Nine Strollers met at the Hermitage of Braid
for a stroll round the park, though we did pick up another couple of wayward
Strollers at the Paddock who had gone to the wrong gate to start the walk.
We began by going to the walled garden and
Doocot. Part of the walled garden has been terraced with new stone dykes and
seating areas as well as being designed to attract insects with the planting
and ‘hotel’.It took 1200 volunteers over 2 years to do all the work. The Doocot
is the second largest in Edinburgh, the one at Inch House on Gilmerton Road is
larger, but both hosted around 2000 pigeons which were used for food.
We passed by the back of the big houses at
the Grange and made our way down to Blackford Pond where we saw a family of swans
serenely gliding along. The pond is not natural but was created in the
Victorian era and used for curling. From there we made our way up to the
Blackford Observatory where we stopped for a lunch break.
The Observatory opened in 1896 to replace the
one on Calton Hill and was built by the Earl of Crawford after the government
decided to do away with the role of Scottish Astronomer. It is still in
use today, though more as an administration and scientific centre for Astronomy
as the telescopes now being used are in more remote locations like Hawaii and
Australia to avoid light pollution.
We then walked down and past Agassiz Rock
named after the Swiss geologist Louis Agassiz who came here in 1840 to study
the rock formation and put forward his theories on the formation of the rock
structure and the Ice Age.
Following the path along the Braid Burn, we
passed Hermitage House which was designed in 1785 by the famous Scots’
architect John McDougal. He gifted The Hermitage to the City of Edinburgh and it
opened as a park on 10 June 1938. The area is thought to take its name from one
Henri de Brad, who owned the land here in the 12th century, and was
also a Sheriff of Edinburgh.
We finished back where we started at the
‘Toll House’. You once had to pay tolls to travel on the roads into Edinburgh.
The Toll House used to be at the boundary on the side of the Braid Church in
Morningside. When tolls were abolished in 1888, the house was rebuilt here –
look for the number 259 on the lintel at the back of the house. This is now the
Lodge Cafe where a few of us went for light refreshments after the walk.
Our thanks to Drew for arranging the walk on
a dry day and hopefully he will have come up with a venue for October soon.
