Martello Court
Martello Court is a residential building and one of the tallest buildings in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is 64 metres high, with 23 floors, it is in the north-west of the city. It was known as the Terror Tower in the 1970s because of the crime around it. List of tallest buildings and structures in Edinburgh
Colinton
Colinton is a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland situated 3 1⁄2 miles south-west of the city centre. Up until the late 18th century it appears on maps as Collington, it is bordered by Dreghorn to Craiglockhart to the north-east. To the north-west it extends to the south-west to the City Bypass. Bonaly is a subsection of the area on its southern side. Colinton is a designated conservation area. Sited within a steep-sided glen on a convenient fording point on the Water of Leith, expanding from there, Colinton's history dates back to before the 11th century. Close to the Water of Leith is Colinton Parish Church called St Cuthbert's Parish Church, founded as the Church of Halis around 1095 by Elthelred, third son of Malcolm III and Queen Margaret; the current exterior dates from 1907 but the structure dates from 1650. The entrance is rare in Scotland and more common in southern England; the cemetery contains the village war memorial. One unique grave within the cemetery is a Norwegian War Grave; the nearby 15th century Colinton Castle, in the grounds of what is now Merchiston Castle School, was destroyed by Oliver Cromwell during his invasion of Scotland.
Following repair, the castle was subsequently demolished by the artist Alexander Nasmyth in order to create a picturesque ruin. Other notable figures with connections to Colinton include: Robert Louis Stevenson who spent the summers of his childhood at the manse when his grandfather was the village's Parish Minister. A number of innovative Arts and Crafts style cottages were constructed in the village in the early 1900s by the architect Sir Robert Lorimer. Between 1909 and 1915, the War Office constructed Redford Barracks to the east of the village; the barracks represent the largest military installation built in Scotland since Fort George in the Highlands and they provide military accommodation, together with offices and training facilities. As part of the UK government's defence spending review and Dreghorn Barracks are deemed surplus to requirements and earmarked for disposal; the village was the location for mills producing textiles and paper. The Caledonian Railway Company constructed a new spur line connecting Slateford and Balerno in 1874, with a station at Colinton.
This line continued to carry passenger traffic until 1943, closed when the carriage of freight was discontinued in the 1960s. Today, Colinton is a suburb in Edinburgh; the original heart of Colinton is still referred to as "Colinton Village", with small speciality shops and many original buildings remaining intact. The Dell extends along the Water of Leith Walkway from Colinton Parish Church towards Slateford, contains a mixture of mature and ancient woodland, it is a natural habitat for wildlife. The walkway and cycle path pass by original mill buildings and old tunnel that dates back to when the path was part of the local railway line. Spylaw Park is situated within the area. Colinton is served by Bonaly Primary School, Firrhill High School. Merchiston Castle School, east of the village, is an independent all-boys boarding school; the major route to the city centre, Colinton Road, runs from Colinton through Craiglockhart to Holy Corner, a part of Burghmuirhead between Morningside and Bruntsfield.
Along the road are a number of significant Victorian and Edwardian villas, some of which were designed by Edward Calvert. See Transport in EdinburghThe following bus routes, operated by Lothian Buses pass through Colinton village, the surrounding roads: Number 10 Bus — Western Harbour to Bonaly / Torphin Number 16 Bus — Silverknowes terminates at Colinton Number 400 Bus — Fort Kinnaird to Edinburgh Airport Number 45 Bus — Heriot-Watt University Riccarton Campus to Queen Margaret University Musselburgh Campus via South and North bridges Archibald Alison - Scottish didactic and philosophical writer John Allen - eighteenth and nineteenth century political and historical writer Henry Mackenzie - Scottish novelist Lord Cockburn - Scottish judge and biographer John MacWhirter - Scottish landscape painter. Calum Elliot - Professional footballer James Gillespie - merchant and philanthropist Fred Goodwin - former CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland, bought former house of Graeme Souness Mo Johnston - Professional footballer and manager Loudon MacQueen Douglas FRSE - antiquarian and author Margaret Hope MacPherson - crofter and activist.
