Craigleith () is an area of west

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland. Its name comes from various forms of Craig of

Inverleith Inverleith (Scottish Gaelic language, Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Lìte'') is an inner suburb in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, on the fringes of the central region of the city. Its neighbours include Trinity, Edinburgh, Trinity to the north a ...

, or rock or hill of Inverleith. The area lies between Ravelston Dykes, to

Crewe Toll Crewe Toll is an area in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital. The area takes its name from the Toll house which once stood at the junction of Ferry Road and Crewe Road North and South. The name Crewe, or a variation thereof (Creue, Crew or Crou), c ...

and the Ferry Road, and Comely Bank on the east. Queensferry Road and Craigleith Road both pass through here. There are also a number of private schools in the area such as

Stewart's Melville College Stewart's Melville College (SMC) is all-boys' Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school in Edinburgh, Scotland. Classes are all boys in the 1st to 5th years and co-educational in Sixth (final) year. It has a roll of about 750 p ...

and

The Mary Erskine School The Mary Erskine School (MES) is an all-girls Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1694 and has a roll of around 750 pupils. The majority of its pupils live in the surrounding area ...

. The Royal Victoria Hospital is off Craigleith Road while the

Western General Hospital The Western General Hospital (often abbreviated to simply ‘The Western General’) is a health facility at Craigleith, Edinburgh, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Lothian. History The hospital was designed by Peddie and Kinnear and opened as ...

on Crewe Road was opened in 1868 as the Craigleith Hospital and Poorhouse.

Quarrying

Craigleith Quarry was active for more than 300 years from 1615 to 1942. The 350-million-year-old

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

Craigleith

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

was used extensively in construction because it was a hard-wearing composite. Architects used it extensively in buildings in both Edinburgh's Old and

New Town New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...

. Many famous buildings including

Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age. There has been a royal castle on the rock since the reign of Malcol ...

and

Holyrood Palace The Palace of Holyroodhouse ( or ), commonly known as Holyrood Palace, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood has s ...

were built from Craigleith sandstone. Because of its hardness, Craigleith Sandstone was also favoured for cutting stones used to make

cut glass Cut glass or cut-glass is a technique and a style of decorating glass. For some time the style has often been produced by other techniques such as the use of Molding (process), moulding, but the original technique of cutting glass on an abrasiv ...

during the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

. At its peak, the quarry was the largest and most productive in Edinburgh. In 1995, the Craigleith Retail Park was built upon the infilled Craigleith Quarry; it is situated at the junction of Queensferry Road and Craigleith Road.

References

External links

A History of the Craigleith Hill DistrictCraigleith and Blackhall Community Council
{{coord, 55, 57, 42, N, 003, 13, 43, W, type:city_region:GB-EDH_scale:30000, display=title, name=Craigleith Areas of Edinburgh