Campus guide

At Napier, we have three university campuses spread across the city of Edinburgh, each of them outfitted with state-of-the-art facilities to assist you in your studies, and each of them serving as the central hub to our different academic schools, with the library catalogue of each campus being focused on that campus’s academic departments.
Speaking from experience, we know that it can be a bit confusing for students (and staff!) to keep track of what things are at each campus, so we thought we’d put together this very quick campus guide to help incoming students get familiar with each campus – and maybe to try and jog the memories of returning students!

Merchiston Campus

First up is Merchiston, our oldest campus and home to the School of Arts and Creative Industries (SACI) along with the School of Computing, Engineering, and Built Environment (SCEBE)
It’s actually from the history of Merchiston that Napier gets its name. The campus is built around Merchiston Tower, which was the family home and birthplace of John Napier, a 16th-century Scottish mathematician who discovered logarithms and helped popularise the decimal point!
Although the tower is typically closed to the public, it is occasionally open for guided tours. So keep an eye out for any upcoming tours if you ever want to get a peek inside!

At Merchiston, you’ll find professional-standard facilities ready to provide you with some hands-on experience in creative fields, such as music recording studios and a news broadcast room. You’ll also find our Merchiston library, with a full catalogue of books covering creative subjects, computing, and engineering, as well as eleven study rooms and dozens of desktop PCs in an open-plan environment with a bright.

But perhaps the most notable feature of Merchiston is the Jack Kilby Computing Centre (JKCC) A 500 seat computer lab complete with all the facilities you’ll need for your studies, including desktop computers, printers, and laptops available for loan. There is also a helpdesk where our student helpers will be available to provide you with any IT support you might need during your time here, from resetting your university password to connecting you to our precious Wi-Fi!
Merchiston is also where you can find the offices for ENSA – the Edinburgh Napier Student’s Association which serves as the university’s student union and is there to provide you with advice and support during your studies, as well as organising social events for you to meet and get to know other Napier students. ENSA also organises and oversees dozens of student societies and sports clubs active at the university.

You’ll find Merchiston in the southside of Edinburgh between Bruntsfield and Morningside, just down the road from Holy Corner (an area named because of the large number of churches it has). This makes it our most centrally located campus, and as a result, it is well served by Edinburgh’s public transport. Bus routes 11, 15, 16, 23, 36, and 45 all stop at Holy Corner just a short walk from the campus, while the 45 bus stops just across the street.

Craiglockhart Campus

Next up is Craiglockhart, home of the Business School and located in the former Craiglockhart Hydropathic Building, a Victorian-era facility that originally served as a healthcare facility before becoming a military hospital during the First World War. The most notable feature of Craiglockhart has to be the Lindsay Stewart lecture theatre, which seats 200 people and looks sort of like a giant silver egg attached to the front of the building.

Our Craiglockhart library is directly downstairs from the entrance atrium and has an open-air plan, meaning if you’re in the library, you can just look up and see right into the entrance atrium above you. Here you’ll find our catalogue of books on business and law studies, collaborative study desks, and separate rooms for quiet and silent study.
One of the most interesting parts of Craiglockhart is the War Poets Collection, an archive of over 800 items relating to the famous First World War poets who spent time at the building back when it was a hospital for British army officers. You can find many of these items on display in the campus atrium.

The Craiglockhart campus is located in the southwest of the city, between Morningside and Colinton, in a quiet suburb. If you ask me, this is maybe our prettiest campus. The building is surrounded by grass and trees, and the back of the campus opens onto Craiglockhart Hill, which offers a lovely view of the surrounding area. I’ve known more than one person who enjoyed spending their lunchtime going on quick walks of the hills, or otherwise just having a little picnic in the sun!
Craiglockhart is serviced by bus routes 4, 10, 27, and 45. It is also a quick walk uphill from Slateford train station.

Sighthill Campus

Finally, there is Sighthill, the newest of all our campuses and home to the School of Health and Social Care (SCHSC) and the School of Applied Sciences (SAS)
Sighthill might be the most high-tech of all our campuses. At Sighthill, you’ll find the Clinical Skills Centre, where our healthcare students can practice what they’ve learned in a simulated environment that closely reflects the atmosphere of a real hospital.

Sighthill also has our largest library, with over 200 computers and 9 study rooms spread across five floors of the Learning Resource Centre (LRC). On the first floor, you’ll find a social area with some tables for socialising and studying. On the second floor, there is our library and IT helpdesk, along with some printers, dozens of computers, and some laptops for you to borrow. Floors three and four house our book catalogue and serve as our silent study floors. And on the fifth floor you’ll find some group study rooms, along with the Horizon Suite – a conference room that has a beautiful view of the surrounding area.

At Sighthill, you’ll have access to ENGAGE Fitness, our on-campus gym and sports facility, which is open to Napier students and members of the public. At Engage you’ll find Olympic weightlifting equipment, as well as a sports hall that can be booked out for badminton, basketball, five-a-side football, and other games.
Sighthilll is also the administrative centre of Napier, being the campus where you’ll find many of our student support departments such as the International Support team, and the Finance office.

You can find Sighthill west of the city centre just off Calder Road in the suburb of Sighthill. The campus is served by bus routes 3, 21, 25, 33, 34, and 35. You can also get here quickly by tram, with the Bankhead Loan tram stop just being a short walk away from campus.

This post has been a long one – but then, there’s lots to say and see at our campuses!
Your studies will mostly be centred around one campus, but hopefully this post has you excited to go visit the others while you’re here!

By Matthew Ferrie

We have lots of campus posts, learn about their quirks and histories