On a breezy but bright day 23 Strollers met
at the Water of Leith Centre at the foot of the Lanark Road to walk to the Colinton
Tunnel via the canal and the Water of Leith.
Some Strollers took advantage of the meeting
place for a coffee or tea and to use the facilities.
The Water of Leith Conservation Trust was formed
in 1988 and organises over 240 clean ups of the river each year with an aim of
protecting the river and its environs as well as running education sessions
and liaising with Edinburgh Council.
A few of us declined the invitation to climb
the 90 steps up to the aqueduct and followed the road up the pedestrian bridge
crossing the Lanark Road where we met the others who had braved the heights of
the aqueduct and followed the Union Canal for a short distance.
From here we followed the path along the
route of what was once the Balerno Branch railway. It was opened to passenger
and freight traffic in 1874, but was aimed mainly at serving the many mills
that used to be on the river. At its peak 20 trains a day ran in both directions
and passenger traffic grew with the expansion of the town and also day trippers
at the weekend. Passenger traffic was stopped in 1943 and freight in in 1967. A
proposal was made to make the old route a footpath and cycleway but it took
till 1980 for it to happen. This involved reopening the Colinton Tunnel which
had been bricked up and putting in lighting.
As we approached the tunnel, we were
serenaded by a musician who seemed to be using the acoustics of the tunnel to
practice his saxophone playing. The art work in the tunnel is based on Robert
Louis Stevenson’s poem ‘From a Railway Carriage’. With the words of the poem on
one side of the tunnel being linked by artwork to murals on the other wall
depicting the lines of the poem. The artwork has been created by various groups
from professional artists to school and community groups.
Go to the Project’s website at www.colintontunnel.org.uk and view some of the YouTube videos from the links on the
Tunnel’s Home page, for example the STV News Broadcast from October 2020.
We then stopped in Spylaw Park for a nice
relaxing lunch, where the house that used to be home to James Gillespie still stands,
but is now flats. He built his fortune on snuff and tobacco and when he died he
bequeathed his money to build a hospital and school for the poor.
After lunch we then headed back through the tunnel and then down to the path by the Water of Leith to follow it back to our starting place.
Our thanks to Alistair B for arranging the
walk and for such good weather to go with it. Hopefully June will be as nice.
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