Showing posts with label Seafield Goods and Mineral Yard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seafield Goods and Mineral Yard. Show all posts

Tuesday 10 September 2024

Skulferatu #127 - Marine Esplanade, Leith Docks, Edinburgh

 

When most people think of land reclaimed from the sea, they think of the Netherlands.  There is, however, a little piece of reclaimed land stretching from Seafield to Leith Docks in Edinburgh. Running alongside between this land and the sea is Marine Esplanade, a road whose name makes me think of beachfront bungalows and houses with gardens stretching down to golden sands.  A place of ice cream and sandcastles, of fish and chips by the seaside with hungry seagulls squawking as they circle in graceful loops above. Sadly, Marine Esplanade holds none of these delights.  It is a road that takes you past a sewage works, some crumbling warehouses and a piece of wasteland that was once a goods yard where numerous trains would arrive and leave with goods to and from the docks.

 

A view of a straight road leading down to a wall with the sea behind it.  On one side of the road is a grassy embankment, while on the other is a fenced off area with circular strips of razor wire running along it.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Marine Esplanade

 

A view along a road on which one side is a sea wall with the sea behind it, and on the other is a fenced off area.  The road leads down to a domed building and some other industrial looking buildings.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
View of Seafield Sewage Works from Marine Esplanade

 

Marine Esplanade is a road I have walked many times to explore the wasteland, now often used as an illegal dump, and the abandoned pre-fabs that once housed a couple of now defunct businesses.  In the past as I walked the road, it was dominated by the distant scenery of huge buildings in the docks, including the iconic Grain Silo.  This, like many other industrial buildings in and around the docks, has been demolished in the last few years leaving a view of clear, blue skies where they once stood.  The whole area along by the Esplanade is changing, buildings left to rot and be destroyed by vandals are now being cleared and fences are springing up where once you could roam, though probably weren’t meant to.  I assume all the changes are do with Leith Docks becoming part of the Forth Freeport and re-inventing itself as a renewable energy hub.

 

A view along a road on which one side is a fenced off area and on the other is a sea wall with the sea behind it.  The road leads down to some industrial looking buildings.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
View from Marine Esplanade to Leith Grain Silo and cement works

 

A view of a deep blue sea with a lighter blue sky.  To one side a yellow structure sticks out of the water.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
View out to sea

 

A photo of a sign on a stone wall.  The sign is triangular with a red rim and shows a car falling off a pier into the sea.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Probably don’t do that, eh…

 

A view over wasteland to a large earthen mound and behind that sits a big industrial looking building.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
The now demolished Grain Silo building

 

Derelict Prefab at Marine Esplanade

 

Up until a couple of years ago you could get into one of the last remaining parts of Leith Sands from Marine Esplanade.  A scrappy piece of beach that has now unfortunately been fenced off and is inaccessible.  I used to go beachcombing there, as it was a great place to find lots of plastic toys and things.  Weathered by the sea and sands, they took on the glow of objects from antiquity.  I had at first assumed they were washed up due to a kindly sea current depositing them there, then I realised that they probably all came from the sewage works.  A realisation brought on by one day finding almost a dozen weathered and worn sets of false teeth scattered around the beach, making me think that they had most likely arrived there after being accidentally flushed down the toilet rather than being lost at sea.  From this little bit of beach, you could also access a path that took you round the outside perimeter of the docks to a small lighthouse.  I wandered around that way a couple of times through a desolate area of rubble and sea on one side, and crumbling dock buildings and decaying vehicles and machinery on the other.  It was hard to imagine as I walked around there that in the Eighteenth Century the beach at Leith Sands was used for what was regarded as the most important horse racing event in Scotland, the Leith Races.  The beach used to run for miles, but was gradually swallowed up by the docks and land reclamation until only a couple of tiny bits of it were left.   

