Scottish Storytelling Centre

24/07/2025

Explore untold and forgotten stories this Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Hear tales and songs from cultures often disregarded by history in musician Kirsty Law’s brand-new show Scotland Unsung and dig deep into forgotten myths with storyteller Clare Murphy in The Spanking Goddess and Other Discarded Tales.

Emerging storytellers centre women’s stories; Ailsa Dixon parallels the personal, the folkloric and the mythic in Cassandra, asking what it means to be believed, while Lucy Beth retells an old bothy ballad, giving voice to the previously silent female character at the centre of the story in Ma Name is Isabelle.

Mark Kydd turns the spotlight away from the main players in q***r love story Our Martin in the Background, plus expect jaw-dropping insights into LGBTQ+ lives past, present and future in a special Fringe edition of regular storytelling show Q***r Folks’ Tales. Finally, Morna Burdon explores the personal, the political and poetry for our times in her new show The Sound of My Own Voice.

More info & tickets via the link in the comments!

17/07/2025

It’s . . . who can guess some of our upcoming Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows from the emojis?

How well do you know our Fringe Programme?

We are looking forward to seeing your guesses in the comments below!

15/07/2025

Tomorrow evening, come and enjoy live storytelling in the relaxed setting of the Netherbow Theatre, where the amazing apprentice storytellers will show off their skills and explore the theme 'Once Upon a Wish'.

🎟 via the link in the comments!

14/07/2025

Stories, puppets, lights, bubbles, songs and really bad jokes – we’ve got shows for a whole range of ages and interests at SSC this Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and we’re keeping it as affordable as possible with £10 child tickets across the family programme.

Get your little ones started on the Bard with Macbeth for Bairns (0-2 years) and explore those feelings we all have but can’t always name in Rajiv’s Starry Feelings (2-7 years) from the creator of Fringe 2023 and 2024 smash hit Grow. Explore the Woods of Widdershins in Snow White Rose Red, Bear Brown (5+), featuring beautiful puppets, engaging storytelling and a fantastical fairy-tale forest.

For older children and all the family, the hilarious and outrageously horrible Plague, Poo n' Punishment (8+) brings Edinburgh’s gruesome past to life by two performers (as seen on CBBC's Saturday Mash Up) with original songs and terrible jokes.

Tickets available via the link in the comments!

08/07/2025

In the crook of a glen, there's a but and a ben and a welcome without end...

Come along for a family session of welcoming stories, songs and crafts with storyteller Beth Cross. The session will be full of unlikely guests, lively tunes and hospitality galore. In the craft session you'll create story pockets to take your version of the story home so you can keep adding your own family storytelling traditions to it as the fancy takes you.

This session is aimed at ages 2-7 but all are welcome.

🎟️ via the link in the comments!

07/07/2025

Popular podcast Scottish Memories is back with its second live event! This time featuring two Scottish broadcasting legends in Ross King and Jay Crawford.

On Saturday night, join host Tony Broonford as he chats to Ross and Jay about growing up in Scotland, how they both found their way into broadcasting and some of the incredible people they have worked with through the years.

🎟 https://sholink.to/230ef3d7

04/07/2025

Love this picture, looking at the top of the Canongate on the site of the old Netherbow port into Edinburgh, right beside us.

Canongate 1900s

A busy scene in this view looking down the Canongate from John Knox's House.

Public domain postcard

04/07/2025

Looking forward to welcoming Alan Bissett back to the centre as part of our Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme!
🎟️ sholink.to/6812c4d5

A one-man play about Billy Connolly and Alasdair Gray at the year’s Fringe Festival will explore when two of Scotland’s greatest cultural exports first met

🗣️ 'They are more similar than you think'

30/06/2025

On Thursday 10th July, join host Dougie Mackay Storyteller as he invites a different selection of Scotland’s finest storytellers, songwriters, musicians, and performing artists to each bi-monthly Hearth Fire Session to create an innovative showcase of Scotland’s contemporary culture.

July's session features storyteller Daiva the Storyteller singer/songwriter Miwa Nagato Apthorp and multi-disciplinary artist and Scots singer Josie Vallely (Quinie).

A screening of the Quinie's accompanying film, Forefowk, Mind Me, will precede Hearth Fire Sessions, with Josie and filmmaker Lizzie Mackenzie.

Tickets for both events available here https://sholink.to/c7583121

23/06/2025

We’re looking for a temporary Visitor Services Assistant to help us deliver our fantastic programme for 2025!

If you are friendly, outgoing, interested in the arts and/or heritage and available for August, please email [email protected] with your CV by Monday 30th June 🥰

16/06/2025

Join Edinburgh's own Burgh Blatherers for a relaxed evening of story, poetry, riddle and song in the cosy Storytelling Court.
Contributions welcomed from the floor!

Tickets available via the link in the comments.

14/06/2025

What a fabulous depiction of John Knox House!
Come and step back 500 years into Scotland’s turbulent past at Edinburgh’s only surviving medieval mansion. . .
Open daily from 10am

Showcasing the City Art Centre's historical painting collection to celebrate in a new digital exhibition.
'John Knox's House, High Street, Edinburgh', John Guthrie Spence Smith (1880–1951)
Explore full exhibition here: https://bit.ly/4mvC0Dq