Clermiston is a suburb of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, to the west of the city and to the immediate north of

Corstorphine Corstorphine (Scottish Gaelic: ''Crois Thoirfinn'') ( ) is an area of the Scottish capital city of Edinburgh. Formerly a separate village and parish to the west of Edinburgh, it is now a suburb of the city, having been formally incorporate ...

, on the western slopes of

Corstorphine Hill Corstorphine Hill is a low ridge-shaped hill rising above the western suburbs of Edinburgh, Scotland. Although there has been residential and commercial development on its lower slopes, especially in the south and west, most of the hill is occu ...

. 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 Gorgie ( ) is a densely populated area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located in the west of the city and borders Murrayfield, Ardmillan and Dalry. Name The name is thought to be Brythonic in origin. Early forms suggest it derives from ''gor g ...

. The area is now home to more than 20,000 people, and abuts onto Drumbrae, 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 Davidson's Mains is a former village and now a district in the north-west of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is adjacent to the districts of Barnton, Edinburgh, Barnton, Cramond, Silverknowes, Blackhall, Edinburgh, Blackhall and Corbiehill/House O'Hill ...

. 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 George Wimpey was a British construction firm. Formed in 1880 and based in Hammersmith, it initially operated largely as a road surfacing contractor. The business was acquired by Godfrey Mitchell in 1919, and he developed it into a constructi ...

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 Queen Margaret University is a university, founded in 1875 and located in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is named after the Scottish Queen Saint Margaret. History The university was founded in 1875, as ''The Edinburgh School of Cookery and Domestic ...

, 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 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, 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

References

{{Areas of Edinburgh Areas of Edinburgh Housing estates in Edinburgh

History

Schools

Infrastructure

Notable residents

Further reading

References