Skulferatu #116 - Bilston Glen Viaduct, Loanhead, Midlothian

 

I do love wandering around bits of our industrial past, whether that be an old railway, a derelict factory, old mineworks or a repurposed power station.  On a stroll from Roslin to the outskirts of Edinburgh, I walked over a piece of our industrial heritage – Bilston Glen Viaduct, or as locals refer to it, the Bilston Climbing Frame.  Wandering down a steep and narrow path under the viaduct I could see why it had acquired that name with the criss-crossing of the iron lattice work underneath.

 

Bollards by the viaduct

 

Path across the viaduct

 

Wooded area of Bilston Glen

 

Underneath the viaduct

 

The criss-crossing iron lattice work underneath the viaduct

 

View of the viaduct

 

View of the viaduct from Bilston Glen

 

Bilston Glen Viaduct is an old iron railway bridge above the steep gorge of Bilston Glen. The Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway used to run across it.  This railway carried coal and ironstone from mines at Penicuik, Roslin, Bilston, Loanhead and Gilmerton.  It also carried passengers to Roslin.

 

The viaduct was built in 1892, and replaced an earlier one built at the same spot in the 1870s.  It appears that there had been concerns about the earlier bridge due to movements of the ground caused by the mineworks.  Concerns were also raised about the design of that bridge, as it had been designed by Sir Thomas Bouch, the designer of the infamous Tay Bridge that had collapsed in 1879.

 

Bilston Glen Viaduct was built with a single deep wrought iron span supported on low piers with granite abutments at each end to support it.  The separate pieces of the bridge were all made in Glasgow and then brought out to the site where the bridge was then assembled.  As the viaduct is made of iron it expands and contracts in the heat.  On a hot summer’s day, it could be up to 2 ½ inches longer than it was on a cold winter’s day.  To avoid this damaging the supports, the bridge was fitted with expansion mountings.  These allow the bridge to move. 

 

 In 1969 the section of the railway that ran over the viaduct was closed.  In 1999 restoration work was carried out on the viaduct and it opened again as part of the walkway that follows the old railway line.

 

While wandering around under the viaduct, I left a Skulferatu in a gap in the granite stonework of the abutments supporting it.

 

Skulferatu #116

 

Skulferatu #116 in a gap in the granite stonework

 

Skulferatu #116 in a gap in the granite stonework

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #116

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.87089

Longitude -3.150976

 

what3words: herb.windmill.widen

 

I used the following sources for information on Bilston Glen Viaduct –

 

Tourist Information Board at site

 

Canmore

Bilston Viaduct | Canmore

 

Edinburgh and Lothians: Exploring the Lost Railways

Alasdair Wham

2006

 

Skulferatu #107 - Lady Fyfe’s Brae and Giant’s Brae, Leith Links, Leith, Edinburgh

 

I have wandered around Leith Links many times.  I’ve gone to many fairs and events there, and up until recently had paid very little attention to the two mounds that jut out of the flat land of the park.  I’ve sort of noticed them in winter when kids would sledge down them, and also in summer when they are a hot spot for sunbathers, but other than that they have not really entered my consciousness much.  Probably because I’d always assumed, given Leith Links connection to the awful game that is golf, that they had something to do with that.  Then a few days ago I noticed that by each of them was a Brutalist lump of concrete with a chipped metal plaque on it.  These gave both the mounds a name, one as Lady Fyfe’s Brae and the other as Giant’s Brae, and stated that the former was the remains of Pelham’s Battery and the latter of Somerset’s Battery.  A quick bit of research later and it turned out that these two mounds were actually part of an important bit of local history back in 1560, the Siege of Leith. 

 

Lady Fyfe’s Brae (Pelham’s Battery)

 

Lady Fyfe’s Brae (Pelham’s Battery)

 

Lady Fyfe’s Brae (Pelham’s Battery)

 

View from Lady Fyfe’s Brae (Pelham’s Battery)

 

The events leading up to the Siege of Leith began almost a decade before.  In 1547, English troops arrived in Scotland, as part of the ‘Rough Wooing’ in an attempt to force the Treaty of Greenwich on the Scots, which would see Edward VI marry Mary, Queen of Scots in a union of the crowns.  Many of the English soldiers ended up camped near Edinburgh, at Leith Links.  Mary’s mother, Mary of Guise, worried by this development, asked the French Crown for assistance, and in 1548 French troops began to arrive in Leith.

