Walk 297 - Historic Walk Corstorphine - March 2025

On a gorgeous sunny March day twenty four Strollers met at the Old Kirk in Corstorphine with our guides Helen and Karen.

They gave us some information on the history of Corstorphine from the viewpoint of its location between two lochs, Corstorphine and Gogar. They also told us about the important families like the Forresters whose names live on in school names and streets, as well as the trials of witches.

We were then told about Chrystal Macmillan who came from Corstorphine. She has a building at the University of Edinburgh named after her to commemorate all her work as a lawyer, peace advocate, feminist and suffragette, to name a few, as well as being the first female science graduate.

We then spent an interesting thirty minutes in the church with local guides hearing the history of the church and the link with the university searching for older buildings on the site and for crypts under the flagstones.

Back outside we stopped at what at one time was described as Irish Corner due to the Irish labourers who stayed there while working on the canals and railways and looking up at the impish figure on the roof. From here we went to look at the doo’cot which supplied food for the castle which once stood here.

From here we went into St Margaret's Park which was gifted to Corstorphine in 1915 by an American, Christopher Brown, in honour of his wife who came from there.

We finished at the Dower House which is now home to the Corstorphine Trust and has a nice cafe.

Our thanks to our guides, Helen and Karen, as well as the guides at the church and extra local knowledge supplied by Ian Kirkpatrick.

Fingers crossed for good weather for the rest of the year.

Walk 296 - Historic Walk - February 2025

Thirty Three Strollers met up in the Museum at Chambers Street to start a walk based round Edinburgh becoming a Royal Burgh.

It started with the marriage of King Malcolm and Margaret and then their son David becoming king. He had spent many years in England and brought back the idea of burghs from their and how a burgh should be laid out. He also created several mints round Scotland to mint Scottish coins. The first mint was created at Carlisle which was then part of Scotland. Burghs were formed by having a castle at one end raised up in the motte and bailey design with a street running from it, houses and strips of land along either side of the street and a market place. Gladstone’s Land in the High Street is a good example of the width of the plots and land extending behind it.

We also heard about the founding of the early guilds for the bakers, blacksmiths etc. After that we went to Bristo Square to look at a Lord Provost’s lamppost which signified his status then down into Greyfriars Kirk.

From here we moved down to the High Street where we looked at the site of the Butter Tron where butter and cheese was weighed before being sold in the Lawnmarket, at the junction of the High Street and Johnston Terrace. We also heard ghost stories about one of the houses which used to stand here. We then went into Riddles Court to look at how later planning tried to create open spaces for people rather than just buildings pressing against each other.

We finished up at the Mercat Cross with the story of the first fire brigade and the great fire which destroyed a lot of the buildings in 1824 and which lasted for 5 days.

There was a lot more but too much to mention.

Our thanks to our guides Karen and Helen for the walk and for arranging a mild and dry day for it, though it did get a tad wet after we finished

Walk 295 - Haymarket to the Water of Leith Centre at Slateford - January 2025

On a surprisingly mild January day eighteen Strollers met at Haymarket Station for a walk along the Water of Leith path to the centre at Slateford. It was a crisp day, but nowhere near as cold as it had been and it was dry, and some of us felt decidedly overdressed.

We followed the tram tracks along to join the cycle path where we went down the hill to walk along Russell Road to Roseburn Park. The park is looked after by a local support group who have been involved in a lot of improvements in it. We passed the ever name changing rugby stadium of Murrayfield and then past the ice-rink and curling centre before heading along the river. After a slight forgetful moment by the leader of the walk we made a quick U-turn to cross the bridge. This took us to the other side to follow the path past Balgreen bowling and croquet club and the primary school.

From here we crossed the road into Saughton Park and, after a look at the bandstand and gardens, we stopped for a break at the cafe. Surprisingly it was fine to sit out at the picnic tables. After that we walked along Fords Road and crossed the Calder Road to follow the river again to re-cross it and go up past the allotments and cemetery along to our finishing point of the Water of Leith Centre. For some reason no-one wanted to continue the walk and circle back along the canal to Tollcross. 

Our thanks to Drew for arranging the walk and the weather.

Hopefully the weather for the historic walks in February and March will be as good.