Student Venues: Getting Active

Alien Rock
8 Pier Pl, Edinburgh
Scotland’s first dedicated indoor climbing centre, Alien Rock offers training from beginners up and the space to learn skills safely, indoors and away from the harsh realities of the Scottish weather. Alien One holds a large selection of roped climbing for all levels, while Alien Bloc nearby provides a bouldering centre with low walls and no ropes.

Avertical World
7-11 Blinshall St, Dundee
Avertical World is your Dundee bouldering hub, with regular classes and open sessions. Right in the centre of the city, you can even nip out of uni in between lectures for a quick climbing sesh.

Edinburgh International Climbing Arena
1 Ratho Quarry, Edinburgh
Europe’s largest indoor climbing wall is situated at Ratho, just outside Edinburgh, and offers coaching for all ages alongside literally hundreds of roped routes and multiple rocks for practising your bouldering. You can hire everything you need to get started on site – remember it’s basically outdoors, so if you’re planning on climbing at any time but the height of summer, take warm clothes.

The Factory Skatepark
15 Balunie Dr, Dundee
An indoor skatepark with wooden features including a bowl, hips, rhythm section and rails. None of you daredevils though, safety comes first here and helmets must be worn by all skaters.

Glasgow Climbing Academy
124 Portman St, Glasgow
The Climbing Academy offers state of the art indoor bouldering facilities on Glasgow’s Southside, membership is only £10 for life, and their Movement and Technique beginners bouldering course is ideal for people who lack either good movement or technique. They're here to help you get up and moving.

Glasgow Ski and Snowboard Centre
16 Dumbreck Rd, Glasgow
An extremely highly regarded snowsports centre, Glasgow Ski and Snowboard Centre has won the award of best club at the English Alpine Championships five years in a row. If that’s not reason enough to win you over, then what will it actually take?!

Go Ape
Aberfoyle, Stirling; Crathes Castle, Banchory; Glentress Forest, Peebles
Live out your childhood fantasies of Tarzan or Endor life with a treetop adventure featuring rope courses, zip lines and Segways in three forest locations across Scotland – Aberfoyle, Crathes Castle and Glentress Forest, each within driving distance of Glasgow, Aberdeen or Edinburgh respectively – where you can retreat for team, family or solo adventures.

Gravity
130 Dundee St, Edinburgh; Intu Braehead, Glasgow
Jump, jump, jump, jump around at one of Gravity’s two Scottish locations in Edinburgh and Glasgow, where trampolining isn’t just for kids. No more jumping the fence in your back garden for a quick shot on your neighbour’s trampoline while they’re out, book in for an open jump or a summer pass at Gravity instead and bounce to your heart’s content.

Kelvingrove Skatepark
Parkgrove Terrace, Glasgow
Situated in Glasgow’s massive Kelvingrove Park, this skatepark even has a little bit of The Skinny in it as our Film Editor actually helped build it. It’s not just writing we’re good at over here, we build shit too.

Laggan Wolftrax
Laggan Forest, Perthshire
Fancy a bit of light mountain biking through the Scottish countryside? Laggan Wolftrax is a single-track mountain bike centre, with over 20 miles of purpose-built trails winding through Laggan Forest. Enjoy the views and get some exercise at the same time – pretty nice.

Midlothian Snowsports Centre
Biggar Rd, Edinburgh
The Midlothian Snowsports Centre at Hillend stars Europe's longest dry ski slope and offers the chance to practice your shredding no matter how much snow's lying around.

Playsport Scotland
Stewartfield Way, East Kilbride
This purpose built 90-acre park in beautiful East Kilbride offers a wide range of indoor and outdoor sporting pursuits from Zone 54 – Scotland’s newest indoor skate park – to Air Space, a ‘spring-loaded urban playground’ of over 100 interconnected trampolines. They’ve also got a climbing centre, pool and some inexplicable golf.

Shanti Yoga Glasgow
20 Sandyford St, Glasgow
If you want the full Zen experience, Shanti Yoga offers not only yoga classes but also a variety of therapies, yoga retreats and teacher training. If you’re not familiar with the frankly quite bizarre concept of Reiki, try your first healing session here.

Snow Factor
Kings Inch Rd, Glasgow
Snow Factor at Braehead is the UK's longest indoor ski slope that, oh by the way, is also covered in real snow all year round. Bad for the environment? Almost certainly. Good for practising your snowboarding when it's unseasonably warm outside? You betcha.

Transgression Skatepark
Ocean Terminal, Leith
Originally opened in 2008, Transgression has changed locations twice before moving back to its original home in Ocean Terminal. Drop in for a single session, the minimum of which is an hour, or if you’re thinking about polishing up on your skills, you can book in for some private lessons.

Tribe Yoga
35-36 Haddington Pl, 77 Northumberland St & 1 Porters Walk, Edinburgh
Sweat out your sins in one of Tribe’s hot yoga classes, with three studios across Edinburgh for you to choose from. Rooms are heated between 21-32° Celsius and classes range from Beginners to Advanced Flow Yoga, and everything in between.