Buildings and facilities

We are based in a Grade A-listed building in the heart of the city, giving you access to facilities which will be essential to your studies.

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HCA Virtual Visit laptop image

The William Robertson Wing of the historic University of Edinburgh Old Medical School has been transformed to provide a spacious and modern interior, decorated with collections and artefacts from each subject area. Dedicated computer labs and lecture theatres are complemented by informal learning areas, and a split-level student research room on the top floor provides a tranquil and airy study space populated by statues from the Classic's cast collection. Our teaching collections of archaeological and classical artefacts include the Vere Gordon Childe collection.

Take a Virtual Visit

 

Building tour:

This video shows you how to navigate the School of History, Classics and Archaeology.

The Student Research Rooms

The Student Research Rooms (SRR) occupy a beautiful space spread over two floors and housing a number of book collections (many of which can be borrowed), classical statues and IT and study facilities.  This space is open to undergraduate and postgraduate students. It is located on the second mezzanine and third floors of the William Robertson Wing (you can enter this space via room 2M.25 or room 3.13).

 

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HCA SRR

All students of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology are welcome to use the SRR for study and consultation of the book collections.

Access for undergraduate students is limited to the hours  from 08:00 to 17:50 (Monday to Friday) for safety and security reasons.

Book collections

The SRR contains nine collections of books from previous class libraries and special collections donated to the School over many years. The collections are listed below.

All University of Edinburgh students have access to our main Library, only a five minute walk from our building on George Square. The main library not only has an extensive collection of books and resources but also a variety of study spaces.

University of Edinburgh Main Library

The Undergraduate Common Room (Rosalind Mitchison Room)

This space was created for the exclusive use of undergraduate students, and is located on the second floor of the William Robertson Wing (room 2.30). It contains comfy sofas, lunch tables, a vending machine, a tea preparation area with fridges and kettles, noticeboards, IT facilities, laptop tables and lockers. The UCR often hosts events for undergraduates, and is an excellent place to meet with fellow undergraduates to work on group projects.

The teaching computer lab

This is a teaching room which contains computers specially designed for workshops and computer software training. It has a large selection of specialist software installed such as ArcGIS, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, CorelDraw and ClassicalText Editor. It is located on the second floor of the William Robertson Wing (room 2.36).

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HCA A tutor and student wearing white lab coats study finds in the School archaeology teaching lab made up of white benches and chairs.

The Archaeology labs

Our Archaeology students carry out practical work in the following spaces:

  • Finds processing and thin section lab
  • Chemical lab
  • Microscopy lab
  • Archaeology teaching lab
  • Osteology lab

Access to these labs depends on the courses you select and your dissertation topic. Find out more about our Archaeology labs by following the link below.

Laboratories

Teaching collections

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HCa examples of items from the School teaching collections

The School has a number of teaching collections of historical artefacts.

Gordon Childe Archaeology Collection

The School's Gordon Childe Archaeology Collection was begun by Vere Gordon Childe in 1927, when he became the first Abercromby professor of prehistoric archaeology. Additions were made by his successors, Stuart Piggott (1946-1977) and Dennis Harding (1977-2007), as well as by outside donations. Today, the collection houses c. 5000 archaeological artefacts from various periods and regions across Europe, the Mediterranean, Egypt, the Near East and India, including textile fragments from Neolithic Swiss Lake villages, in addition to ethnographic items. You can browse the collection at the link below.

Childe Collection

Classics Teaching Collection

The Classics Teaching Collection of ancient objects — mostly terracotta vases — covers Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, and the Roman world, spanning from the prehistoric period to the Roman era. Although it has not been possible to trace the donor or original provenance of our collection, the complete state of the vases suggests that they come from a funerary context. Much of the collection is on public display on the first floor of the William Robertson Wing. 

The School also has a substantial collection of plaster casts of ancient works of sculpture also displayed throughout the William Roberston Wing particularly in the Student Resource Room. 

Classics Teaching Collection 

Osteology Teaching Collection

The collection curator is Dr Linda Fibiger.

Dr Linda Fibiger's staff profile

Document collections

The School hold several collections of documents, many of which have been digitised and which can be browsed and viewed at the links below.

Sir William Fraser Collection

Sir William Fraser (1816-1898) was a genealogist, archivist, and Scottish historian who trained as a solicitor.

A series of 288 facsimiles of charters and letters, spanning from the eleventh to the early nineteenth century was published by the Trustees of Sir William Fraser in 1903 and is held by the School. Another is held by CRC Special Collections in the Edinburgh University Library.

Sir William Fraser Facsimiles of Scottish Charters and Letters Collection

In the course of the digitisation of the Sir William Fraser facsimiles, a considerable quantity of facsimiles came to light which did not belong to the series published by his Trustees in 1903. A number of these were contained in packets marked as containing 'Residue of Lithographs of Letters' belonging to Sir William Fraser's histories of the Wemyss, Annandale, Douglas, Menteith and Haddington families. 

Residue facsimiles attributed to Sir William Fraser

Falconer Madan Facsimiles

Falconer Madan (1851–1935) was the librarian of the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford from 1912 to 1919. He was the principal author of the first four volumes of 'A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts' in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Thirty-eight plates from Madan’s series of facsimiles of medieval manuscripts, produced as a teaching aid and published in 1907, are currently held by the School, and a complete set is held by the CRC Special Collections, Edinburgh University Library.

Falconer Madan Facsimiles

Kennedy Papers

During the course of the Sir William Fraser digitisation project a packet containing fourteen very fragile eighteenth-century documents was found, including a marriage contract from 1751, giving fragmented snapshots of the everyday lives of ordinary men and women in eighteenth-century Scotland. Apart from one accompanying note dated 1910 very little is known about this collection. The Kennedy Papers are now held by the CRC Special Collections in the University Library. 

Kennedy Papers