Qualla: Edinburgh Napier University

Edinburgh Napier University: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike Murry from Bellevue, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. John Napier was born in 1550 inside the tower house at Merchiston, on a small Edinburgh hill. He grew up to invent logarithms, design a calculating device known as Napier's bones, and quietly transform the mathematics of navigation, astronomy, and ballistics. More than four centuries later, the technical college that took his name in 1964 has wrapped itself around his ancestral home. His statue still stands inside the tower, in the middle of a campus full of computer game laboratories and broadcast journalism studios. He would, you suspect, find the whole arrangement intriguing.

Image: Mike Murry from Bellevue, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0

Edinburgh Napier University: From Technical College to University

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit grap, CC BY-SA 3.0. Napier Technical College opened in 1964 to plug a gap in Scotland's industrial education. The opening ceremony took place on 23 February 1965. In 1966 the name lengthened to Napier College of Science and Technology; in 1974 it absorbed the Edinburgh College of Commerce out at Sig...

Image: grap | CC BY-SA 3.0

Edinburgh Napier University: The Merchiston Tower

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stefan Schäfer, Lich, CC BY-SA 3.0. Merchiston Castle, the 15th-century L-plan tower house where John Napier was born, sits in the geographic centre of the main campus. It is Category A listed - the top tier of Scottish architectural protection - and the seat of Clan Napier. The Schools of Art and Creative Industri...

Image: Stefan Schäfer, Lich | CC BY-SA 3.0

Edinburgh Napier University: The Craiglockhart Ghosts

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brideshead, Public domain. The Craiglockhart campus has a darker inheritance. Originally a Victorian Hydropathic hotel - one of the spa-and-cold-water-cure resorts that flourished in the 19th century - the building was requisitioned during the First World War as a hospital for officers diagnosed with shell...

Image: Brideshead | Public domain

Edinburgh Napier University: Sighthill and the New Generation

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kim Traynor, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Sighthill campus, opened in January 2011, holds the schools of Health and Social Care and Applied Sciences. The five-storey learning resource centre, clinical skills suite, and IT-enabled lecture theatres earned a BREEAM Excellent rating for sustainable design. The sports fac...

Image: Kim Traynor | CC BY-SA 3.0

Edinburgh Napier University: Awards, Surf Labs, and Other Edinburgh Habits

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 3.0. Napier has won the Queen's Anniversary Prize twice: in 2009 for work improving sound insulation in attached housing, and in 2015 for timber engineering, sustainable construction and wood science. Its research centres span sustainable construction, transport, distributed computing...

Image: Ad Meskens | CC BY-SA 3.0