A Family Edwardian Christmas at Lauriston Castle

A Family Edwardian Christmas comes to Lauriston Castle on Sunday 13 December, part of the estate's annual Christmas programme. It's a family day that runs from 12 noon to 3pm, and they ask you to arrive by 11.45am.

The castle itself is a 16th-century tower house with Victorian extensions and early 20th-century interiors, set in gardens that open onto views across the Firth of Forth. The house and grounds hold the diverse collections left to the city by the castle's last residents; the gardens are free to enter all year round, and the castle is usually open by guided tour. This particular day is part of the annual Christmas programme, which the organisers run with a deliberate aim to strip away the commercialism surrounding the holiday and get back to basics, inviting visitors to rediscover the magic of Christmas past.

The setting fits the theme. The castle is currently marking its centenary, and the organisers have noted that the 1920s stood as the golden age of the murder-mystery genre, a theme that has shaped their recent programming. That Edwardian backdrop is exactly where this Christmas day sits, so it feels less like a bolt-on and more like a natural extension of what the castle has been doing lately.

Tickets are £8 per person, and under 2s go free with paying adults and siblings. There's a non-refundable £2 transaction fee on all telephone and online bookings. It runs from 12 noon to 3pm on Sunday 13 December at Lauriston Castle and Gardens, 2a Cramond Rd S, EH4 6AD.