Eighteen Strollers met at Haymarket Station
to follow the old railway line from Roseburn to Canonmills and finish at the
Scotland Street Tunnel. A nineteenth Stroller caught up with as we walked. The
weather cleared and it was a fine day for the walk.
It could be described as a historical walk as
we walked past sites of buildings and factories no longer there. Haymarket
station used to be the terminus of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway before the
tunnel was built extending the line to the Waverley in 1846.
Starting off following the tram tracks and
passing the site of the Haymarket Ice Rink which closed in 1978, we joined the
footpath of the old railway line at Roseburn to follow it Trinity and then
Canonmills. The line used to run from Princes Street to Leith with a split at
Craigleith to Barnton.
Craigleith used to be a quarry but is now a
shopping centre. From here we followed the path down past Crewe Toll where
Ferranti used to have a huge presence but the site is a lot smaller and is now
BAE/GEC. The site of the Village Hotel is where Livingston FC started life as
Ferranti FC. For a while it was also the site of Telford College which is now
at Granton. We then passed the site of the McTaggart Mickel builders’ depot
which is now flats, followed by City Park which had been home to
Edinburgh City, Ferranti and Spartans before
being sold for flats. We passed the Parsons Peebles site which was destroyed by
fire and is now also flats.
At Trinity we then followed the Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway line through the Rodney Street Tunnel which had been opened as a footpath in 2009 to finish at the entrance to the Scotland Street Tunnel. This tunnel went all the way from here into Waverley Station. As the train had to go up a steep incline it was attached to a rope to help haul it up. It is now blocked but had been use for growing mushrooms and as car storage depot.
Our thanks to Drew for the walk.
