Course Information

2026

These are the details for the 2025 course, now completed. We hope they will be similar for 2026. This page will be updated when the 2026 course details become available mid-February.

This year’s Edinburgh Lace Course will be held at Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton Campus, Currie, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. The work rooms will be the same as last year – the Carnegie, Wardlaw and Bruce Rooms in The James Watt Centre.

This is a Residential/Non-Residential Bobbin Lace Course for complete beginners, advanced lacemakers or any stage in between. It will consist of morning and afternoon tutored sessions. Monday 2-5pm, Tuesday – Thursday 9am-5pm with an hour for lunch and Friday 9am-3pm. The workrooms will be open in the evenings for those who would like to work untutored. Claire Bonito, Frances Bell, Kitty Mason, Diana Blackburn and Carole Smith are booked to come as tutors.

Course Tuition

The five tutors at the course have a wealth of experience on a wide variety of types of bobbin lace. They are able to tutor and support all levels of student, from complete beginner to more experienced lacemakers. The main types of lace offered include beginner patterns, torchon, Bucks Point, Bedfordshire, Honiton, Flanders, Binche, Brugge Flower and Milanese but we will endeavour to accommodate requests for support with other techniques.

Tutors will be allocated based on the techniques requested and students will be notified who their tutor will be in the message sent to confirm the final payment. The tutor will contact the students in advance of the course to discuss patterns etc.

We also have a very limited number of untutored places available. Requests for untutored places will be considered depending on the total number of places booked.

Display & Challenge

The theme for our challenge for 2026 will be

LACE TO WEAR

Please create a piece of lace that is designed to be worn – for example, this could be to decorate a garment or bag, a piece of jewellery, a corsage or a fascinator.

This could be any technique and any size, it could be your own design or someone else’s. We will have an area to display these pieces of lace.

The challenge is open to all – if you are not attending the course, please make sure we have your entry by 5pm on Monday 20th July so it can be incorporated into the display.

Meals & Snacks

Meal and Snack options during the week:

• Breakfast is included with residential accommodation.
• Coffee, lunch and tea: there are several places to eat on campus during the day.
• Evening meals at the university are available to both residents and non-residents and require to be pre-booked. These will be available on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The menu and cost will be circulated before the course for orders to be placed. Meals are prepared according to this information – if you have forgotten what you have ordered, we will have a list of your selections available to check each evening.
• Evening meals are also available at the Marriott Hotel.
• We will hold a Course Dinner on the Wednesday Evening at the Marriott Hotel.
• If you are planning on eating at the university or coming to the course dinner, please let us know if you have any dietary requirements or allergies.

NB: Part of our contract with the Conference Centre says: ‘Except in exceptional circumstances, and only with prior written approval of the General Manager, visitors and delegates are not permitted to consume food, alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages on the Conference Centre premises that have not been supplied by the Conference Centre.
We have managed to negotiate the following: The centre agrees that guests are permitted to consume food and non-alcoholic beverages purchased from all on-site retail outlets.

Accommodation

Accommodation is available from Sunday evening for those travelling from further afield. All rooms must be vacated by 10am on Friday morning but there is safe space to store luggage during the day.

This accommodation is a 10/15 min walk from the James Watt Centre. It has a limited number of disabled parking spaces at the front door and the car park is only a little walk away. If you require use of the disabled space, please indicate this when you submit your application. Spaces will be reserved and allocated using the car’s registration number. Please only use these spaces if you have been allocated one.

Alternative Accommodation Option on campus:
The Marriott Hotel (CY)
Courtyard Edinburgh West
2 Research Avenue South
Edinburgh, EH14 4BA

Website: www.courtyardedinburghwest.com

Phone: 0131 526 3210

If you would like to choose this option you will need to book the Hotel yourself and pay the Non-Residential Fee for the Lace Course.

Sales Day

On the Wednesday we will have a Sales Day with lace equipment suppliers. Your friends are welcome to come between 11-3pm on that day to shop and/or to look at what people are making.

Equipment

Equipment required – see list

Map & Travel Directions

For a map of the HW Campus and travel directions to the University – see contact page

Fees

For the 2026 Edinburgh Lace Course the fees will be confirmed mid-February.