 

A photo of an upper set of false teeth sitting in amongst seaweed and sand.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
False teeth found on Leith Sands

 

A view of a concrete pier like structure stretching down by the sea and along to some industrial type buildings.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
View down to cement works from Leith Sands

 

A photo of the bricks and concrete blocks of a demolished building covering an area of ground.  Behind this is the sea.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Rubble and sea

 

A view of twisted and rusting metal protruding out of a crumbling concrete block.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Twisted metal and concrete

 

A view of a large bricked concrete block lying in scrubland - the sea stretches out behind it.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Scrubland and sea

 

A black and white photo showing some large blocks of stone with a large tyre sitting behind them and behind it all are some industrial looking buildings.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Blocks, docks, and tyre

 

A photo showing a view of a stone industrial building in the shape of an L lying on its side.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
View from scrubland to Leith Grain Silo

 

A view of a small white building with a chimney on it and a large white container behind it.  In front of it is a huge pile of a powdery looking substance with the ground beside pitted and puddled.   Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Puddles and powder

 

A photo of a stubby little white and red lighthouse sitting on a curved stone pier.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Leith East Breakwater Lighthouse

 

Often, when wandering around Marine Esplanade, I end up in the wasteland area that was once a goods yard, or Seafield Goods and Mineral Yard, to give it its full name.  Old maps, such as this one available from the National library of Scotland –

 
 

show this area as being lined with numerous railway lines on which goods trains were loaded and unloaded.  My mother-in-law, who spent her childhood in Leith, remembers in the late 1940s sneaking with her friends into the goods yards of an evening to play, and nose around the stuff that was stored there.  One of the exciting discoveries they made was a cargo of winter feed for cows, which she remembered as being a black substance of some type of hardened molasses with a slight taste of aniseed.  Being kids, they would pull off parts of this to eat, as it was nice and sweet. 

 

A photo of lots of rusty train wagons sitting on a railway line running through some scrubby looking land.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Rusty wagons on scrubby wasteland

 

For many years there were a load of rusting goods wagons sitting on some tracks in the yard.  They were eventually towed away by a big diesel train and apart from one fenced off area, the goods yard is now empty of rail tracks.  The once flat land is now ridged with earth embankments and scattered with rubbish from illegal dumping.  It is an area of burnt out cars, discarded white goods and remnants of torn out bathrooms and kitchens.   What, may you wonder, is the attraction of this place then?  Well, it is a peaceful area to walk around, a habitat of wildflowers, numerous butterflies, and beetles, and lots of crows.  It also has that added extra of being a place where one shouldn’t really be, and sometimes I get a little frisson of excitement from that.

 

A view over an area of ridged and grassy wasteland to a city silhouetted in the sunlight.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
View over wasteland to Edinburgh

 

A view of a grassy area with a fenced off bit with signs by it warning to keep off the train tracks.  Behind this are two large grey buildings with arched corrugated looking roofs.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Fences and warehouses

 

A photo of a sign by some overgrown train tracks that reads - Stop Look Listen, Beware of Trains.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Stop Look Listen, Beware of Trains

 

A photo of a very dirty and bedraggled cuddly monkey toy.  It is holding a love heart with Nuts about you written on it.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Nuts about you

 

A photo of a white petalled flower with a yellow middle.  It is sitting in the middle of an area of moss and grass.   Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Daisy and Moss

 

A photo of a fence type gate standing on its own in an area of wasteland.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Gate to nowhere

 

A view over a huge puddle of water between two earthen mounds with a dome shaped building in the background.   Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
View over wasteland to Seafield Sewage Works

 

A photo of a burnt-out car sitting in some wasteland.  The word untitled has been spray painted onto it.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Untitled

 

While out on my most recent trip wandering through the wasteland of the old goods yard, I left a Skulferatu in one of the earth embankments there.

 

A photo of a small, ceramic skull (Skulferatu 127) being held up with a grassy wasteland in the background.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #127

 

A photo of a small, ceramic skull (Skulferatu 127) sitting on an earthen slope covered in moss and grass.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #127 on earthen embankment

 

A photo of a small, ceramic skull (Skulferatu 127) sitting on an earthen slope covered in moss and grass.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #127 on earthen embankment

 

TomTom Map showing location of Skulferatu #127
Map showing location of Skulferatu #127

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are -

 
Latitude 55.974194
Longitude -3.150101
 
what3words: pasta.flips.shack
 

I used the following sources for information on the former Seafield Goods and Mineral Yard –