Wednesday September 17th 2025
Launch of women's group in Winchburgh
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
The Scottish Women’s Institutes are opening their 12th Edinburgh City and Midlothian region women’s group, offering a well-needed community group to Bonnyrigg.
With over 400 local groups across Scotland and 8,700 women within those groups, Scottish Women’s Institutes creates groups across the country to encourage friendship and community amongst local women 16 and older. This community group allows for women to socialise, take part in activities and provide support for one another.
Launching their 12th Edinburgh and Midlothian based group on October the 11th in Bonnyrigg, this is the organisations attempt to expand their reach by opening a group in Bonnyrigg where they noticed was lacking this type of community outlet.
Membership Lead for Scottish Women’s Institutes, Lyndsey Alexander, explained:
“We are a women’s organisation that has groups all over Scotland, so we currently have over 8,700 members across the nation from the top of Shetland down to the Scottish Borders. The idea is to be really intergenerational and inclusive to all women who want to join.”
Costing £30 for a year to join the organisation with additional costs depending on the certain group, their overall mission is ‘fun, friendship and learning’, creating a social space, a chance for local women to connect and build community, alongside encouraging learning through activities and guest speakers.
Founded back in 1917 by a suffragette, they have kept the same ethos of getting groups of women together to have fun, make friends and take part in activities.
“We very much have the same ethos today. Women get together and they’ll have fun, make friends and do things together, but also maybe they’re learning, it might be a craft, or we might have a speaker or demonstrator come in”.
The organisation consider a few factors when deciding on launching a new group that includes geographical gaps in outreach, such as Bonnyrigg, alongside considering factors on why women in that planned area would want to join.
“There are a few factors that we try to target. One is definitely looking geographically, for example, where are the gaps. We want to be inclusive and accessible to all women, so we need to look at what areas are not serving women. We also look at factors that we know that there is a reason that women might be looking to join a group like this.”
With the goal of being accessible to all women in the country, they are well on their way with over 400 groups scattered across Scotland.
“For example, areas where there’s been lots of new builds. We find that often people move into an area and they’re really keen to find new friends and a community connection but maybe struggle to find ways to do that in the modern world we live in.
“We also find that often people that come along to these new groups are incomers to the area, or perhaps have gone through a big life stage change, such as being recently retired or their children have just started school and have a bit more time for themselves.”
With new build housing areas emerging in Bonnyrigg, and overall Midlothian, such as Carrington View, the Scottish Women’s Institutes saw the need for a women’s community.
Lyndsey explained that friendship is the main positive that develops within the groups, alongside younger and older generations sharing advice and life lessons with one another.
“Some of our members have been with us for 60 years and they’ve had the same friendships for 60 years, which is lovely.
“I think there’s a real need for a wellbeing space for women and having a space where modern life can be set aside to just focus, it could be learning something new, it could be having fun, or whatever bit of the offering you want to have.”
Within Bonnyrigg creating a community space where new build areas have appeared is important to the institutes with Lyndsey and her team aiming to share their ethos to the area that they identified as lacking this sort of community space.
The groups run depending on the wants of each individual community, often creating sub-groups of women who meet when available.
Alongside this, each group is invited to join the national and county body with the organisation hosting larger events throughout the year that act as a ‘meet-up’, offering national level events and competitions alongside Midlothian regional events.
Hosting a launch event at Pitcairn Centre on the 11th of October, Lyndsey explained that they have already received a lot of interest from the Bonnyrigg group.
Aiming to spread their ethos to Bonnyrigg, the launch event will offer free refreshments alongside giving people the chance to make their own tweed broach.
Tweed broaches made at previous launch event
Spreading their clubs into Midlothian and the surrounding regions, a club in Newhaven, and Winchburgh recently opened.
The organisation offers funding and guidance to new groups, supporting them to get set up. Groups can be set up by anyone and anywhere where a group isn’t already existing by contacting the Scottish Women’s Institute.
The new Bonnyrigg group is part of their wider national growth strategy. A primary focus from the organisation is, since Covid lockdowns affected the country’s communities, to open up groups and host events with the aim of spreading friendship and connectivity.
“There are all these women out there who don’t have these opportunities. We’re looking for that community as we all grapple with life going back to normal. So we have opened up all of these new groups that are successful across the country.”
For more information on the new Bonnyrigg group visit their Facebook group here and to register to attend the launch event on the 11th of October click here.
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