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5 Best Swimming Pools In Edinburgh and Lothian
Five pools in our records for an area that runs from the West Lothian towns, through the city, and out along the East Lothian coast — and the five land in three distinct places rather than spreading evenly. The western pair is Xcite Whitburn and Xcite Linlithgow Leisure Centre. The city has Royal Commonwealth Pool and Clambers and Wester Hailes Education Centre. Dunbar Leisure Pool is out east on its own. All five carry an indoor flag and none carries an outdoor one, which for this climate is no surprise at all.
Top swimming pools in Edinburgh and Lothian
Showing 1–5 of 5
Swimming PoolsXcite Whitburn
Swimming PoolsRoyal Commonwealth Pool and Clambers
Swimming PoolsXcite Linlithgow Leisure Centre
Swimming PoolsDunbar Leisure Pool
Swimming PoolsWester Hailes Education Centre
Where you live effectively makes the choice for you here, because the three groups do not overlap. What is worth knowing is that they are not equivalent: Royal Commonwealth Pool and Clambers is a major facility with more attached to it than a lane pool, while the Xcite pair and Dunbar Leisure Pool are local centres serving their own towns. If you are travelling into the city anyway, the big pool is worth planning round. If you are not, your local one is the right answer.
Swimming Pools in Edinburgh and Lothian: FAQs
Five entries for the whole area — is that everything?
It is everything our records currently hold, and it is thinner than the population of this area would lead you to expect, so read it as a partial picture rather than a full account. Council pools in particular turn up patchily in data of this kind. If your nearest town is not represented here, that is much more likely to be a gap on our side than an absence of swimming where you live.
We are in West Lothian. What are our options?
Xcite Whitburn and Xcite Linlithgow Leisure Centre are the two western entries, and they are close enough in role that the deciding factor is which one your day already passes. Both sit indoors, so neither is weather-dependent. Families out that way rarely need to consider the city pools unless they are heading in for something else and want to fold a swim into the trip.
What suits a young child rather than a swimmer?
Look for the pools built around leisure water rather than lanes — Dunbar Leisure Pool carries the description in its name, and the city's largest facility has more than a single pool to it. A serious lane pool is a frustrating place to take a three-year-old, however good it is. Our records do not list what each site actually contains, so confirm with the pool before committing a whole morning.
Does the coast make any difference here?
Not to the pools themselves, since all five are indoors, but it changes how you use them. Out at the eastern end the sea is an option in summer and emphatically not in winter, which makes an indoor pool the reliable half of a coastal day. In the city, swimming competes with everything else on offer rather than standing in for the outdoors.