Plaque is the new black as Edinburgh takes top spot

Edinburgh is Scotland’s leading city when it comes to celebrating the achievements of women with commemorative plaques.

It also holds top spot for plaques marking inanimate objects, usually buildings.

Research by Holiday Cottages found that Edinburgh had 59 female-dedicated plaques, far outstripping Dumfries in second place with just five and Glasgow in third place with a paltry four.

The capital obviously has a fondness for throwing up a plaque in general, as it was in top spot for the number of object-dedicated plaques with 65, Glasgow lagged way behind with just 25, while Stirling and Falkirk was placed third with eight.

The Open Plaque research found: “The city of Edinburgh has more commemorative plaques dedicated to significant objects than to female figures. Sixty five out of their 156 plaques celebrate objects of note, meaning that almost a quarter of their total plaques are dedicated to objects.

“However, Edinburgh does have the most plaques dedicated to women out of any other county in Scotland, with 59 plaques honouring inspirational female figures. We also found that more than 50% of Edinburgh's plaques are dedicated to men, showing a significant disparity when it comes to the gender divide of the plaques.

“Although significant objects are commemorated more in Edinburgh, they still have more plaques honouring women than any other Scottish county.

Generally, the number of plaques dedicated to female figures is remarkably low in Scotland, with a large number of counties only have one plaque that honours and inspirational woman.”

Some interesting objectdedicated plaques which featured in the survey included:

Empire Palace Theatre, the first moving picture screening in Scotland in 1896;

Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society, 1809 (which is on

The Dome); Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh 1729;

The Vaults, Leith's oldest warehouse, built in 1682;

The Hall of the Royal Medical Society 1852;

Portobello Town Hall 1878; Church of Scotland's General Assembly Hall used to house Scottish Parliament 1999;

The Flodden Wall 1513.

Hart Street Studios, formerly Pan Audio owned by The Corries 1974.

holidaycottages.co.uk