The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society
The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society - or RSCDS - was formed in  Glasgow in 1923 to help preserve and revive interest in traditional scottish dance and music.  After that, branches formed rapidly across Scotland, the UK and  further afield, until there are now over 160 RSCDS branches worldwide, as well as hundreds more affiliated clubs - wherever you go, you are likely to find a Scottish country dancing group somewhere nearby. 

Today there are literally thousands of dances in the Scottish dancing repertoire - many traditional dances were collected painstakingly over the years by Society members to prevent them being lost to memory, and published to help preserve them and the tunes associated with them.  And dances using and evolving the traditional steps and formations are still being written today by dancers across the world.

 Cheltenham Branch

Cheltenham Branch was formed in 1958, so recently celebrated our Golden Anniversary.  Throughout that time dancers in Cheltenham have helped to maintain and to develop the traditions of the style of dancing which has been part of the Scottish heritage for hundreds of years.

We are lucky to have several experienced teachers in Cheltenham Branch, trained by the RSCDS, who run a range of classes throughout the year, open to members and visitors alike.  Many of our members have attended the Summer School run every year by the RSCDS at St Andrews in Scotland, or weekend or day schools as near as Oxford and Bristol or as far away as Japan and New Zealand!

There are a number of affiliated Scottish dancing clubs within our area, and our neighbouring RSCDS Branches are based in Birmingham, Oxfordshire, Bristol and Herefordshire.


Contact for Cheltenham Branch:  Margaret Winterbourne, 3 Amaranth Way, Up Hatherley, Cheltenham GL51 3YU
                                         tel:   01242-863238  
                                     email:  cheltrscds@hotmail.com