ANNE LISTER TOUR OF EDINBURGH

Somewhere EDI Community Interest Company in partnership with Hands On Consulting are delighted to have been awarded a National Heritage Lottery Grant supporting a brand-new Anne Lister Walking Tour of Edinburgh. 

The famous 19th century lesbian landowner, traveller, diarist and ‘star’ of HBO/BBC smash hit drama “Gentleman Jack” visited the city in 1828 with her companion Sibella MacLean, a noblewoman from the Isle of Mull. 

Part of their two and a-half-month tour of Scotland included a stay in Edinburgh, and through the direct quotes from Anne’s diary, expert guide and cultural interpreter Stef Lauer will be tracing her very footsteps, recounting her unique insights and experiences and bringing this newly-discovered 200 year-old LGBTQ+ heritage to the city for the very first time.

Alongside standard pay-to-access and private tours, this new Heritage Lottery funding will enable up to twenty tours to be offered free-of-charge to LGBTQ+ people and allies who often experience barriers to accessing heritage and important LGBTQ+ specific cultural legacies such as this. With support from their network of LGBTQ+ charities and organisations across Scotland, Somewhere and Hands On Consulting are very excited to be able to give the community an exciting new experience to look forward to:

Thomas Anderson-Thatcher, Director of Somewhere said: Somewhere is all about supporting and championing LGBTQ+ culture and heritage, and this fantastic news about funding from the Heritage Lottery will help us tell our own stories farther and wider, and reaching our intersectional communities who are often more marginalised. Anne Lister really was a formidable lady, with such a unique life and unique LGBTQ+ legacy. What an honour it is to be part of her continuing story.” 

Stef Lauer of Hands On Consulting said: “Anne Lister was a phenomenal woman. A mountaineer, scholar, traveller, you name it - she broke society’s strict rules about how a woman should live and love. She was also authentically herself – living a lesbian life at a time it would be unthinkable to do so. With the support of the Heritage Lottery, I am so excited to be able to bring some of Anne’s Scottish stories and adventures to a wide audience in and around Edinburgh, and especially to be able to found the Anne Lister Grove in the Trees for Life plantation as an homage to an extraordinary LGBTQ+ life well lived. I have no doubt that were Anne here, she would probably roll up her sleeves and plant all the trees herself, so I can’t wait for us all to get involved and create Anne’s Highland Estate in her memory.”