 

In 1554, Mary of Guise became the Queen Regent of Scotland, her young daughter now being in France.  She then began to have fortifications built and improved around Leith.  While all this was going on the relationship between Mary, who was Catholic, and the Protestant Scots began to deteriorate.  By 1559, things had got so bad between them, that Mary felt she was in imminent danger and for a while she lived in Leith, where she felt she could be protected by the French troops, who were also Catholic and loyal to her.  Mary was later persuaded to move back to Edinburgh.  However, a group of Protestant noblemen who were unhappy with the French troops being in Leith, amassed an army, which led to Mary asking for more French troops to be sent over, and having the fortifications at Leith extended further with a large earthen rampart.  This in turn led to the Scots Protestants petitioning the English for their help in removing the French troops.

 

In April of 1560, English troops arrived at Leith and pounded the town with artillery fire.  This, however had little effect due to the rather formidable earthen wall that had been put up as a defence.  So, to give the guns a bit more elevation three mounds were built, two of these being the ones that still stand on Leith Links.  The guns then pounded Leith, and there were various attacks on the town by the English troops that were repelled by the French.   The siege then carried on with food becoming scarce for those in Leith with reports that the troops themselves were eating horse flesh and ‘the grass and weeds that grew on the ramparts.’  While the townsfolk trapped there were living off cockles picked from the shore and roasted cats and rats.

 

Giant’s Brae (Somerset’s Battery)

 

Daisy in the grass Giant’s Brae (Somerset’s Battery)

 

Giant’s Brae (Somerset’s Battery)

 

The attacks against Leith continued with heavy losses on both sides.  After one attack, when the English army had again failed to break through and take the town, the French troops gathered up the bodies of those English soldiers who had been killed, stripped them naked and lined them up on the ramparts.  On seeing this, it was said that Mary ‘hopped with mirth’, and exclaimed, ‘Yonder is the fairest tapestrie that ever I saw. I wald that the haill feyldis that is betwix this place and yon war strewit with the same stuiffe.’  (Over there is the fairest tapestry I’ve ever seen.  I wish that all the fields between this place and over there were strewn with the same stuff.)

 

Mary’s joy was short lived though, as on the 11^th of June 1560 she died, probably from heart failure.  After her death an armistice was agreed, and peace was then brokered, with the French and English troops leaving Scotland.  So yet again, like much of history, it appears that lots of people died for nothing much.

 

I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me on my wander around Leith Links, in the bark of a rather nice tree that stands between the two mounds.

 

A rather nice tree that stands between the two mounds

 

Skulferatu #107

 

Skulferatu #107 in the bark of a tree on Leith Links

 

Skulferatu #107 in the bark of a tree on Leith Links

 

Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #107

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.970178

Longitude -3.164135

 

what3words: dome.poem.lanes

 

I used the following sources for information on Lady Fyfe’s Brae, Giant’s Brae and the Siege of Leith –

 

Historical Notes Concerning Leith and its Antiquities, Vol 1 

by James Campbell Irons

1897

The Story of Leith

By John Russell

1922

 

Canmore

Lady Fife's Brae, Leith Links, Edinburgh

Giant's Brae, Leith Links, Edinburgh

Skulferatu #102 - Duddingston Kirkyard, Duddingston, Edinburgh

 

One of my favourite walks around Edinburgh is down the Innocent Railway path, round to Duddingston and then back up Duddingston Low Road and into Holyrood Park.  When I do that walk, I usually have a rest and a sit down in the Kirkyard of Duddingston Kirk.  It is a place oozing with history and usually a quiet place to sit and contemplate whatever one feels like contemplating.

 

At the entrance to the Kirkyard is the tower like structure of the gatehouse, which was built in the age of the body snatchers for the guards who protected the corpses of the newly buried from being stolen.

 

The Gatehouse

 

On the opposite wall from the gatehouse is a rather insidious instrument used by the church to control and punish its flock, the jougs.  The jougs are an iron collar that could be padlocked and are fixed to a chain on the wall.  These were used for minor offences; you know the type of thing, drinking, dancing, enjoying yourself, wearing clothes that were a bit revealing, as in showing a bit of ankle, gossiping, farting on a Sunday, and the like.  The offender would be chained up during the hour before the morning service so that they would face the humiliation of the congregation passing them on their way into the church.

