Merchiston ( ) is a residential area around Merchiston Avenue in the south-west 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 the ...

Location

Merchiston Avenue is 1.3 miles Southwest of the West End of Edinburgh's principal street, Princes Street. Other areas near Merchiston include Morningside to the southeast,

Burghmuirhead Burghmuirhead (sometimes anglicised as Boroughmuirhead) is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The area lies between Bruntsfield to the north and Morningside to the south. West is Merchiston and east is Greenhill and then The Grange. The area w ...

(including

Holy Corner Holy Corner is a colloquial name for a small area of Edinburgh, Scotland, and (along with Church Hill) is part of the area more properly known as Burghmuirhead, itself part of the lands of Greenhill. Holy Corner lies between the areas of Bru ...

and Church Hill) to the east and

Bruntsfield Bruntsfield is a largely residential area around Bruntsfield Place in Southern Edinburgh, Scotland. In feudal times, it fell within the barony of Colinton. Location Bruntsfield Place is less than south on the A702 main road from the West e ...

to the northeast.

History

The first known reference to Merchiston is found in the 1266

Exchequer Rolls of Scotland The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland (Latin:) are records of the Scottish Exchequer dating from 1326 to 1708. The accounts were the responsibility of the Comptroller of Scotland. The National Records of Scotland National Records of Scotland ( gd, Clà ...

. At this point Merchiston consisted of one of a number of independently owned estates to the southwest of the

Burgh Muir The Burgh Muir is the historic term for an extensive area of land lying to the south of Edinburgh city centre, upon which much of the southern part of the city now stands following its gradual spread and more especially its rapid expansion in th ...

. Alexander Napier, a wealthy Edinburgh merchant and provost of the city, acquired the estate from

King James I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...

in 1436. He or his son, also Alexander Napier, were responsible for the construction of Merchiston Tower (or Castle) in the mid 15th century. Merchiston Tower was later the home of

John Napier John Napier of Merchiston (; 1 February 1550 – 4 April 1617), nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was the 8th Laird of Merchiston. His Latinized name was Ioann ...

, 8th

Laird Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...

of Merchiston and the inventor of

logarithms In mathematics, the logarithm is the inverse function to exponentiation. That means the logarithm of a number to the base is the exponent to which must be raised, to produce . For example, since , the ''logarithm base'' 10 o ...

. The tower was sold by the Honourable John Scott Napier, 14th Laird of Merchiston, in 1914 to the

Merchiston Castle School Merchiston Castle School is an independent boarding school for boys in the suburb of Colinton in Edinburgh, Scotland. It has around 470 pupils and is open to boys between the ages of 7 and 18 as either boarding or day pupils; it was modelled a ...

and today forms part of

Edinburgh Napier University , mottoeng = Without knowledge, everything is in vain , established = 1992 – granted University status 1964 – Napier Technical College , type = Public , academic_staff = 802 , administrative_staff = 562 , chancellor = Will Whitehorn , ...

Housing

The housing is primarily a mixture of large, late

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

, Victorian and

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

villas – several of the latter by Edward Calvert – together with a smaller number of Victorian tenements and some relatively large, early-20th century villas. In recent years many of these villas have been subjected to development with blocks of flats being built in their once expansive gardens and the original houses themselves being divided into small numbers of flats.

Education

View looking north from Napier University towards Morningside Road

Primary education in Merchiston is provided by

Craiglockhart Primary School Craiglockhart Primary School is a primary school in the Shandon area of Edinburgh. The school buildings are in the Victorian style of architecture. History The school was built in 1901 after a design by architects Robert Wilson and John Alexa ...

and Bruntsfield Primary School. Merchiston spans the catchment areas for Boroughmuir and Tynecastle secondary schools. Also in the area are a number of independent schools including

George Watson's College George Watson's College is a co-educational Independent school (United Kingdom), independent day school in Scotland, situated on Colinton Road, in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh. It was first established as a Scottish education in the eight ...

and a Steiner School. Merchiston Castle School was founded in the area in 1828, moving to Merchiston Tower in 1833. In 1914 the Merchiston Castle School board purchased Merchiston Tower from the Honourable John Scott Napier, 14th Laird of Merchiston, and used it up until 1930 when the school moved to a new site at

Colinton Colinton ( gd, Baile Cholgain) is a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland situated south-west of the city centre. Up until the late 18th century it appears on maps as Collington. It is bordered by Dreghorn to the south and Craiglockhart to the north ...

