East Craigs is a residential district 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 ...

located in the north-west of the city, on the western flanks 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 ...

. It lies next to the

green belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which ...

, and prior to development was a working farm. Development of the area began in 1922 when East Craigs Farm was purchased by the

Scottish Agricultural Science Agency SASA (formerly the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency) is a division of the Scottish Government Agriculture and Rural Delivery Directorate. It provides scientific advice and support on a range of agricultural and environmental topics to the ...

(SASA) as a centre for agricultural research. However, much of the land was made available to housing developers from the 1930s onwards. It neighbours

West Craigs West Craigs is the name given to two separate areas of Scotland: *A suburb on the western periphery of Edinburgh, south-east of Edinburgh Airport and close to The Gyle Shopping Centre, Gogar, Maybury and Edinburgh Gateway station. *A modern ...

(which is much less developed, at present),

Maybury Maybury is an area on the western edge of Edinburgh, Scotland, near South Gyle and Ingliston, named after the road, which is itself named after the civil engineer Sir Henry Maybury (1864–1943). In 2021, residents have been undertaking commun ...

Drumbrae Drumbrae or Drum Brae (Scottish Gaelic: ''Druim Bràigh'') is the name of a suburb of west Edinburgh, Scotland generally considered to be part of the neighbouring larger areas of Corstorphine and Clermiston. This is a commuter settlement as man ...

and

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 ...

History

"Craigs" is an old Broad Scots word for rocks, derived from Celtic, and it is named in contradistinction to nearby "

". Corstorphine Hill was formerly known as "Corstorphine Craigs". The oldest building in East Craigs is East Craigs House (), built in 1768 with a semi-octagonal stairwell added c.1800. It once formed part of the now-demolished SASA complex, and has recently been restored as part of the new residential development there. New developments of small family-sized houses and low-rise flats were built in the 1970s and 1980s. In the neighbouring estate of Craigmount which is part of

and was developed before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, there are numerous bungalows and spacious family houses.

Craigmount High School Craigmount High School is a non-denominational secondary school in Edinburgh, Scotland with 1,269 pupils located in the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is situated between Corstorphine, East Craigs and Drumbrae and it moved into new premises at ...

is situated between East Craigs,

and

and serves the East Craigs area. It was built in 1970 to alleviate pressure on surrounding secondary schools. A new building opened at the beginning of the 2003 academic year, built on the old playing fields of the original school. East Craigs Primary School was built in 1979 to accommodate an influx of families moving into newly built housing nearby. The nearest Roman Catholic schools are Fox Covert R.C. Primary School and St.Augustine's High School. The Bughtlin

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 ...

flows through the area. The names of many roads and developments in East Craigs reflect the area's farming past, e.g. Hayfield, Mearenside, Burnbrae. Bughtlin Green and Bughtlin Loan were two of the earliest developments in East Craigs, built by local builder (and ex-Hibs owner) Tom Hart. Almond Green, which was also built by Hart in 1974, was actually split into two areas, with a small grass and play area joining them. Almond Square (built at the same time) is adjacent. Maybury Telephone Exchange was also positioned opposite the entrance to Almond Green and served the area with 031-339 numbers, then later with 0131-317 and 339. Safeway opened what was then, the largest of their stores in Scotland, in 1981 at Bughtlin Market. There were a small row of shops around Safeway : John Menzies (the newsagent), Jane Montgomery (hairdresser), a chemist and a video hire shop. East Craigs Medical Centre serves as a

doctor's surgery A doctor's office in American English, a doctor's surgery in British English, or a doctor's practice, is a medical facility in which one or more medical doctors, usually general practitioners (GP), receive and treat patients. Description Doc ...

to much of East Craigs,

Clermiston Clermiston is a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland, to the west of the city and to the immediate north of Corstorphine, on the western slopes of Corstorphine Hill. Clermiston estate, built in 1954, was part of a major 1950s house-building programme ...

and the

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 ...

area, and is situated next to East Craigs Church Centre. When

Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headqu ...

bought over Safeway in 2004, the store soon became a

; however, due to competition regulation,

were forced to sell the store to

Somerfield Somerfield (; originally Gateway) was a chain of small to medium-sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The company also previously owned the Kwik Save chain of discount food stores. The company was taken over by the Co-operati ...

has also acquired a Safeway in the nearby Gyle Shopping Centre. With a Tesco Extra a couple of miles away from East Craigs,

were forced to shut up shop, and the store and surrounding row (originally leased by Safeway) were later demolished for housing and a new small complex of shops including a Co-operative,

Lloyds Pharmacy LloydsPharmacy is a British pharmacy company. It has around 17,000 staff and dispenses over 150 million prescription items annually. It is owned by the Aurelius Group. It was formerly owned by the American McKesson Corporation. Overview The co ...

and a takeaway. The Mid Yoken pub was included as part of the original development, as a provision for the community. The name commemorates the spot nearby, which was the site of an old steading which has long since gone. The steading was the middle meeting place of the local ploughmen, and also where horses would be yoked to the plough. The name mid-yoken, probably means “The middle place to yoke the horses”. However the Scots dictionary "Yokin vbl. n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 26 Nov 2019 also states that a Mid yokin is "a break in the middle of a yokin". Here, Yokin means "period during which a horse is in harness at one stretch" The area is served by the Lothian Buses 31, which uses the turning circle outside the Mid Yoken Pub as its terminus. Until the early 2000s, East Craigs was also served by the now-defunct 82 route.

References

External links

East Craigs Primary School
website. {{coord, 55, 56, 57.43, N, 3, 18, 34.99, W, display=title Areas of Edinburgh

History

See also

References

External links