 

The Jougs

 

In the kirkyard itself, there are many interesting looking and rather gothic gravestones, and those buried beneath no doubt had many interesting stories to tell of their lives and adventures, all of which are now in the main forgotten. 

 

Duddingston Kirk

 

Gravestone in Duddingston Kirkyard

 

Detail of gravestone

 

Memorial to David Scot and Margaret Gourlay

 

Memorial on church wall

 

Detail of memorial on church wall

 

Moss covered gravestone

 

Detail of moss covered gravestone

 

Gravestones in Duddingston Kirkyard

 

There is though, one that discreetly commemorates a scandalous tragedy that was reported widely in the newspapers of the time.  This memorial stone was originally commissioned by Captain John Haldane in honour of his grandfather Patrick Haldane, the 16^th Laird of Gleneagles, who served as the Solicitor General for Scotland and as the MP for Perth. He had died in Duddingston in 1769.  On the stone there is also the depiction of a ship going down in a stormy sea.  This was added later by the executors of Captain John Haldane’s estate to commemorate the events surrounding his death.

 

Memorial to Patrick Haldane

 

Memorial for Captain John Haldane

 

John Haldane was born in 1748 and was one of the two illegitimate sons of George Haldane.  John worked his way up through the East India Company and was eventually promoted to Captain on several of their ships.  He was not very successful in his role as Captain and suffered a series of misfortunes.  The first ship he captained was seized shortly after leaving port, by French and Spanish forces.  John Haldane and his crew were taken as prisoners and they and the ship were taken to the port of Cadiz.  There they languished for several months before being released.  On his return, the Company gave him a second ship to captain, which caught fire on its arrival in Bombay and was completely destroyed.  After this disaster Haldane no doubt felt quite low, but things in India soon picked up for him, as he met and became the lover of the glamorous and beautiful actress and singer, Ann Cargill.

 

Ann Cargill, born Ann Brown, was known as much for her love affairs as she was for her acting and was a pretty big celebrity in her day.  In 1771, when she was around twelve years old, she had made her debut at Covent Garden, and such was her popularity that she was soon commanding high fees for her appearances.  Later she gained much fame for her roles as Clara in The Duenna by Sheridan and Polly Peachum in The Beggars Opera by John Gay.  She also played MacHeath in The Beggars Opera, in a version in which all the male characters were played by women and all the female characters by men. 

 

When details of Ann’s many love affairs began to appear in the press, her father saw this as an embarrassment to him and her family, and having never approved of her career in the theatre, decided to end it and take control over her and her life.  In order to do this, he obtained a court order to detain her, but on learning of what he had done, she hid from him.  He made various attempts to get hold of her and take her into his custody, but she always managed to avoid him or escape from him.  On one occasion he took hold of her as she left her carriage to go into the theatre she was performing in.  However, she and her companion raised such a fuss that onlookers and eventually the other performers in the theatre crowded around, took her from her father and carried her into the theatre.

 

Detail of portrait of Ann Brown (Cargill) in the role of Miranda. 

Painted by Johann Zoffany

 

In 1780, Ann eloped with a Mr R Cargill and married him in Edinburgh before returning to London and then touring England in various theatre productions.  The marriage to Cargill did not last long and in 1782 Ann took up with a Mr Rumbold and left for India with him. In India she found great success and another new lover, one dashing young captain from an aristocratic family, yup you guessed it, John Haldane. Things were lovely and rosy for both of them, and it seems that Ann became pregnant with, and gave birth to, their child.  The proud parents’ happiness in India was not to last long though.  In December 1783, the directors of the East India Company, being a bunch of old fuddy duddies, decided that they didn’t want the scandalous Ann Cargill around, and at a meeting agreed that ‘the pure shores of India should not be invaded by an actress.’  Ann was then ordered to leave the country. This she did, aboard the ship that Haldane was now captain of, the Nancy. 

 

The voyage home on the Nancy was quite uneventful until the ship was just off the coast from the Scilly Isles, where it hit a terrible storm.  The ship was forced into some rocks and began to sink.  Captain Haldane, along with Ann Cargill and a few passengers and crew, managed to get into one of the lifeboats on the ship and tried to row to safety.  The storm was too strong for them though and their boat was thrown against rocks at the small island of Rosevear and smashed.  Those on board were cast into the raging sea, where they all drowned. 

