Est. 2016, Chandler’s Close
A room lit by you
Lanthorn began in 2016 in a former chandler’s workshop off the Canongate, in Edinburgh’s Old Town. Our founder, Elspeth Mair, had spent twelve years lighting stages.
Our story
Elspeth came to think that the most important lighting decision most people make happens at home, at dusk, when a room stops being lit by the sky and starts being lit by you. Theatre had taught her that a single low source of warm light changes how people talk, how long they stay and what they remember. A candle is the oldest version of that.
A lanthorn is the old word for a lantern, from the thin panes of horn that lamps used before glass was cheap. Horn doesn’t shine. It glows. That is what we want from a candle: a light that makes a room feel smaller and warmer, and a scent you notice when you walk back into it rather than one that follows you around.
We pour every candle by hand in batches of forty-eight, in a blend of British rapeseed wax and Perthshire beeswax. The vessels are slip-cast stoneware, made for us in Stoke-on-Trent and glazed in four colours, one for each collection. Each scent is composed with an independent perfumer in London and named for a place or an hour in Scotland: a close, a shore, a hill, a hearth.
Edinburgh’s summer dusk lasts for hours. In December the lamps come on at half past three. We make candles for both.
No. 01–04 What we do, and what we don’t claim
Four things we hold ourselves to
- 01
Eight candles, not eighty.
We would rather make a few candles very well than chase a new scent every season. A new candle has to earn its place against the eight we already make.
- 02
We say what’s in them.
The wax blend, the fragrance load, the wick and every fragrance allergen are on each product page and each label, in plain words. Safety Data Sheets are yours for the asking.
- 03
The pot outlasts the candle.
Our stoneware is glazed inside so it can be cleaned and used again, and our house scent comes as a refill that drops into an emptied 400 g vessel.
- 04
No words we can’t stand behind.
Every candle is an open flame and makes a little soot. We won’t call ours “clean” or “non-toxic”. We’ll size the wick carefully, test it properly and tell you how to burn it well.
Ten years on one close
- 2016
Elspeth pours the first Lamplighter in a rented workshop off the Canongate, forty-eight at a time in borrowed pans.
- 2017
Canongate and Haar join it. The workshop moves to Chandler’s Close, where every candle is still poured.
- 2018
Bothy, the first candle for The Hearth. Our wick trimmer and snuffer arrive the same winter.
- 2019
Ling, for the heather on the Pentlands in August.
- 2020
The Library Set: all of our candles as votives, so people can choose at home.
- 2024
The first refill: Lamplighter, in a sleeve that drops into an emptied 400 g vessel.
- 2025
Rowan, poured once a year each September.
- 2026
Machair and Cask, and eight candles in all.