Gordon Strachan
Gordon David Strachan is a Scottish football manager and former player, the manager of the Scotland national team. Strachan played for Dundee, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Scotland national team, he has managed Coventry City, Southampton and Middlesbrough. In club football, he played 635 league games, scoring a total of 138 goals, playing 21 of 25 career seasons in either the English or Scottish top-flight. In international football Strachan earned 50 caps, scoring five goals and playing in two FIFA World Cup final tournaments, Spain 82 and Mexico 86. Strachan retired from playing in 1997 at age 40, setting a Premier League record for an outfield player. A right-sided midfielder, Strachan made his senior debut in 1974 with Dundee before moving on within Scotland, to spend seven seasons at Aberdeen, he first played for the Scotland national team in 1980. While at Aberdeen Strachan won multiple domestic league and cup honours in the early 1980s, as well as the 1982–83 European Cup Winners' Cup and 1983 European Super Cup.
Moving to England, Strachan won the 1985 FA Cup Final in five seasons with Manchester United, before spending the next seven seasons as club captain at Leeds, winning the 1989–90 Second Division and 1991–92 First Division league titles. He played his last game for Scotland in 1992 while still at Leeds, moved to Coventry in 1995 for a final three seasons, as a player-coach. Strachan became full-time manager of Coventry when the incumbent Ron Atkinson was appointed as director of football. After five years in the role, he was sacked in 2001 when Coventry were relegated from the top-flight for the first time in 34 years. However, he returned to the Premier League with Southampton and guided the "Saints" to the 2003 FA Cup Final, where they lost 1–0 to Arsenal. Strachan resigned from Southampton in 2004 and took a 16-month break from management before returning to Scotland to become manager of Celtic in the Scottish Premier League. With Celtic, he achieved three successive league titles and other domestic cup wins, before resigning in May 2009 after failing to win a fourth title.
Five months he became manager of Middlesbrough in the English Championship, but left the club after an unsuccessful 12 months in the job. Strachan was named as FWA Footballer of the Year for the 1990–91 season while at Leeds, he was named Manager of the Year in Scotland several times by writers and players while at Celtic. In 2007, Strachan was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame, he is the father of Craig Strachan and Gavin Strachan footballers. Born and raised in Muirhouse, Strachan supported Hibernian as a boy, his father, worked as a scaffolder, his mother, worked at a whisky distillery. At age 15, he damaged his vision playing football on the school playground when a pen in his pocket became lodged in his right eye, he was offered a contract by Hibernian manager Eddie Turnbull, but his father decided against the offer after stating the club did not pay sufficient expenses for footwear. Strachan began his career with Dundee, having decided to sign with the Scottish club at age 14.
In joining the club, he rejected an approach from Manchester United, reasoning he had a better chance to establish himself in the first team at Dens Park. His natural talent was apparent and he earned a reputation as an outstanding player in the second team, twice winning the Scottish Reserve Player of the Year Award, he made his mark as an 18-year-old when he outplayed Alan Ball in a friendly with Arsenal in August 1975. Strachan became a regular player in the 1975–76 season, the inaugural season of the Scottish Premier Division, featuring in 17 of the club's 36 league matches; however David White's "Dee" were relegated on the last day of the season after rivals Dundee United edged ahead on goal average with an unlikely draw with champions Rangers. New boss Tommy Gemmell handed 19-year-old Strachan the captaincy for the 1976–77 First Division campaign, he remains the youngest player to have captained Dundee. However, the club failed to shine in the lower divisions, Strachan lost his first team place early in the 1977–78 season following a drinking session with Jimmy Johnstone.
Strachan decided to leave Dundee. His last match for Dundee was on 26 October 1977 in a 6–0 defeat in the League Cup to Queen of the South at Palmerston Park, which Strachan described in his autobiography as "embarrassing". Strachan was signed by Aberdeen manager Billy McNeill in November 1977 for a fee of £50,000 plus Jim Shirra. Poor form and niggling injuries made 1977–78 a poor season for Strachan, though the "Dons" went on to finish second in the Scottish Premier Division, he was not picked for the 1978 Scottish Cup Final defeat to Rangers. McNeill left the Pittodrie Stadium for Celtic in summer 1978, Alex Ferguson was appointed as the new manager. Strachan played at Hampden Park in the 1979 League Cup defeat to Rangers, set up Duncan Davidson for the game's opening goal. Though the 1978–79 campaign was a disappointment, Aberdeen went on to win the league title in 1979–80 after closing a ten-point deficit over Celtic with a late run that included two victories at Celtic Park, they again reached the League Cup Fi
Canonmills
Canonmills is a district of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It lies to the south east of the Royal Botanic Garden at Inverleith, east of Stockbridge and west of Bellevue, in a low hollow north of Edinburgh's New Town; the area was a loch, drained in three phases in the 18th and 19th centuries, disappearing in 1865. A small village, Canonmills owes its origins and name, in the same way as the Canongate, to the Augustinian canons of Holyrood Abbey who operated a mill here from the 12th century, it is shown pictorially as a cluster of buildings, three of which have waterwheels, on the 1560 Siege of Leith map. At a period a mill lade from the Water of Leith reached the area via the village of Silvermills to the east; the Incorporation of Baxters in the Canongate were compelled by law to have their corn ground at the Canonmills, during demolition work carried out in 1964 to enlarge a local filling station a stone was unearthed bearing the inscription, "The Baxters Land 1686". It is now incorporated into a wall of the Canonmills Service Station.
