Sapphic History Tour

Join local tour guide Hannah Mackay Tait for a one-off sapphic history walking tour to celebrate Lesbian Visibility Week

Celebrate Lesbian Visibility Week by uncovering the hidden sapphic history of Edinburgh's New Town with local guide Hannah Mackay Tait on this two-hour walk.

From pioneering doctors in the Victorian age to groundbreaking booksellers in the 1980s, LGBTQ+ women have been there at every stage of Edinburgh's development. Learn about the lesbian scandal that engulfed a local girls' school in 1810, and follow in the footsteps of lesbian icon Anne Lister on holiday with her Scottish lover.

Walking through the Georgian streets, we'll also explore the places where queer women and others found community in the 20th century, from protests to reading groups. Discover the location of Scotland's first gay and lesbian centre in the 1970s, and the townhouse where Edinburgh's first trans zine was founded in the 1980s.

Tickets are available by donation, with all proceeds going to DIVA Charitable Trust (see below accessibilty info for more about them!)

Accessibility Information

We will cover a total of roughly 4km (2.5 miles) over around two and a half hours. We'll start on Palmerston Place outside St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral and finish on Broughton Street. The route has no steps or stairs, including dropped kerbs at crossing points, but involves some moderate slopes up and down. We'll make 12 stops along the route, but most of them won't have somewhere to sit down.

As we'll be in the city centre, some places may be crowded with people or loud with traffic noise. We'll make every effort to stop in quieter areas when possible.

The guide will have a small, friendly dog with her.

Get in touch if you need to bring a carer or companion along (no need to book them a place), and feel free to ask if you have any accessibility questions not covered here.

About DIVA Charitable Trust (Registered Charity Number 1211370)

DIVA Charitable Trust is the UK’s leading charity dedicated to advancing the visibility, wellbeing and equality of LGBTQIA+ women and non-binary people.

Invisibility costs lives. DIVA Charitable Trust exists to change that.

LGBTQIA+ women and non-binary people remain among the least visible and least resourced communities in the UK: under-represented in media, overlooked in research, and routinely excluded from decisions that affect our safety, health, and livelihoods. You are backing the only UK charity combining media power, national campaigns, research insight and community connection to advance LGBTQIA+ women and non-binary people at scale. We turn visibility into lasting, systems-level change.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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