Spill the Tea Tour: Earth Matters

Inverleith House at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is hosting a Spill the Tea tour on Sunday 1 November, starting at 10:30. It's a guided gallery tour led by a Botanics staff member, and it comes with a cup of barley tea themed around the exhibition, Earth Matters.

That exhibition is the bigger picture here. Earth Matters marks 300 years since the birth of James Hutton, the Edinburgh-born geologist, farmer and thinker who changed how we understand the creation of the Earth and the ground beneath our feet. More than 30 artists, inspired by Hutton and the trailblazers who followed him, look into the living ecosystem to show its brilliance, beauty and fragility. You'll find work by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Joan Eardley, Tania Kovats, Sekai Machache and Alberta Whittle among them.

The show is a creative partnership with Susanna Beaumont and Design Exhibition Scotland, supported by People's Postcode Lottery players and the Edinburgh Geological Society, with thanks to the James Hutton Institute. It's part of a wider run of events across the city, sitting alongside the Edinburgh Science Festival, the Edinburgh Art Festival, RSA200 and the James Hutton Tercentenary 2026. The Botanics is a registered charity.

The tour itself is a guided walk through the gallery, so you'll get a staff member to talk you through the work rather than just wandering on your own. After the tour, there's the tea sampling — a cup of barley tea tied to the Earth Matters theme. It's at Inverleith House, Arboretum Place, Edinburgh, EH3 5NZ, on Sunday 1 November at 10:30, and tickets are £8.83.