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Things you probably didn't know about Edinburgh

A castle on a volcano, and the world’s biggest arts festival every August.

  1. Fact 1 of 5

    The Castle sits on an extinct volcano

    Castle Rock is the plug of a volcano around 350 million years old. Ice sheets carved the crag the castle stands on.

  2. 1996 — fact 2 of 5

    Dolly the sheep was cloned nearby

    In 1996, scientists at the Roslin Institute just outside Edinburgh created the first cloned mammal from an adult cell.

    See what 1996 was like →

  3. 1768 — fact 3 of 5

    Encyclopædia Britannica was born here

    The first edition of the famous encyclopaedia was published in Edinburgh between 1768 and 1771.

  4. 1947 — fact 4 of 5

    The Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival

    Born in 1947 when performers turned up uninvited to the new International Festival, it now hosts tens of thousands of performances a year.

    See what 1947 was like →

  5. Fact 5 of 5

    Arthur’s Seat is a city mountain

    The 350-million-year-old hill in Holyrood Park can be climbed from the city centre in under an hour.

Our Edinburgh collection is part of a growing local-history library — more cities and facts are being added.

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