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Craigmillar Arts Heritage and Culture Trail

Due to interest and folk asking we are developing The Craigmillar Arts and Culture Trail (have been doing a Public Art Tour since 2001). A guided tour will take 90 minutes. Can go on foot or transport. This trail shows how Craigmillar, in Edinburgh, became Scotland’s fifth most deprived area.

Or view the picture tour of the Arts and Culture trail

Introduction
1137 saw Robert III grant the rich fertile lands of Niddry (now Craigmillar) to Gilbert Wauchope; a mercenary of French origin. Later he was to discover that below the land lay vast reserves of coal: black gold. For centuries whole families burrowed in the bowels of the earth to provide generations of Wauchopes with vast wealth. This gave them the power of life and death over those whose labour they exploited.

1. Newhailes House
Owned by The National Trust for Scotland. In 1776 Lord Hailes wrote the Annals of Scotland here.

2. Bill Douglas Plaque, Newcraighall Village
A village son who became a renowned UK film maker. The first film in his trilogy, My Childhood, is the most viewed Scottish film ever. The pit railway bridge portrayed in his films is a Mecca for his fans.

3. Balfour Fountain
Erected by villagers honouring a much loved doctor.

4. Mining Sculpture – Jake Harvey 1989
Commemorates the “Spirit of Community”. Born of centuries of abject poverty, suffering, sorrow and deprivation the strong community spirit sustained mining families. Community spirit spurred the villagers to fight to have their condemned village redeveloped as a modern village preserving its identity and its traditions of sharing and caring for one another.

Past red tiled 19th century miners’ cottages and under the bridge to what once was the
Klondyke Pit. In 1827 the pit employed 2000 and had enough coal to last 300 years. Shut down 1968.

5. Craigmillar Art Centre
In 1976 the disused St Andrews Church became the Festival Society’s art centre. It runs the annual festival of drama, music, art & sport, cavalcade, fair, pop concerts, community musicals (highlighting local issues and campaigns), pantomimes and many spectacular historical productions. It also provides tuition and practice space for visual arts, photography, video and music’ with 20 local bands at its peak. Today it is run by Craigmillar Community Arts.

6. Niddrie Burn
On whose banks once stood Niddrie Mill and the Chapel Capella

7. Monument to Andrew Gilbert Wauchope
At Niddrie School - Erected by his tenants in 1899.

8. Hayes High Chair Sculpture - Douglas Cocker
Signifies the high hopes the community has for the multi-million 21st-century regeneration.
Over the road to what was the Wauchope estate, near where the Wauchope Mansion once stood (burned by 20th century vandals) is now the Jack Kane Centre

9. Jack Kane Sports Centre and Community Wing
The centre was named, not after a Wauchope, but after a miner’s son Dr Jack Kane OBE, Craigmillar Councillor for 38 years and Edinburgh Corporation’s one and only Labour Lord Provost. A visionary, unassuming man who, from the days of the ‘hungry thirties” rallied and led the people of Craigmillar in their struggle for social justice and social inclusion. He refused a knighthood. A festival campaign got a Community Wing added.
Together with street names and part of their dyke all that remains of the Wauchope estate is the..…

10. Niddrie Standing Stone
Possibly a boundary stone or perhaps the stone marks the scene of some important conflict.

11.Wauchope Cemetery
Contains graves of the Wauchope family their tenants and folk from old Niddrie Village.

12. Wauchope Pavilion/Vault (1735)
The Wauchope family vault. Contains fragments of Chapel Capella de Nudry-Merschale, 1502, which was destroyed by a mob 1688.

13. Ice House (listed)
Cold storage for Niddrie Marshal House14. Site of Battle of Niddrie Edge (1594)
Where Bothwell fought EdmonstoneWauchopes. Much of the land granted to Gilbert Wauchope in 1137 has been sold by his descendants to build Craigmillar public housing estate and shopping centres. The fortune amassed from exploitation of colliers and their families (which includes 150 years of legalized serfdom) sustains descendants to this day. Last century they received millions for the sale of land to build Fort Kinnaird. Miners’ descendants living in Craigmillar estate inhabit what today is known as the 5th most deprived area of Scotland.

