When I’m out cycling or walking along
the paths, through and round Edinburgh, on which the old city railway lines
used to run, there is a building that has always tended to catch my eye. It stands on pillars over Hawthornvale Path
and looks a bit like a Victorian Boy Scouts hut. This building was originally Newhaven Railway
Station and was for the former Caledonian Railway line. This line ran from Edinburgh Princes Street
Station, which was at the West End of Princes Street next to the Caledonian Hotel,
to North Leith Station, which was on Commercial Street in Leith.
Newhaven Railway Station was opened in
1879 and closed on the 26th of April 1962. It is the only station building to have
survived of the five stations that were on the Caledonian line. It originally had stairs leading down to the
platforms, though these have now been removed.
After the railway line closed the
station building was used as premises for a joinery business, a taxi firm and
then lay derelict for a while. It has now been restored and is a business
centre renting out desk space.
On my walk today I scrambled up the slope
under the station building and past the ruins of a brick hut that is now the
depository for hundreds of discarded, empty beer cans. Then I went on up to one of the stone supports
for the building and there I left a Skulferatu in one of the hollows.
The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu
are –
Latitude 55.976620
Longitude -3.1966390
I used the following sources for
information on Newhaven Railway Station–
Canmore
Edinburgh, Craighall
Road, Newhaven Station | Canmore
Doors Open Day
Newhaven Station
(doorsopendays.org.uk)
