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Longstone is a suburb 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 ...
in
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 ...
. The area is primarily
residential A residential area is a land used in which houses, housing predominates, as opposed to industrial district, industrial and Commercial Area, commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include ...
in nature, although the area includes several small shops, eateries and supermarkets, as well as one of the main bus depots for the city's buses. The population of Longstone (including Saughton) was 4,678 in 2019.


History

For much of its early history, Longstone was used for
agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...
purposes, with three
farms A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...
being recorded in the 18th century. Inglis Green Road and manor house lie on the border between Longstone and Slateford. The name Inglis Green was given in 1773 when George Inglis of Redhall leased the land to a local businessman for use as a cloth Bleaching Green. The area was formerly the site of a pre-18th century farmstead known as Gray's Mill Farm (used very briefly as a temporary headquarters by
Charles Edward Stuart Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (31 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, making him the grandson of James VII and II, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, ...
in September 1745) and subsequently developed as a mill and then as a laundry until closing in 1983. In the Victorian period, Longstone was classed as a hamlet in the parish of Colinton. Redhall park and the adjacent street names in Longstone take their name from the nearby Redhall (also known as Reidhall) castle on the border between Longstone and Craiglockhart beside the Water of Leith. The castle was owned by Adam Otterburn, a Scottish lawyer in the 16th century. It was later besieged and taken by the forces of
Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...
in 1650. In the 18th century, the castle was demolished and the stones used to build Redhall House in 1756 under the ownership of George Inglis of Auchendinny. The castle's octagonal doocot was kept and a walled garden also created. The house was subsequently inherited by his nephew, Vice-Admiral John Inglis. By the early 20th century, the House was purchased by the Edinburgh Corporation and converted to a children's home, now since defunct. Some of the adjacent estate has been converted to housing, with the doocot restored, although the main house remains abandoned. However, the walled garden is still in use, as a public garden under the ownership of the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) and lies within Longstone's boundary. Longstone developed and expanded significantly after the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and now, predominantly consists of post-war, mid 20th century housing in flats and semi-detached villas. In the 1940s, Longstone Road was known as Drumbrydon Road. The area occupied by the current Longstone Bus Garage was previously in use as a brickworks until the late 1940s. Today, housing is a mixture of terraces and flats, many consist of local authority housing, private housing and Ministry of Defence (armed services) housing, as well as former housing for prisoner officers of the nearby HM Prison Edinburgh.


Geography

Longstone borders Craiglockhart to the east, Kingsknowe and Colinton to the south, Wester Hailes and
Parkhead Parkhead () is a district in the East End of Glasgow. Its name comes from a small weaving hamlet (place), hamlet at the meeting place of the Great Eastern Road (now the Gallowgate and Tollcross Road) and Westmuir Street. Glasgow's Eastern Necro ...
to the west, and
Saughton Saughton () is a suburb of the west of Edinburgh, Scotland, bordering Broomhouse, Edinburgh, Broomhouse, Stenhouse, Edinburgh, Stenhouse, Longstone, Edinburgh, Longstone and Carrick Knowe. In Scots language, Lowland Scots, a "sauch" is a will ...
, Stenhouse and Slateford to the north. Longstone's most dramatic features are the Slateford Aqueduct (1822) carrying the Union Canal and the adjacent railway viaduct (1842). Underneath these runs the
Water of Leith The Water of Leith (Scottish Gaelic: ''Uisge Lìte'') is the main river flowing through central Edinburgh, Scotland, that starts in the Pentlands Hills and flows into the port of Leith and then into the sea via the Firth of Forth. Name The ...
, and the canal may sometimes be seen pouring out through an overflow down into the river. The Water of Leith's visitor centre lies almost underneath the aqueduct here.


Governance

Direct local governance in Longstone is carried under the direction of the Longstone Community Council, established in 1980 and funded by the
City of Edinburgh Council The City of Edinburgh Council (Scottish Gaelic: ''Comhairle Baile Dhùn Èideann'') is the local government authority covering the City of Edinburgh council area. Almost half of the council area is the built-up area of Edinburgh, capital of Sco ...
. Longstone is represented in the City of Edinburgh Council by four councillors under the Sighthill/Gorgie Ward.


Economy

The area contains one of the city's main bus depots belonging to
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 ...
, now named the Longstone Garage but formerly called the Lothian Regional Transport Office. The building was designed by T Bowhill Gibson and Laing in 1949 in the
art deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
style and was built in 1955. It has space for 220 buses. There are also a small number of shops, a large Sainsburys supermarket and a car dealership, in addition to several churches. Slateford Longstone Church (formerly known as Longstone Hall Church) was designed by the architect Leslie Grahame Thomson MacDougall in 1952 as a dual public hall and church, with a circular tower and copper roof. It was completed in 1954 and opened for worship in 1955 as a church under the
Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...
. The Longstone Inn is a 19th-century public house on Longstone road. The inn and several adjacent properties have been abandoned since 2020 after becoming unsafe, following severe flooding of the adjacent Water of Leith.


Community facilities

Hailes Quarry Park is a
public park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...
and recreation area between Longstone and Kingsknowe that is on the site of a former
quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...
that closed in 1902. Redhall park is a public park bordering Longstone and Slateford that includes a football pitch, pavillon and play area. Redhall park contains the First and
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
memorial for the Longstone and Slateford communities.


Education

Longstone has two educational facilities. Longstone Primary School is a non denominational primary school based at Redhall Grove (before 1957 it was based in Longstone Road). Longstone Primary School is a Category C listed structure and was built between 1954 and 1957 to a design by
Reid and Forbes Reid and Forbes was a firm of Scottish architects specialising in school buildings in central and southern Scotland from 1920 to 1964. They had a very distinctive style and many of their buildings are now listed buildings. History The firm was a ...
in a horizontal art deco style. It is considered a notable example of a 1950s modernist school building. Recently an additional school built next to Longstone Primary School called Redhall Primary School supports children with moderate learning difficulties.


References


External links


Longstone Community Council

Longstone Primary School

Longstone Primary School Review
{{Areas of Edinburgh Areas of Edinburgh