TRAVEL | Highlights

Words by DUNCAN J.D. SMITH ONLY IN EDINBURGH ’s capital is home to many attractions, but here are a few lesser-known highlights

1. THE MORNINGSIDE survivor from those far-off days. It is said the then proprietor of The Scotsman, John WILD WEST to mark the spot where, in 1513, Scottish Ritchie Findlay, financed construction of 14 Springvalley Gardens, EH10 4QG forces mustered under James IV before Well Court to provide them with improved marching south to the Battle of Flodden housing. By the 1960s even the tanners Hidden behind busy Morningside Road, and defeat at the hands of the English. had gone and Well Court, with its oriel in an alley down the side of 14 Springvalley windows and imposing clock tower, was Gardens, is something quite unexpected. It converted into modern apartments. Dean is a replica of a street in the American Wild 2. UPS AND DOWNS Cemetery on the opposite side of the river West complete with trading station, livery IN DEAN VILLAGE contains the grave of Dr. Joseph Bell (See: Bell’s Brae, EH4 3BJ stables, cantina and jail. Scotland Magazine #101), the college This most unlikely of Edinburgh streets, Anyone exploring Edinburgh on foot lecturer on whom Arthur Conan Doyle with its incongruous backdrop of tenement will encounter hills and valleys everywhere. based his most famous literary character, blocks, dates to 1995, when furniture Most dramatic is the gorge carved by the Sherlock Holmes. salesman Michael Faulkner wanted Water of Leith as it skirts the northwest some striking storage units for his Great reaches of the city. Nestling on its bank American Indoors furniture company. is Dean Village, a unique community of 3. THE MOVING He commissioned the unusual frontages former watermills and Victorian housing. HISTORY OF THE from some set designers, who had just The village lies at the bottom of Bell’s MERCAT returned to Edinburgh after working at Brae, where in 1128 King David I granted Parliament Square, High Street, EH1 1RF Euro Disney. Unfortunately for Faulkner, the income from several watermills to In Parliament Square, off the Royal Mile, the arrival of IKEA in Edinburgh just four . In those days, the Water stands Edinburgh’s . Scots years later brought about the demise of his of Leith was the most powerful river within for ‘market cross’, this is where in bygone business. Remarkably, the frontages were easy reach of Edinburgh. As many as 11 days markets and fairs were permitted by left intact and their increasingly ramshackle mills operated here until the 19th century, royal decree. A feature of many towns appearance now gives the impression of a providing flour to the city’s burgeoning and villages in Scotland, it acted not only Wild West ghost town. population, and the emblem of the millers’ as a symbol of a burgh’s prosperity but Urbane Morningside is certainly a trade guild (in the form of two bakers’ also its authority, where state and civic strange place for a Wild West street and paddles) can still be seen. proclamations could be read out, public yet conveniently it serves as a reminder By the early 1800s the river was also events marked and punishments dispensed. of when the area really was Edinburgh’s being used by tanners, textile workers and Edinburgh’s Mercat Cross is first frontier land on an ancient route leading blacksmiths, all benefitting from the fact mentioned in a charter of 1365, when to the southwest of Scotland and . that the main route west out of Edinburgh it stood north of its current position in The so-called Bore Stane embedded in the crossed the river here. Construction of the middle of the Royal Mile. Since then perimeter wall of the former Morningside the new Dean Bridge in 1832 was a blow, it has moved around a fair bit. In 1617, Parish Church on Morningside Road is a although the tanners remained and in 1886 it was relocated eastwards to the head

30 Scotland Magazine Edinburgh Highlights | TRAVEL

THIS PAGE: Well Court in Dean Village.

Scotland Magazine 31 TRAVEL | Edinburgh Highlights

THESE PAGES, LEFT TO RIGHT: The window of Magdalen Chapel; The Wild West Street; Gilmerton Cove.