(whilst retaining the Merchiston Castle name). Today, Merchiston Tower is part of the

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

. The university also uses a variety of other buildings in this and surrounding areas, such as former schools and churches, some of which would otherwise have been demolished or made into further flats.

Transportation

On the fringes of the area where it meets

Craiglockhart Craiglockhart (; gd, Creag Longairt) is a suburb in the south west of Edinburgh, Scotland, lying between Colinton to the south, Morningside to the east Merchiston to the north east, and Longstone and Kingsknowe to the west. The Water of Leith ...

(to the west) is the suburban railway line, which is mooted for reopening. To the north of the area is the

Union Canal Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

. North of the canal (in the area sometimes known as North Merchiston or Shandon and sometimes taken to be part of Polwarth) is the site of the former

Merchiston railway station Merchiston railway station was a railway station which served the area of Merchiston in Edinburgh, Scotland, for around eighty years. The station was built by the Caledonian Railway between 1879 and 1883, with the last passenger service in Sept ...

, a railway station on the now-closed

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...

line to

Edinburgh Princes Street railway station Princes Street Station was a mainline railway station which stood at the west end of Princes Street, in Edinburgh, Scotland, for almost 100 years. Temporary stations were opened in 1848 and 1870, with construction of the main station commenci ...

Parks

Harrison Park, a popular community park roughly 7 hectares in size is located to the northwest of Merchiston. The park provides a range of recreational facilities including pitches, play area, cycle path and a formal garden.

Notable people

The area is home to writers

Lin Anderson Lin (Linda) Anderson (born in Greenock, Scotland) is a Tartan Noir crime novelist and screenwriter, best known as the creator of forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod. the Rhona MacLeod books are being developed for ITV. Life and career An ...

, Colin Douglas,

Alexander McCall Smith Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE (born 24 August 1948), is a British writer. He was raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an expert on medical law and ...

(author of

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency ''The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency'' is a series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith set in Botswana and featuring the character Mma Precious Ramotswe. The series is named after the first novel, published in 1998. Twenty-two novels have been p ...

novels), politician Sir Graham Watson and comedian

Dylan Moran Dylan William Moran ( ; born 3 November 1971) is an Irish comedian, writer, actor, artist and poet. He is best known for his observational comedy, the comedy series ''Black Books'' (which he co-wrote and starred in), and his work with Simon Peg ...

J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and Philanthropy, philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to ...

had her Edinburgh home in Merchiston for many years but has since moved to Killiechassie.

Ian Rankin Sir Ian James Rankin (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels. Early life Rankin was born in Cardenden, Fife. His father, James, owned a grocery shop, and his mother, Isobel, worked in a schoo ...

(author of the

Inspector Rebus The ''Inspector Rebus'' books are a series of detective novels by the Scottish author Sir Ian Rankin. The novels, centred on Detective Inspector John Rebus, are mostly based in and around Edinburgh. They are considered an important contrib ...

novels), lived in Merchiston before moving to the

Quartermile Quartermile is the marketing name given to the mixed use redevelopment of the former Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh site, in Lauriston, Edinburgh. It was master-planned by architect Foster + Partners and takes its name from the fact it is a qua ...

development in 2019. The district was also the childhood home of Scotland and British Lions rugby players

Gavin Hastings Andrew Gavin Hastings, (born 3 January 1962) is a Scottish former rugby union player. A fullback, he is widely regarded to be one of the best ever Scottish rugby players and was one of the outstanding players of his generation, winning 61 c ...

and Scott Hastings.

External links

Entry in Gazetteer for Scotland

Merchiston Community Council
*
Community Council map showing boundary of area

Craiglockhart Primary School
* {{Areas of Edinburgh Areas of Edinburgh