Davidson's Mains is a former village and now a district in the north-west of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is adjacent to the districts of Barnton, Cramond, Silverknowes, Blackhall and Corbiehill/House O'Hill. It was absorbed into Edinburgh as part of the boundary changes in 1920 and is part of the EH4 postcode area. Locals sometimes abbreviate the name to D'Mains.

Etymology

Davidson's Mains is named after William Davidson, a wealthy merchant who bought the nearby estate of Muirhouse in 1776. " Mains" is the Scots word for an estate farm or home farm. Prior to the 19th century, it was known as Muttonhole. That name appears on an 1845 map, but was replaced by Davidson's Mains on the 1852

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

. Locals continued to use the name Muttonhole until at least 1860. According to Stuart Harris, a suggestion that ''mutton-'' derives from the Anglian ''(ge)mythe'', meaning the junction of roads or streams, does not stand up in the light of several other places named Muttonhole in lowland Scotland. Rather, the name is Early Scots ''mouton holh'' or ''halh'', a place were ''moutons'' or wedder lambs were pastured.

History

The original village runs east-west and is still identifiable as a series of modest cottages on each side of the road. Quality Street was added in 1827, designed by James Gillespie Graham. The church on Quality Street was built as Cramond Free Church in 1843 and is by David Cousin. The railway arrived late in 1894 but spurred villa development to the north and north-west.

Description

Within the district there is a variety of shops and businesses, ranging from cobblers to large supermarkets, as well as food outlets of various kinds. The district is also served by four churches, a Tesco, 2 veterinary surgery, a doctor's surgery, two dental surgeries, the Corbie and other takeaways, a primary school and a Greggs. The state secondary school that serves the area is the Royal High School. Davidson's Mains Park is near the high school which has a play park and a football pitch.

Public Transport

Davidson's Mains railway station closed in 1951 prior to the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...

due to underuse. The area lay beyond the Edinburgh tram network. The district is currently served by two bus routes run by

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 Lothia ...

: the 21, which runs between the Gyle Centre and the Royal Infirmary, and the 47, which runs between Cammo and Penicuik.

References

External links

Davidson's Mains Parish Church (Church of Scotland)

Church of the Holy Cross Davidson's Mains (Scottish Episcopal)
{{Areas of Edinburgh Areas of Edinburgh