The only surviving building of the original village is a pantile-roofed former mill building on the corner of Eyre Place and Canon Street. Until c.1995 further remnants existed on Eyre Terrace. The George V Park, occupying the old Canon Mill Haugh to the south east, used to be a popular sporting arena. With the final draining of the loch in 1865 it became the site of the Royal Patent Gymnasium, described by James Grant as "...one of the most remarkable and attractive places of its kind in Edinburgh", created "at considerable expense for the purpose of affording healthful and exhilarating recreation in the open air". The principal feature was the circular Great Sea Serpent which could seat 600 rowers embarking and disembarking at four separate piers. Other attractions were the Self-Adjusting Trapeze enabling up to 100 patrons at a time to swing by the hands "over a distance of 130 feet from one trapeze to the other", the Giant's Sea-Saw, 100 feet long by 7 wide, which could elevate 200 people to a height of 50 feet, the Patent Velocipede Paddle Merry-go-Round propelled by the feet of 600 passengers.
At the southern edge of the Park, in the cliff-like drop from the streets of the New Town, lies the northern end of the Scotland Street Tunnel which once provided an underground rail link to Canal Street Station on the site of present-day Waverley Station. The tunnel, built under Scotland Street in 1847 by the Edinburgh and Newhaven Railway, is three quarters of a mile long and descends a 1 in 27 gradient. Trains descended the tunnel under gravity, controlled by two men operating handbrakes in two front wagons. Robert Louis Stevenson described the appearance in his'Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes': "The Scotland Street Station, the sight of the train shooting out of its dark maw with the two guards upon the brake, the thought of its length and the many ponderous edifices and thoroughfares above, were things of paramount impressiveness to a young mind." For the return journey, 150mm steel cables were attached to the trains which were pulled up the slope by a stationary winding-engine at the Waverley end.
The bridge linking Canonmills to Inverleith Row was built in 1767, its single arch replaced by three arches in 1840. It was widened in 1896; the deep elliptical crescent of Eyre Crescent was built around Canonmills House, replaced in 1880-1 by a United Presbyterian Church which in turn has been replaced by a modern medical centre. A little lodge-type building on Rodney Street is the old school, where Sir Walter Scott's father was educated; the sculptor Stewart McGlashen had his granite yard at Canonmills Bridge and lived opposite, at 5 Brandon Street. Bartholomew's Chronological map of Edinburgh Photos of Canonmills Google Map Royal Patent Gymnasium
Craigmillar
Craigmillar, from the Gaelic Creag Maol Ard, meaning'High Bare Rock', is an area of Edinburgh, about 3 miles south east of the city centre, with Duddingston to the north and Newcraighall to the east. Until around 2008, the area consisted of inter-war and post-war public housing schemes, ranging from private bungalows to Edinburgh Council-owned high rise tower blocks; the housing scheme at Niddrie Mains was created through the Housing Act of 1924, with lands bought from the Wauchope Estate. The area was designed and laid out by the City Architect, Ebenezer James MacRae from 1927; the Craigmilllar estate below the castle, was planned in 1936. Despite the relative modernity of most of the housing in the area, the settlement of Craigmillar itself is old, contains Craigmillar Castle, begun in the late 14th or early 15th century, occupied until the early 18th century. In 1660, the Craigmillar estate was bought by Sir John Gilmour; the City of Edinburgh Council is now well into a regeneration programme which has seen the demolition of the earlier estates and the area has benefited from many initiatives aimed at tackling the social deprivation that has characterised the area for many years.
