ZOO OPENING TIMES
We are open every day of the year, including Christmas Day, from 9am until:
| 6.00pm | April - September |
| 5.00pm | October & March |
| 4.30pm | November - February |
St Andrew's Day
Celebrate Scotland's national day at Edinburgh Zoo. We are offering FREE admission on St Andrew's Day, 30 November 2008.
Admission will also be free to the Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig, near Kingussie.
Education
Education is now widely recognised as one of the pivotal roles for a modern zoo such as Edinburgh’s . Whether it be for everyday visitors to the Zoo, or as a principal centre for learning in the Lothian community – and, indeed, at the national level – or in the contribution it makes to formal education from nursery to university, the educational significance of the Zoo, in all its aspects, is enormous.
In fact, education has been at the heart of The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland since its conception, nearly 100 years ago. As founder Thomas Gillespie writes in his book ‘The Story of Edinburgh Zoo’, the objectives of the Society, as at first defined (they were later considerably amplified) were;
‘to advance the study of zoology and foster and develop amongst the people an interest in and knowledge of animal life’.
Edinburgh Zoo’s educational mission statement is;
‘to inspire in our visitors an understanding of the value, the complexity and the fragility of the natural world by fully utilising the educational potential of our unique variety of living animals’.
Edinburgh Zoo's Education and Interpretation Strategy (PDF, 2Mb)
On these pages you can find information on parts of the educational work we do – on our schools programme and on our programme of community education.