 

A few days later many of the bodies were recovered when they washed up on the shore at Rosevear.  These included the bodies of John Haldane and Ann Cargill.  Held tightly in Ann’s arms was the body of her and Haldane’s young child.  Ann, John Haldane, and their child were all buried at the Old Town Church on St Mary's, in the Scilly Isles.

 

In the early nineteenth century, during construction of the lighthouse that now stands on Bishop Rock the workmen were stationed on Rosevear.  It is said that while there, they were haunted by the ghostly voices of those who had died when their ships were sunk on the nearby rocks.  One of the voices they often heard was that of Ann Cargill gently singing lullabies, as if holding a sleeping child in her arms.

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on my walk, in a hole in the monument that commemorates Patrick Haldane, John Haldane and Ann Cargill.

 

Skulferatu #102

 

Skulferatu #102 in a hole in the monument

 

Skulferatu #102 in a hole in the monument

 

Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #102

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.94126

Longitude -3.149253

 

what3words: regime.limit.inform

 

I used the following sources for information on Duddingston Kirkyard, John Haldane and Ann Cargill

 

Bygone Church Life in Scotland 

William Andrews

1899

 

Patrick Haldane

Patrick Haldane - Wikipedia

 

A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800 

by Philip H. Highfill, Jr., Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhans

1975

 

Oxford Journal - Saturday 13 March 1784

 

Reading Mercury - Monday 15 March 1784

 

Wreck of the East India Company Packet NANCY Isles of Scilly in 1784

Ed Cumming

2019

Skulferatu #101 - Abandoned Railway Bridge, Powderhall, Edinburgh

I like abandoned places.  I especially like finding a gap in a fence so I can go for a wander into an abandoned place that I’ve seen before, but have been unable to get into.  Today, on a walk along the Water of Leith, I found just such a gap in the fencing around a now defunct railway line. Squeezing through, I then took a walk along it.  Though it only went out of service seven or eight years ago it was now quite overgrown, and the wooden sleepers were rotting away.  In the wildflowers growing all around the railway insects buzzed noisily and in the trees above the birds sang their little hearts out.

 

Defunct railway line

 

Dandelion growing by the tracks

 

Old railway line

 

I walked along the railway to a bridge that crossed the Water of Leith.  It had also been fenced off to stop access, though again some kindly soul had removed a couple of the metal bars to allow access.  A slightly tighter squeeze through and I was on the rusting iron bridge.  Beneath me the waters of the river gently ambled by in their shallow, summery way.  Mama duck and her half dozen ducklings paddled by, and small fish darted down and away.  Nature was reclaiming this area for itself. 

 

Abandoned railway bridge

 

Finding a gap in the fence on the other side of the bridge, I scrambled down the riverbank, under the bridge and onto a narrow, trodden path by the river.  It wound through the wild garlic that seemed to cover most of the riverbank, and then up and around areas where the mud of the bank had collapsed into the water below.  Eventually the path became a narrow line at the river’s edge and then crumbled away into nothing.  Not particularly wanting to end up in the river, I made my way back to the bridge and the old railway track.

 

Abandoned railway bridge

 

Bridge and beams

 

Bridge and beams

 

Rivets and graffiti

 

View of Water of Leith from the bridge

 

Machine with knobs

 

The railway track was once part of the Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Line of the North British Railway.  The line was closed in 1968, however part of it was later reopened to serve Powderhall Refuse Depot. 

 

At Powderhall there used to be an incinerator and a large chimney.  Rubbish was burnt in the incinerator and the chimney pumped out poisonous smoke all over the surrounding area of Edinburgh.  The city council eventually decided that this was maybe not such a great idea and the role of the refuse depot then changed.  Instead of burning the refuse, the depot compacted it into containers.  These containers were then loaded on to trains, locally known as ‘Binliners’, and taken away to a landfill site. Over 250,000 tons of refuse from Edinburgh was processed in this way each year. 

 

Powderhall Refuse Depot

 

Powderhall Refuse Depot closed in 2016 and has now been demolished.  A housing estate is being built on the land it once occupied.

 

Wandering around the railway I found an old metal box, connected to some wires that must have once served some useful purpose.  What that purpose was, I have no idea.  I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me on my walk on a knob on the metal box.

 

Skulferatu #101

 

Skulferatu #101 on a knob on the metal box

 

Skulferatu #101 on a knob on the metal box

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #101

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.96813

Longitude -3.189598

 

what3words: sands.loudly.chase