became a centre for Presbyterianism and 4. THE CHAPEL OF in 1615 doubled as the convening hall of THE HAMMERMEN the city’s incorporated craftsmen’s guilds, Magdalen Chapel, 41 Cowgate, EH1 1JR including the Hammermen. During the At 41 Cowgate, in the shadow of George Killing Time in the 1680s it was used as a IV Bridge, stands one of Edinburgh’s mortuary for martyred prior hidden gems. The Magdalen Chapel not to their burial in Greyfriars Kirkyard. only occupies a key position in Edinburgh’s The Chapel today serves as headquarters religious history but also boasts some of the Scottish Reformation Society, which of Fishmarket Close, where in 1745 the unique architectural features, too. continues to defend and promote the ideals Jacobite colours were ceremoniously The chapel was commissioned in the of the Protestant Reformation, and can be burned following Bonnie Prince Charlie’s early 1540s by one Janet Rynd, using a visited from Monday to Friday between defeat at Culloden. Despite demolition bequest left by her wealthy husband, the 10am and 4pm. of the cross in 1756, in readiness for the moneylender Michael MacQuhane. It opening of the new Royal Exchange, was to be used as a place of worship by merchants still gathered at the site. So much the Incorporation of Hammermen, an 5. THE SECRET OF so that in 1866 the remains of the cross important craftsmen’s guild comprising GILMERTON COVE Beneath 16 Drum Street, EH17 8QH were re-erected outside the north door various medieval metalworking professions. of St. Giles’ Cathedral. After becoming a Additionally, seven poor pensioners were The Edinburgh suburb of Gilmerton hindrance to traffic, it was moved one last to be accommodated in an accompanying offers much to its residents but seemingly time in 1885 to its current position. almshouse, where they would pray for the little to visitors. A former village with The Mercat Cross that can be seen by souls of the MacQuhanes and for Mary, medieval origins, it was once home to visitors today consists of an octagonal Queen of Scots. coal miners and quarrymen. This helps stepped base like the original but with Completed in 1544, the Chapel was explain Gilmerton’s great secret. Namely, the addition of an arcaded superstructure the last Roman Catholic chapel built an extraordinary subterranean complex concealing a staircase, and a parapet with in Edinburgh before the Reformation. concealed beneath an old miner’s cottage at eight turrets between which are intricate Although today the Victorian façade 16 Drum Street. royal, burgh and university coats of arms. obscures the original structure, the inside Gilmerton Cove consists of a 40-foot- It is used in modern times to announce is largely intact and features the only long tunnel off which branch seven general elections and the succession of a Scottish medieval window glass still in situ. chambers, all hand-carved from the

new monarch. Following the Reformation, the Chapel sandstone bedrock. How it came into | ©DUNCANJDSMITH.COM TRUST HERITAGE © GILMERTON COVE SOCIETY | GILMERTON REFORMATION CHAPEL © SCOTTISH MAGDALEN

32 Scotland Magazine Edinburgh Highlights | TRAVEL

being, however, is a moot point. Given Gilmerton’s history of quarrying, it seems likely that it originated as a trial borehole to determine whether coal or minerals were present. Then, around 1720, it appears to have been enlarged by a local blacksmith, George Paterson, for use as a drinking den, which explains the carved furniture. ROYAL YACHT This explanation hasn’t prevented BRITANNIA numerous outlandish theories being put forward. It has been claimed that after Paterson’s death the Cove was variously used as an illegal whisky distillery, a smugglers’ hideout, a meeting place for the Hellfire Club and a witches’ coven. It has even been proposed that a Freemasons’ FURTHER compass symbol carved on one of the tables LEITHLLEILEEEIEITITITHTH supports the notion that a blocked doorway INFORMATION conceals a tunnel leading to Rosslyn This feature was adapted from the Chapel, where symbols pertaining to the 2nd edition of Only in Edinburgh: Knights Templar have been identified. A Guide to Unique Locations, Hidden Make up your own mind by taking a Corners and Unusual Objects by Duncan LEITH WALK guided tour, availableSTOCKBRIDGESSTTOCKBT OCOCKBby appointmentCCKKKBRIDGKBRIR IatDDG GGEE J. D. Smith, published by The Urban www.gilmertoncove.org.uk& CANNONMILLSCCAANANNN. NNONMILNONMILLNO ONMMILLLLSS Explorer in March 2019.

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MAGDALEN CHAPEL © SCOTTISH REFORMATION SOCIETY | GILMERTON COVE © GILMERTON HERITAGE TRUST | ©DUNCANJDSMITH.COM | ©DUNCANJDSMITH.COM TRUST HERITAGE © GILMERTON COVE SOCIETY | GILMERTON REFORMATION CHAPEL © SCOTTISH MAGDALEN 5 ROYAL OBSERVATORY MORNINGSIDEMORMMOORRNINGSIDERNNINININNGGSIDEGSGSSIDDEE Scotland Magazine 33