Edinburgh World Heritage

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Edinburgh World Heritage (EWH) is a charity in Edinburgh, Scotland. It started in 1999 to protect, improve, and promote Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site, the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh, which was designated in 1995. EWH was funded by donations from the City of Edinburgh Council and Historic Scotland.

EWH has completed more than 1,500 projects across Edinburgh in conservation, learning, and planning. Examples include restoring historic graveyards, preserving original street lighting, and repairing monuments.

In the past, parts of the New Town were in poor condition and at risk of being demolished. In 1971, the Edinburgh New Town Conservation Committee began giving grants to homeowners for repairs. In 1985, the Edinburgh Old Town Committee for Conservation and Renewal (later the Edinburgh Old Town Renewal Trust) was formed to help with social and economic renewal. The two groups merged in 1999 to form EWH.

In 2008, the Melville Monument in St Andrew Square was restored as part of the Twelve Monuments Project, a collaboration between EWH and the City of Edinburgh Council. In August 2020, EWH helped with a planning application to place a plaque on the monument to honour victims of slavery connected to Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville. A descendant criticized the plaque’s portrayal as biased and historically inaccurate.