The ultimate guide to picking your Edinburgh Uni study spots

As deadlines and finals approach, Edinburgh students find themselves participating in a battle of the highest order – for a study spot, literally any study spot, anywhere on campus.

Here’s to productivity in the face of architectural adversity.

Main Library

Yeah, no. The obvious choice, but I hate it here. If you’re after a 10,000-step walk up, down and across four floors to an audience of judgemental eyes, all in the vain effort of ‘finding a seat’, here’s your study spot. The temperature will be Baltic or boiling, and you’ll be distracted the whole time by the man you can see out the window, doing some sort of Tai Chi in the Meadows. 0/10 for studying, 11/10 for people-watching.

Familiar foe

Library Cafe

I like the Library Café, but also acknowledge that it very much has the vibe of a corporate staff room. The blending of lunchtime AND work time – people are simultaneously eating falafel wraps and submitting their dissertations. It gives big coworkers space energy. I don’t know, very difficult atmosphere to convey, visit it yourself in person and see.

Library cafe does NOT give you wings

Seven George Square

7GS, an underrated banger. The lower concourse is a great location for an intense study session with interesting surroundings, but not so interesting as to be distracting. One problem… you will get kicked out indiscriminately whenever there’s a random class on.

An arena of learning

40 George Square

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40GS is a mind-bending labyrinth of a building, going below ground and then 12 floors above ground and then also behind itself. As such, there is an impressive amount of study spaces – the basement café and surrounding area, the two ground floor study areas (one is silent, one has very not-silent printers), and then the indeterminate number of ‘Study Zones’ across the other 11 floors. A solid study space, it gets the job done.

Should’ve gone to Specsavers

Law Library

It is quite scary in here, but that might just be the atmosphere of unadulterated academia. Terrifying and motivational all at the same time. A great place to study if you need peer pressure to work at your best.

So One Day core

New College Library

When the procrastination gets so bad you must turn to the divine, New College provides a gorgeous environment to pray to the Turnitin and Special Circumstances gods.

Pray the pain away

Edinburgh Central Library

A special shoutout to the non-University affiliated study spots around the city, where there’s no eduroam but also relatively few students. A great place to avoid the stress-by-osmosis of Central Campus, and check out the Music Library Mezzanine.

They don’t have the official Take That biography at Main Library

National Library of Scotland

Directly opposite the Central Library, we have its fancier and less approachable cousin. There’s quite a complex joining system for the National Library which I’ve personally never fully completed, but once you’re in, it’s a pretty mega-study spot. Dark wooden beams, ancient-looking tables, and Gaelic manuscripts from the 14th century – it’s a unique place.

Windowless beauty

Lister Learning Centre

A hidden gem, but not really a gem, mostly just hidden. There are plentiful seats here and some (highly competitive) booths – but most of the study spaces are high stools facing the window with a view of an identical concrete building block. Practical, but not magical.

Many windowed beauty

This singular glass study pod in Chrystal Macmillan?

No one ever wants to talk about it, but it hits when solitary confinement is the only option.

It’s in the basement btw

Potterrow

Potterrow is a popular and financially dangerous place (Nacho Tuesdays) to work – you have that lovely dome over your head, the odd palm tree, and the comforting chatter of students all around to accompany your studying. It’s an ideal place for a mild work day although it may not be the best for a serious academic lock-in.

So true, Lothian Buses

Dugald Stewart

Dugald Stewart is so modest, so humble in its study spot options. There’s a little unflashy cluster of tables and chairs on the ground floor for you to study in a room of no more than two other people at any given time. Cool, calm, and deserted. The toilets are also really nice, FYI.

School of PPLS minimalism

Wellbeing Centre

A fitting place to take your studies, with booths on the ground floor that are cool if you don’t mind the slight zoo-exhibit quality of being on display to the entirety of Bristo Square.

Still mourning Roxy

Somehow this list doesn’t even scratch the surface of study spots in Edinburgh (sorry to all you STEM students at King’s), but even if you knew every single one, you’ll probably still not find a seat. May the odds be ever in your favour.