The Mouth of the Figgate Burn - geograph

The Braid Burn is a

burn A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ultraviolet radiation (like sunburn). Most burns are due to heat from hot liquids (called scalding), solids, or fire. Burns occur ma ...

or stream in length that flows through south and east

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 ...

Course

The burn forms near Bonaly in the Pentland Hills south-west of the city, when the Bonaly and Howden burns that flow from the Pentlands meet. From there, it flows in a generally north-easterly direction, skirting the

Braid Hills The Braid Hills form an area towards the south-western edge of Edinburgh, Scotland. The hills themselves are largely open space. Housing in the area is mostly confined to detached villas, and some large terraced houses. The ''Braid Hills Hotel'' ...

to the east and south, via the Braid Valley Park, the

Hermitage of Braid The Hermitage of Braid is an area between the Braid Hills and Blackford Hill. The Braid Burn runs through it. It comprises part of the Hermitage of Braid and Blackford Hill Local Nature Reserve. History The Braid estate was the property of t ...

, Blackford Glen,

Cameron Toll Cameron Toll is a suburb located to the south of Edinburgh, Scotland. Originally it was the site of a toll house built in the early 19th century, which was located on a stretch of road between Edinburgh and Dalkeith. The meaning of the name ...

and Inch Park. On reaching Peffermill it is joined by the

Jordan Burn The Jordan Burn, is the name of a stream, now culverted for much of its course, that runs through the Victorian suburb of Morningside in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was until 1856 the southern boundary of the city and county. It is a tributary of ...

, and at

Duddingston Duddingston ( sco, Duddiston) is a historic village in the east of Edinburgh, Scotland, next to Holyrood Park. Origins and etymology The estate wherein Duddingston Village now lies was first recorded in lands granted to the Tironensian monks ...

its name changes to the Figgate Burn. It flows on to enter the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

at Portobello. The area of the basin drained by the burn and its tributaries amounts to . The burn rises quickly after rain, and can become very large when in spate. 80 per cent of the catchment area of the burn is in the lower urban section, the other portion being south of the Edinburgh City Bypass. The burn flows through part of its course in a gorge cut by glacial meltwater that exposed a weakness in the rock. Prior to this, the burn took a more southerly course around

Blackford Hill Blackford Hill is a hill in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. It is in the area of Blackford, between Morningside, and the Braid Hills. Together with the Hermitage of Braid, it comprises the Hermitage of Braid and Blackford Hill L ...

. The gorge also prevented the building of houses along parts of the course, so the burn flows for several miles through parkland.

Wildlife

The burn contains small

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...

and bullhead, and otters are occasionally seen in the burn.

Flood prevention

The burn has a history of flooding, and major events occurred on 3 January 1982, 28 May 1983, 3 November 1984, 6 October 1990, 7 October 1993, 26–27 April 2000, 7–8 November 2000, and in October 2002. After the flooding in 2000, 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 ...

elected to install a flood prevention scheme along much of the stream's length. Walls and embankments were constructed at points along the length of the burn, and new culverts and bridges were installed, and alterations to upstream reservoirs in the Pentland Hills were carried out. Parks and golf courses were modified to store water in the event of a flood. The scheme was completed in 2010 at a construction cost of , an increase from the estimated cost of . The total cost of the scheme was . The scheme is designed to withstand 1 in 200 year event, and provides protection to around 900 properties.

In Literature

The burn is mentioned in Muriel Spark's famous novel of Edinburgh, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, when Sandy and Miss Brodie meet after the war at the Braid Hills Hotel: 'They looked out of the wide windows at the little Braid Burn trickling through the fields and at the hills beyond, so austere from everlasting that they had never been capable of losing anything by the war.'

References

External links

Braidburn Valley Park

Water levels in the burn
{{authority control Rivers of Edinburgh