Clermiston is a suburb of
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
, to the west of the city and to the immediate north of
Corstorphine, on the western slopes of
Corstorphine Hill. Clermiston estate, built in 1954, was part of a major 1950s house-building programme to tackle overcrowding in
Leith
Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by ''Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world.
The earliest ...
and
Gorgie. The area is now home to more than 20,000 people, and abuts onto
Drumbrae
Drumbrae or Drum Brae (Scottish Gaelic: ''Druim Bràigh'') is the name of a suburb of west Edinburgh, Scotland generally considered to be part of the neighbouring larger areas of Corstorphine and Clermiston. This is a commuter settlement as m ...
,
Clerwood and Corstorphine.
History
The district, known 400 years ago as Glabertoun, became Clermiston in 1730, when a narrow track linked the village of Corstorphine to a small hamlet at Mutton Hole, now known as
Davidsons Mains. It was originally used as a hunting ground by the wealthy.
Clermiston Tower was built on the top of the hill in 1872 to mark the centenary of Walter Scott's birth. It was presented to the city in 1932, the anniversary of Scott's death.
Large parts of the lower grounds of Clermiston were owned by the Buttercup Dairy Company until the 1950s, when Edinburgh Corporation bought it for local authority housing.
Part of the land not used by the Corporation to build the Clermiston Estate (the land adjacent to Corstorphine Hill and part of Corstorphine) was sold off to
Wimpey Homes who built the Clerwood housing estate on the edge of Corstorphine in 1963; the rest was used for the construction of Queen Margaret College, later
Queen Margaret University, which was built next to Clerwood, and Fox Covert Primary School, which serves Clerwood and part of Corstorphine, as well as Fox Covert R.C. Primary School, which serves the Roman Catholic community in the area. Queen Margaret University was finally demolished in July 2009 after the University moved to its new campus in
Musselburgh
Musselburgh (; sco, Musselburrae; gd, Baile nam Feusgan) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, east of Edinburgh city centre. It has a population of .
History
The name Musselburgh is O ...
in 2008 leaving the land free for housing developers, Charles Church, to build a new housing estate.
Schools
Clermiston is served by
Craigmount High School
Craigmount High School is a non-denominational secondary school in Edinburgh, Scotland with 1,269 pupils located in the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is situated between Corstorphine, East Craigs and Drumbrae and it moved into new premises at ...
, and the
Royal High School.
The Clermiston area is served by a local primary schoo
Clermiston Primary School on Parkgrove Place is a feeder school for the Royal High School. The nearest Roman Catholic schools are Fox Covert R.C. Primary School and St. Augustine's High School.
Infrastructure
Vehicular access to Clermiston used to be possible at the Queensferry Road (A90) at Clermiston Drive junction, however this road was closed off and this lower part of Clermiston is now accessible from Queensferry Road at Parkgrove Street.
Clermiston is served by the Lothian Bus numbers: 1, 21, 26, and 200.
Notable residents
*
Scars (band), The Scars - An Edinburgh post-punk band.
*
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...
who held lands in the area, and to whom there is a monument nearby on Corstorphine Hill.
[
* Craig Chalmers, actor of Any Dream Will Do fame ]
Further reading
* Bell, Raymond MacKean ''Literary Corstorphine: A Reader's Guide to West Edinburgh'' (2017)
* Scott, Bill ''The Buttercup: The Remarkable Story of Andrew Ewing and the Buttercup Dairy Company'' (2011)
References
{{Areas of Edinburgh
Areas of Edinburgh
Housing estates in Edinburgh