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw seven breweries being built in what was open country at Craigmillar/Duddingston, concentrated in a small area beside the railway line and taking advantage of the local aquifers providing excellent water for brewing. The first of these was the Craigmillar Brewery of William Co.. Ltd built in 1886 and followed within a few years by Andrew Drybrough's brewery called the Craigmillar Brewery, the Duddingston Brewery built by Pattisons Ltd, bought by Robert Deuchar Ltd in 1899 following Pattisons' liquidation, the North British Brewery, taken over by Murray's in 1927 becoming known as Murray's No. 2 Brewery, Maclauchlan's Castle Brewery, Raeburn's New Craigmillar Brewery and Paterson's Pentland Brewery, all opening in 1901. These breweries stopped brewing at various times in the 1960s, but Drybrough's survived for several years ceasing brewing in January 1987. In 2009 The National Library of Scotland released maps for the Craigmillar Area Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 Sheet IV SW, 1909 Shows detail of Niddrie House, Icehouse, Niddrie Stone 1909.
Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 Sheet IV SW, 1938 Shows the development of Niddrie Main 1938. Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 - Air Photos - Sheet NT 27 SE 1946 and NT 37 SW, 1946 Shows the aerial photos from 1946 Other georeferenced historical maps of Craigmillar from the mid 18th to the mid 20th centuries Openstreetmap volunteers completed Openstreetmap Craigmillar in January 2009 Craigmillar saw riots in the 1980s, amid complaints about the lack of facilities in the area. Both the library and Arts Centre were won by grassroots-based community action trying to tackle the area's social problems. One such venture was the Craigmillar Festival Society, active from 1962 until 2002; the area had a large concrete sculpture/play-structure, created by artist Jimmy Boyle called Gulliver, The Gentle Giant that cares and shares. It was built for the Craigmillar Festival Society in 1976, demolished in 2011 when the Niddrie Burn was re-routed through Hunter's Hall Park; the University of Edinburgh has playing fields in this area, including one of the oldest modern-style shinty fields in Scotland.
Gulliver was considered a geoglyph. An ambitious plan to re-develop parts of Craigmillar is underway; the Scottish Government's "Green Quarter Plan" proposes the creation of several new parks and woodland areas throughout the Craigmillar area. The "Green Quarter Plan" is being undertaken by the Parc life development company, they propose the development of 3,200 affordable houses to rent and improved learning and leisure facilities for young people. One of the few retained buildings of significance is "The White House" former public house, an Art Deco listed building, restored with gallery space inside in 2011. Craigmillar is served by Lothian Buses service 42 which runs from Portobello to Davidsons Mains, service 2 from The Jewel, Asda, to The Gyle Shopping Centre, service 14 from Greendykes to Muirhouse, service 21 from The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to The Gyle Shopping Centre, & service 30 from Musselburgh to Clovenstone, Wester Hailes; the area was once served by a local railway from Duddingston & Craigmillar railway station on the Edinburgh Suburban and Southside Junction Railway.
The station closed in 1962, but local pressure groups are campaigning to have the line re-opened as an extension of the forthcoming Edinburgh Tram Network. Following a petition submitted to the Scottish Parliament in 2007, the proposal was rejected in 2009 by transport planners due to anticipated cost. Helen Duncan, the last woman to be imprisoned under the 1735 Witchcraft Act, lived in Craigmillar. Filmmaker Bill Douglas was raised in nearby Newcraighall; the former Craigmillar Primary School building houses a mural by the painter John Maxwell, trained by Fernand Léger and was a fellow student of Marc Chagall in Paris. There is a fine example of 20th century stained glass by Sadie Maclellan in Robin Chapel, in the Thistle Foundation, a housing complex for disabled people in the centre of Craigmillar. Local mother Helen Crummy was instrumental in the founding of the Craigmillar Festival Society in 1962; the noted Conservative politician, Sir Ian Gilmour, was given a life peerage by John Major in 1992, becoming Baron Gilmour of Craigmillar, of Craigmillar in the District of the City of Edinburgh, of which his family were, for several hundred years, the feudal superiors.
