Sighthill is a suburb in the 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. The area is bordered by

Broomhouse Broomhouse may refer to: *Broomhouse, Edinburgh, a housing estate in the western part of Scotland's capital city *Broomhouse, Glasgow, a residential suburb in the south-eastern part of Scotland's largest city *Broomhouse (alternatively Broom House) ...

and

Parkhead Parkhead ( sco, Pairkheid) is a district in the East End of Glasgow. Its name comes from a small weaving hamlet at the meeting place of the Great Eastern Road (now the Gallowgate and Tollcross Road) and Westmuir Street. Glasgow's Eastern Necropo ...

to the east,

South Gyle South Gyle (pronounced ) is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland, lying on the western edge of the city and to the south and west of an area of former marshland once known as the Gogarloch, on the edge of Corstorphine. Most of the buildings in th ...

to the north, the industrial suburb of Bankhead and

the Calders The Calders is a residential neighbourhood in Edinburgh, Scotland – not to be confused with the Calders of West Lothian aka West Calder, Mid Calder and East Calder, three separate villages. It is sometimes considered to be part of Wester Hail ...

neighbourhood to the west, and

Wester Hailes Wester Hailes is an area in the south west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Wester Hailes borders on Kingsknowe and Longstone to the east. Bankhead Industrial Estate and Sighthill Park lie to the north. History Although named after a large private ho ...

to the south.Sighthill

Gazetteer for Scotland The ''Gazetteer for Scotland'' is a gazetteer covering the geography, history and people of Scotland. It was conceived in 1995 by Bruce Gittings of the University of Edinburgh and David Munro of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and cont ...

It is sometimes included in the Wester Hailes area, while the Calders, Bankhead and Parkhead are sometimes considered parts of Sighthill. Administratively it has formed a core part of the

City of Edinburgh Council The City of Edinburgh Council is the local government authority for the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. With a population of in mid-2019, it is the second most populous local authority area in Scotland. In its current form, the counci ...

's Sighthill/Gorgie ward since 2007.

New development

New housing at Sighthill (geograph 6123855)

For nearly 50 years, the skyline of western Edinburgh was dominated by four high rise residential

tower block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently ...

s in northern Sighthill (Broomview House, Glenalmond Court, Hermiston Court and Weir Court).Sighthill Bank Estate

Emporis Emporis GmbH was a real estate data mining company that was headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company collected data and photographs of buildings worldwide, which were published in an online database from 2000 to September 2022. On 12 Sept ...

The 11-storey 'slab' block Broomview House was demolished on Sunday 21 September 2008 by Safedem. The flats came down at 11:15am in a controlled explosion where a longstanding former resident pushed the ceremonial button to implode the building. The remaining three blocks were demolished on Sunday 25 September 2011, also at 11:15am. All of the remaining low-rise council-built properties in the vicinity were also demolished over the next few years. Plans for a new development called Broomview by

Keepmoat Keepmoat Homes Ltd is a housebuilding company in the United Kingdom that provides private homes for sale. Its headquarters are in Doncaster. History The company was founded in Rotherham by George Bramall and Dick Ogden as Bramall & Ogden in 1 ...

were approved, and the area was successfully redeveloped, with construction work completed in 2020. To the north of this new housing is the area's public park. The older, southern part of Sighthill consists mainly of

cottage flat Cottage flats, also known as four-in-a-block flats, are a style of housing common in Scotland, where there are single floor dwellings at ground level, and similar dwellings on the floor above. All have doors directly to the outside of the buildi ...

(four-in-a-block) homes, and has remained relatively unchanged since its construction in the late 1940s along with neighbouring Parkhead.

Amenities

Education

Edinburgh College (formerly Stevenson) and

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 , ...

's Sighthill Campuses (formerly Stevenson College and the Edinburgh Business College respectively) are based here.

Healthcare, firefighting, retail and library services

There are a medical centre and a fire station. There are a public library and some shops. The Health centre was one of the first modern Health clinics in the UK (the other was in Cardiff) as a trial to see if it worked (before this, doctors made house visits to the patients' homes).

Transport

The Calder Road, one of the city's main arteries, runs through Sighthill, around from the

Edinburgh city bypass The Edinburgh City Bypass, designated as A720, is one of the most important trunk roads in Scotland. Circling around the south of Edinburgh, as the equivalent of a ring road for the coastal city, it links together the A1 towards north-east Eng ...

(A720) road and the connection with the M8 motorway. The

Edinburgh–Dunblane line The Edinburgh–Dunblane line is a railway line in East Central Scotland. It links the city of Edinburgh via Falkirk to the city of Stirling and the town of Dunblane. Service provision Connections to other services This line connects into oth ...

railway (also connecting to ) is nearby to the north, as is the route of

Edinburgh Trams Edinburgh Trams is a tramway in Edinburgh, Scotland, operated by Edinburgh Trams Ltd. It is a line between St Andrew Square in the New Town and Edinburgh Airport, with 15 stops. Construction began in June 2008, and after encountering delays ...

between the city centre and

Edinburgh Airport Edinburgh Airport is an airport located in the Ingliston area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the busiest airport in Scotland in 2019, handling over 14.7 million passengers. It was also the sixth-busiest airport in the United Kingdom by t ...

. 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 ...

skirts the area to the south-west.

