St Cecilia's Hall: Concert Room & Music Museum

St Cecilia's Hall: Concert Room & Music Museum Scotland's oldest purpose-built concert hall & a renowned collection of musical heritage.

St Cecilia's Hall museum brings together one of the world's most important collections of historic musical instruments.

The great highland bagpipes are by no means our biggest object in size, but if you've ever stood beside a piper playing ...
03/10/2025

The great highland bagpipes are by no means our biggest object in size, but if you've ever stood beside a piper playing this instrument before, you will no double agree they are mighty in sound!

This particular set is on display in the Wolfson Gallery and dates from between 1894-1895.

Scottish Museums Federation

This duplex grand piano was made c.1920 and is, as you might imagine, rather large and very heavy! It measures 2834mm in...
03/10/2025

This duplex grand piano was made c.1920 and is, as you might imagine, rather large and very heavy! It measures 2834mm in length, 1575mm in width and 1050mm in height from the floor to the top of the lid!

This instrument is not on display at the museum and so lives off-site in storage. Like many other museums, St Cecilia's Hall has purpose-built storage, strong enough and big enough to safely house instruments of this size!

Scottish Museums Federation

Believe it or not, both of these instruments are violins (and no, we didn't just find tiny people to model beside them!)...
03/10/2025

Believe it or not, both of these instruments are violins (and no, we didn't just find tiny people to model beside them!) These instruments are a part of the violin octet - a family of eight proportionally sized violins created in the 1950/60s by Carleen Hutchins. The octet is a matched consort of eight violins, all tuned and toned like a violin, across the range of a piano.

The largest of the set (pictured on the right) measures 2057mm, with strings coming in at 1104mm!

Scottish Museums Federation

This archlute, or theorbo, by Martinus Harz dates back to 1665. It once would have provided improvised accompaniment for...
03/10/2025

This archlute, or theorbo, by Martinus Harz dates back to 1665. It once would have provided improvised accompaniment for singers or the bass sound in a small ensemble. This instrument is 1680mm in length with strings ranging from 672mm to 1434mm! Its distinctive shape is down to those long gut strings that are required to produce low notes.

Although this instrument looks very large, it is actually quite light and is held like a guitar when played!

Scottish Museums Federation

This double manual harpsichord by Luigi Baillon is the longest instrument on display at St Cecilia's Hall, coming in at ...
03/10/2025

This double manual harpsichord by Luigi Baillon is the longest instrument on display at St Cecilia's Hall, coming in at 2540mm in length! This is one of several instruments in the collection still in playable condition - you may have been fortunate enough to have seen it in action at one of our concerts recently!

This instrument is housed in the Binks Gallery, so for performances our team need to move this long, priceless instrument through the gallery to the Concert Hall. Fortunately for us, we do these kinds of moves for a living, so we have trolleys large enough to carry our instruments, and doors and corridors built wide enough to fit even the longest of instruments!

Scottish Museums Federation

If you've ever visited St Cecilia's Hall, you may have taken a ride in our lift and thought, "I wonder why it's so massi...
03/10/2025

If you've ever visited St Cecilia's Hall, you may have taken a ride in our lift and thought, "I wonder why it's so massive!" You wouldn't be the first! With a capacity of 25 people and a weight limit of just under 2000kg, our lift is pretty large.

During our redevelopment, our mighty lift was put in place not only to provide access to the first-floor galleries but also to accommodate the movement of some of our biggest instruments! It was purpose-built to accommodate some of the largest instruments in our collection, and is big enough to transport all of our keyed instruments from the ground floor entrance up to our galleries and is affectionately referred to by the team as the world's biggest dumbwaiter (pending award!)

Scottish Museums Federation

The Contrabass Serpent, or 'Anaconda', sure is a mighty object. Standing at 4 and a half feet in height, the Anaconda, i...
03/10/2025

The Contrabass Serpent, or 'Anaconda', sure is a mighty object. Standing at 4 and a half feet in height, the Anaconda, if stretched out flat, would be around 16 feet in length! The enormous size of this instrument makes it difficult to play; however, its makers did perform on it in Almondbury Church in Huddersfield and occasionally in York Minster.

This is likely to be the only contrabass serpent ever made, making it not only mighty but also incredibly unique!

Scottish Museums Federation

Happy ! This year's theme is Mighty Objects, and we'll be sharing some of our biggest, longest, heaviest and mightiest ...
03/10/2025

Happy ! This year's theme is Mighty Objects, and we'll be sharing some of our biggest, longest, heaviest and mightiest objects over the course of the day, so make sure to keep your eyes on our socials today!

Scottish Museums Federation

Family fun, a chance to contribute to a good cause while listening to wonderful music in our Concert Room and some fabul...
01/10/2025

Family fun, a chance to contribute to a good cause while listening to wonderful music in our Concert Room and some fabulous concerts on at St Cecilia’s Hall this month!

🎵 Halloween Family Trail | 1 October - 1 November 2025, multiple timeslots | Free; booking appreciated
🎵 Weekly Tours | 8, 17, 25 October 2025, 14:00-15:00 | Free
🎵 Make Music for Macmillan: Play-Along Chamber Music Event | 11 October 2025, morning and early afternoon | Booking by donation
🎵 Make Music for Macmillan: Concert | 11 October 2025, 15:30-16:30 | Entry by donation
🎵 Leaky bodies and touchy software| 15 October 2025, 19:00-21:00 | Free
🎵 Ethan Ward Quiet Concert: Fantasia| 18 October 2025, 15:00-16:00 | Free
🎵 The Edinburgh Quartet – St Cecilia’s Lunchtime Series | 28 October 2025, 13:00-14:00 | £12/15 + booking fees

For more info and to book your tickets, head to our What's On page: https://www.stcecilias.ed.ac.uk/whats-on/

Today's the big day! Join us for musical performances and demonstrations highlighting music and musical instruments from...
27/09/2025

Today's the big day! Join us for musical performances and demonstrations highlighting music and musical instruments from around the world every hour on the hour from 10:00 to 16:00 and short guided tours every hour on the half hour from 10:30 to 15:30 today!

This is a FREE event, no booking necessary! We'll see you there!

UPDATE: Please note that due to weather warnings, this event has been CANCELLED. Please keep an eye out for a reschedule...
26/09/2025

UPDATE: Please note that due to weather warnings, this event has been CANCELLED. Please keep an eye out for a rescheduled date.

Join us on Saturday, the 4th of October, for a special interactive family soundscape and storytelling session featuring a mini sound bath!

STORY-TIME: Bring your favourite teddy or toy to co-create a story together!

EXPLORE: Through expressive drawing and movement we will feel into the shapes these sounds may look like!

SOUNDSCAPE: Do you have an instrument of your own you would like to bring? Please do!

REFLECT/RELAX: Time out for a mini sound bath where you can lay down or sit and listen to soothing sounds.

Tickets are on sale now via the link below:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/echowellenterprise/1786502

Address

50 Niddry Street
Edinburgh
EH11LG

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 10am - 4:30pm
Thursday 10am - 4:30pm
Friday 10am - 4:30pm
Saturday 10am - 4:30pm

Telephone

441316502600

Website

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