Demystifying Death Week 2026
Demystifying Death Week is about shining a light on death, dying and bereavement in Scotland. We are encouraging people to get involved by holding in-person and online events that bring death, dying and bereavement into the limelight.
Demystifying Death Week takes place across Scotland from 4-10 May 2026. If you are organising an event that you’d like us to feature, please get in touch.
Below is a list of events happening across Scotland and online for Demystifying Death Week:
Powers, Puzzles and Prescience: A GLGDGG Escape Room!
Organised by various organisations across Scotland in collaboration with Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief
Going on throughout Demystifying Death Week 2026
Undertaken by teams of 3-5 people, participants are challenged to unravel a super-hero themed mystery by finding clues and solving puzzles. Along the way, teams will encounter family dynamics, future care planning, caring responsibilities and aging in the 21st century.
Since we launched the escape room kit during Demystifying Death Week 2025, dozens of organisations and community groups across Scotland have taken up the challenge and successfully escaped.
For this year’s Demystifying Death Week, over 15 groups across Scotland will be putting their wits to the test. Is your group up to the challenge? It’s not too late to join in!
Find out more, including how to order an escape room pack of your own, here.
Death Cafe - Kilmacolm Library
Organised by Inverclyde Libraries Death Cafe and Ardgowan Hospice
Tuesday 26th May
Kilmacolm Library from 10am-12pm
This activity is open to the public.
This session of the monthly Death Cafe will have a Demystifying Death focus, with resources from Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief available to support discussion.
Come along and chat about life and death in a relaxed, informal setting with a cup of tea.
Image credit: Kilmacolm Community Centre
May Poetry Workshop
Organised by St Columba’s Hospice Care - Education, Research and Creative Arts Team
Wednesday 20 May 2026, 2-3pm
St Columba’s Hospice, Art and Drama Studio, 15 Boswall Road Edinburgh EH5 3RW
This event is open to the public. Please register in advance.
This poetry workshop is part of Demystifying Death Week and Creativity and Wellbeing Week.
An opportunity to explore themes of mortality, grief and life through poetry. This session offers a supportive space for reflection, expression and creative wellbeing. This workshop will be facilitated by our dramatherapist, Sally McRae.
You are invited to join us in writing, sharing your own poems or simply listening to others. No experience is needed; all are welcome to participate in this guided experience.
This is a free but ticketed event. Light refreshments will be provided.
Find out more and book your place here.
Sacred Remembrance Ceremony: Guided Breathwork & Sound Journey
Organised by Jo Myles Yoga
Sunday, 10 May, 3pm to 5pm
Jo Myles Yoga, 16 Bellfield Street, Portobello EH15
This event is open to the public. Please register in advance.
Jo Myles and Loretta Dunn invite you to a candlelit ceremony of remembrance and healing—honour loved ones, reflect, release, restore.
You are warmly invited to a sacred, candlelit remembrance ceremony—an evening to honour loved ones who have passed, to tend to grief or change, and to reconnect with love, memory, and peace.
In a softly held space with flowers, candles, incense, and grounding music, we will gather in ceremony and be gently guided through a heart-led practice of reflection and release. This is a supportive, non-pressured space where you are welcome exactly as you are.
What we’ll do together
- Sacred opening and intention setting
- Invitation to welcome the spirit and presence of your loved one into the space
- A guided letter-writing ritual (you’ll write a letter to your loved one)
- A channeled/guided message of release and blessing
- Restorative breathwork and a sound bath journey led by Jo
- Closing ritual to ground and integrate
Afterwards, you’re warmly welcome to stay for refreshments and cake, and—if it feels right—to share or connect in community.
Who is this for?
This event is for anyone who would like to:
- honour someone they love
- mark an anniversary, transition, or milestone
- gently process grief, longing, or change
- receive calm, comfort, and community support
Find out more and book your place here.
Demystifying Death Week at Borders Hospital
Organised by NHS Borders Bereavement Coordinator
4-10 May
These activities will take place in the Margaret Kerr Unit at Borders Hospital, and in Galashiels
These events are open to the public.
The Bereavement team at the Margaret Kerr Unit at Borders Hospital will be running a range of activities for staff and for the public as part of Demystifying Death Week.
For the public, there will be some arts and crafts sessions - pebble painting and tile making, with a focus on discussions around death, dying and bereavement. The team will also be running a music-based activity, traditional ceilidh style with poetry, stories and song. The team will also be running the Powers, Puzzles and Prescience escape room at a venue in Galashiels.
For staff, one of the unit’s medics will be doing a grand round talk to other hospital staff, and the Occupational Therapist is going to prepare a spotlight on her role in palliative care.
There will be an information stand in the hospital foyer staffed by a representative from Scottish Grief Cafes and Annabel Howell from Children’s Hospices Across Scotland.
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