About the Trust

Legal Information

The Trust is a company limit by guarantee. It is a charity registered in Scotland with registration number 
SC013784 


Current Trustees 
Prof A.Lawrence 
Prof E.I. Robson
Prof J.Dunlop
Prof G.S.Wright
Mr I.Murray, M.P.
Mr T. O'Connor


Officers of the Trust
Trust Secretary  Dr C. Davenhall
Independent Examiner  Mrs J.M.Stevenson, FCA
Solicitors Morton-Fraser LLP

Email contact
You can contact the Trust via roetrust-at-gmail.com. This is
monitored by the Trust secretary, Clive Davenhall, and the Trust Chairman, Andy Lawrence.
Origin of the Trust

The scientific, technological, and teaching activities of the Observatory have been supported for over two hundred years by a mixture of the University of Edinburgh and a sequence of Government bodies - most recently the Science and Technologies Facilities Council. By the early 1980s there was a keenness to undertake public outreach as well, and a growing realisation of the importance of protecting the heritage value of the ROE buildings and archives. The Trust was formed as a method to take forward these ambitions. The Visitor Centre was opened in 198x, and was a great success. After some time it evolved away from permanent exhibitions and a "drop in" style of centre, and towards the current "events" based model, with schools visits, public talks, external events, and so on.

Initially the Visitor Centre was run by employees of the Trust, but this ceased when the new UK Astronomy Technology Centre, created in 1999, took operational responsibility. Today the Visitor Centre runs through the efforts of these core ATC staff co-ordinating largely volunteer efforts of both University and ATC staff. The Trust re-focused on a sequence of one-off outreach and heritage related activities. In recent years, this was becoming harder to maintain as Trust funds dwindled. Currently the Trust is entering a phase of becoming more pro-active about seeking to increase the Trust funds, and clarifying the projects that could be helped by potential supporters.


Purpose of the Trust

The goals of the Trust are
  • To promote and encourage public knowledge of and interest in Scotland in astronomy and related branches of science by establishing, organising, managing and monitoring public science exhibition centres and other related facilities at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh and elsewhere;

  • To establish, form, hold, own, maintain and manage collections, exhibitions, recordings and studies of objects of scientific, historical or other interest in astronomy or any related branches of science and to make arrangements with owners and others to acquire these or otherwise to protect these from injury, loss or destruction.