Torphin ( ) is a small area 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 ...
, with its name deriving from the nearby Torphin Hill. It lies just south of
Juniper Green, on the opposite side of the
Water of Leith
The Water of Leith (Scottish Gaelic: ''Uisge Lìte'') is the main river flowing near central Edinburgh, Scotland, and flows into the port of Leith where it flows into the sea via the Firth of Forth.
Name
The name ''Leith'' may be of Britto ...
, and sits both east and west of the
Edinburgh City Bypass: the east side mostly comprises new-build houses; the west side is largely rural, sporting a small number of mid-20th Century bungalows and one of the city's many golf courses, ''Torphin Hill Golf Club''.
Etymology
Torphin Hill itself, is the origin of the name of the suburb of Torphin, adjoins ''Warklaw Hill'' to the south-west. Its name comes from the
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
''tòrr fionn'', which means "white
tor
Tor, TOR or ToR may refer to:
Places
* Tor, Pallars, a village in Spain
* Tor, former name of Sloviansk, Ukraine, a city
* Mount Tor, Tasmania, Australia, an extinct volcano
* Tor Bay, Devon, England
* Tor River, Western New Guinea, Indonesia
Sc ...
" in contrast to the nearby Torduff, which represents ''tòrr dubh'', meaning black tor. It may or may not share a common origin with the last part of the Edinburgh name
Corstorphine.
History
The northern slope of ''Warklaw Hill'' has been extensively quarried in the past for its igneous rocks. Now disused, it is now part-occupied by ''Colinton Community Compost'', and is sometimes known as Torphin Quarry.
The hill also gave its name to ''Torphin Hill Golf Club'', which celebrated its centenary in 1995. The
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
course, which actually lay on the southern slopes of ''Corby Hill'' and the eastern slope of ''Warklaw Hill'', offered views over the city of Edinburgh and beyond. The club closed down at the start of 2014 after a prolonged decline in membership numbers.
Transport links
Lothian Buses links the area to the city centre with the number 16 bus service. Further services can be reached on the nearby Lanark Road to the north, or at
Colinton to the north-east.
References
External links
Torphin Hill Golf ClubColinton Community Compost
Map sources
Warklaw Hill
Google Maps
{{coord, 55, 53, 54, N, 3, 16, 34, W, region:GB, display=title
Areas of Edinburgh