Craigmillar community site Craigmillar Partnership Crai
Alnwickhill
Alnwickhill is a suburb of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is on the southern edge of the city four miles from the city centre, it neighbours the areas of Kaimes. The area is now residential, but was the site of Backside Lee Farm until the 1970s when the land was sold to Crudens for development
Cowgate
The Cowgate is a street in Edinburgh, located about 550 yards southeast of Edinburgh Castle, within the city's World Heritage Site. The street is part of the lower level of Edinburgh's Old Town, which lies below the elevated streets of South Bridge and George IV Bridge; the Cowgate can be quite gloomy and dark in sections. It meets the Grassmarket at Holyrood Road to the east; the street's name is recorded from 1428, in various spellings, as Cowgate and in 1498 as Via Vaccarum. It is derived from the medieval practice of herding cattle down the street on market days. Gate is a Scots language word for "way" or "road", a cognate of similar words in other Germanic languages. Describing the street in the 1581 edition of their atlas of major cities Civitates orbis terrarum, Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg said the Cow Gate was where "...the noble families and city councillors have their residences, together with other princely houses and palaces most handsome to behold."Between the mid 18th and mid 20th centuries the Cowgate was a poor overcrowded slum area.
In the 19th century it was home to much of the city's Irish immigrant community and nicknamed "Little Ireland". In the evening of 7 December 2002, a fire started above the Belle Angele nightclub off the Cowgate, it swept up through the eight storey structure to other buildings on Cowgate and above it on South Bridge. The complicated nature of the buildings, with narrow alleys and entrances from the same building onto streets at different heights, complicated efforts to fight the fire, was called a "rabbit warren" by Lothian and Borders Fire Brigade, it took. 150 people were forced to flee the flames. The University of Edinburgh School of Informatics on South Bridge was badly damaged. Little current research data was lost in the fire due to offsite backups. In 2005 work began on a new building, the Informatics Forum, occupied mid-2008. Destroyed was the Gilded Balloon, a major venue for the Edinburgh Fringe, offices for both the Gilded Balloon and Underbelly venues housed in an 1823 listed warehouse by Thomas Hamilton.
The Gilded Balloon moved to premises in Teviot Row House. The First Minister of Scotland appealed to the UNESCO World Heritage Fund for money to assist in the redevelopment of the site; the site has been temporarily used as a Fringe venue again, becoming the C venues' Urban Garden during the 2007 and 2008 Festival. The gap site was acquired by the property developer Whiteburn, who were granted planning permission in January 2009 to build a new mixed-use development using the site and existing adjacent buildings. Construction began in 2012 and was completed in late 2013; the main components of the development are a small Sainsbury's supermarket, a 259-bed Ibis Hotel, restaurants, a nightclub and a vennel. In 2016, protesters camped out in Cowgate to prevent the building of luxury hotel by Jansons Property; the protesters argued that the development might damage Edinburgh's UNESCO status, would displace homeless people, would remove a medical facility for the homeless and would block the natural light of the Edinburgh Central Library.
MSP Andy Wightman offered his support to the campaign. The oldest building lies to the west end, but is sandwiched between other larger buildings and missed, it stands on the south side of the street, just west of where George IV Bridge crosses over the Cowgate. This is the Magdalen Chapel, a 16th-century almshouse chapel built with monies left by Michael MacQueen in 1537. Work was completed in 1544 and it operated as a hospital almshouse under the control of MacQueen's widow, Janet Rynd until her death in 1553, when it passed to the Incorporation of Hammermen; the entrance as seen from the Cowgate was rebuilt in 1613. The spire was added in 1620. St Cecilia's Hall by Robert Mylne was built for the Musical Society of Edinburgh in 1763, it now houses a small Georgian concert space and an important collection of early keyboard instruments owned by Edinburgh University. St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church stands at the east end of the Cowgate, it dates from 1772 but was extensively remodelled in 1929 following demolition of the tenements along the north side of the Cowgate which obscured its frontage.
Both the National Library of Scotland and the Edinburgh Central Library have their lower floors on the Cowgate, with public access being on George IV Bridge above. Janet Boyman, executed for witchcraft on 29 December 1572. James Connolly, Irish revolutionary was born in 1868 at number 107 Cowgate. Football club Hibernian F. C. was founded by congregants of St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in the Cowgate in August 1875 - the club was based at St Patrick's until the early 1890s, cups the club won from this period are still displayed in the church. Canon John Gray and priest was a curate at St. Patrick's. Venerable Margaret Sinclair lived at Blackfriars Street, just off the Cowgate. Map showing the Cowgate Chapter XXXI - The Cowgate in Old and New Edinburgh by James Grant, published by Cassell in the 1880s'SoCo' proposal for the Cowgate fire gap site
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Media related to Muirhouse, Edinburgh at Wikimedia Commons
