fascinating insight into the background and history of the Convent of Dominican nuns, dedicated to St Catherine of Sienna, which existed from 1517 to 1559 and from which we get the name ‘Sciennes’. He will explore the background history which led to its foundation as well as the surviving archaeology and records which tell us about the life of the convent.
We will, as always, be sending out reminder emails to all Association Members a couple of weeks in advance of each talk. We will also, before each talk, be distributing laminated posters for display. These are sent out to those members who have kindly agreed to attach them to their gate or some other prominent position.