Lothian Buses Lothian Buses is a major bus operator based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the largest municipal bus company in the United Kingdom: the City of Edinburgh Council (through Transport for Edinburgh) owns 91%, Midlothian Council 5%, East Lothian ...

provides 12 buses to the area: *3 Clovenstone - Wester Hailes - Sighthill - Gorgie - Haymarket - Princes Street - Newington - Gilmerton - Dalkeith -Mayfield *21 Clovenstone - Wester Hailes - Sighthill - Corstorphine - Clermiston - Ferry Road - Leith - Lochend - Portobello - Niddrie - Royal Infirmary *25 Heriot-Watt University - Sighthill - Gorgie - Haymarket - Princes Street - Leith - Lochend - Restalrig *34 Heriot-Watt University - Sighthill - Longstone - Slateford - Fountainpark - Lothian Road - Princes Street - Lochend - Leith - Ocean Terminal *35 Heriot-Watt University - Sighthill - Slateford - Fountainpark - Bristo Square - Holyrood - Leith - Ocean Terminal *36 Gyle Centre - Sighthill - Longstone - Glenlockhart - Morningside - West End - Cannonmills - Bonnington - Leith - Ocean Terminal *X27 Regent Road - The Exchange - Balgreen - Sighthill - Hermiston - Wilkieston - Calderwood - East Calder - Livingston - Bathgate *X28 Regent Road - The Exchange - Balgreen - Sighthill - Hermiston - Kirknewton - East Calder - Livingston - Bathgate *Skylink 400 Edinburgh Airport - Gyle Centre - Sighthill - Wester Hailes - Colinton - Oxgangs - Fairmilehead - Gracemount - Gilmerton - Royal Infirmary - Niddrie - Fort Kinnaird *N25 Riccarton - Hermiston P&R - Sighthill - Gorgie - Haymarket - Leith Street *N28 Bathgate - Livingston - East Calder - Wilkieston - Hermiston - Sighthill - Balgreen - The Exchange - Leith Street

McGill's Scotland East McGill's Bus Services is a bus operator based in Greenock, Scotland.20: Chesser - Kingsknowe - Clovenstone - Wester Hailes - The Calders - Hermiston Gait - Gyle Centre - Ratho Station - Ratho *63: Balerno - Currie - Heriot-Watt University - Sighthill - Hermiston Gait - Gyle Centre - Ratho Station - Newbridge - Kirkliston - Queensferry *X22: Regent Road - Haymarket - Gorgie - Sighthill - Hermiston - East Calder - Livingston - Blackburn - Whitburn - Harthill - Shotts

Demographics

Film and television location

Sighthill has been used as a location for film and television productions. The most notable production to be filmed in Sighthill was the 1998

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: ''BBC Alba'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. It is one of the four BBC national regions, together with the BBC English Regions, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Northern Ireland. I ...

television drama ''

Looking After Jo Jo ''Looking After Jo Jo'' is a 1998 BBC Scotland television drama starring Robert Carlyle. John Joe "Jo Jo" McCann is petty thief turned drug dealer in 1980's Edinburgh, surviving in a bleak housing estate and aspiring to the trappings of a succ ...

'' which featured

Robert Carlyle Robert Carlyle (born 14 April 1961) is a Scottish actor. His film work includes '' Trainspotting'' (1996), ''The Full Monty'' (1997), ''The World Is Not Enough'' (1999), ''Angela's Ashes'' (1999), '' The Beach'' (2000), ''28 Weeks Later'' (20 ...

in the title role and was filmed in and around North Sighthill and Niddrie. Other notable film and television productions to be filmed in Sighthill include ''

Quite Ugly One Morning ''Quite Ugly One Morning'' is Christopher Brookmyre's first novel which introduces Jack Parlabane, the writer's most used character. It was published to popular and critical acclaim, winning the inaugural First Blood Award for the best first cri ...

'' starring

James Nesbitt William James Nesbitt (born 15 January 1965) is an actor from Northern Ireland. From 1987, Nesbitt spent seven years performing in plays that varied from the musical '' Up on the Roof'' (1987, 1989) to the political drama ''Paddywack'' (1994) ...

and an adaptation of the

Christopher Brookmyre Christopher Brookmyre (born 6 September 1968) is a Scottish novelist whose novels, generally in a crime or police procedural frame, mix comedy, politics, social comment and action with a strong narrative. He has been referred to as a Tartan No ...

novel and Trouble Sleeping - a tale of a Palestinian refugee struggling to survive in the UK. More recently the flats in Sighthill have been used as backdrop for the film '' Outcast'' a

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

supernatural thriller once again starring

and released in 2010.

Notable residents

* Jamie Walker, footballer * Scott McLaren, soldier from 4th Battalion the

Royal Regiment of Scotland The Royal Regiment of Scotland is the British Army Order of Precedence, senior and only Scottish regiment, Scottish line infantry regiment of the British Army Infantry. It consists of three regular (formerly five) and two Army Reserve (United ...

killed by the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

in July 2011

References

External links

Stevenson College

Broomview House being demolished

Contractor's demolition website, specific to Sighthill
{{coord, 55, 55, 19.09, N, 3, 17, 12.25, W, display=title Areas of Edinburgh Housing estates in Edinburgh