On the periphery is Greengables Nursery, campaigned for by Festival members who found the site and won a say in the appointment of the Head.

15. Gulliver
Designed 1976 by Jimmy Boyle while in prison.
Constructed by unemployed adults and youth under a Festival Society’s Job Creation Scheme with voluntary advice from professionals. The 100 ft play structure - the longest concrete sculpture in Europe, now lies neglected and threatened with demolition. To the people of Craigmillar it is an enduring legacy of their journey from “Hard Man” to “Gentle Giant”. The Society’s Comprehensive Plan for Action. The Gentle Giant who Shares and Cares records the journey and gives 400 recommendations for the enhancement of the quality of life in Craigmillar suggested by local people.

16. Public Library
Here as a result of a hard won community fight. Authorities argued, “People in Craigmillar don’t read”. It has recently won national acclaim for their “Book for Babies” initiative.

17. Robin Chapel’s stained glass windows by Sadie McClelland
McClelland is recognized as one of the finest stained glass artists of the 20th century.

18. Richmond Church
To reminisce about the many rollicking Community Musicals staged there. Written, costumed and produced by local people. From The Time Machine (protesting at a motorway to be built through the area) to Shoo, portraying real life poverty. Richmond Church continues today with many great projects including its coffee shop.

19. Children’s House Nursery
Innovative preschool education since the 1930’s.

20 The Maxwell Mural: Children’s Games & Amusements by John Maxwell
By the end of the century it was derelict, forgotten and about to be destroyed in the demolition of the condemned Craigmillar School. Then thanks to the foresight and efforts of local people it was listed and protected. Through Castlerock Housing Association the building was refurbished as an Art and Social Enterprise Complex to provide business units, a Theatre and a gallery. The Maxwell Mural was restored and preserved for posterity.

21.Adventure Playground (the Venchie)
Where, through play, generations of children have had fun and outdoor learning.

22. Craigmillar College Settlement
In 1934 enlightened Edinburgh University students and staff raised £54,000 and built what became known as the ‘the college’. Bringing opportunities for further education, arts and sport to an area where they were sadly lacking. It became the hub of the community, an exciting and stimulating place to be.
Forty years later Craigmillar Festival Society, founded 1962, by mothers angry and frustrated at the lack of education and employment opportunities for their children, won the right to use the building as their Headquarters. Unleashing people’s creative energies they brought international acclaim to Craigmillar by pioneering use of community arts as the catalyst for social action, social caring and social change. This brought people from all over the world to Craigmillar to study what was happening and take home the blueprint. In 2000 the Council claiming the Society was overstretched closed it down. Today it is the home of various community based projects that continue this tradition.

23. Monument to an unknown murdered baby
Erected by local mothers who named him Craig Millar and from their shallow pockets gave him a Christian burial.

24. Niddrie Marischal School. (1930’s Art Décor listed building)
Upgraded from three to six year high school by a local parents’ Festival Society campaign. It is now a business centre.

25. The Whitehouse Roadhouse (1930’s listed Art Décor building)
The notorious reputation gained stemmed from the area’s social problems - mass unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, crime and anti-social behaviour: partly the result of the 1930’s social engineering experiment, which gave people houses, no social mix and none of the facilities necessary for 20th century urban living.

26. Peffermill House, Peffermill Inn, Peffermill Industrial Estate and Breweries.
Where Walter Scott wrote the Laird of Dumbiedykes, Next to where Peffermill Inn used to be –where ‘Half Hangit Dickson’ rose from her coffin.

27. Peffermill Industrial Estate and Breweries
Beside Peffermill house is Peffermill Industrial Estate, the result of a hard fought Craigmillar Festival campaign. For over two centuries seven breweries employed thousands of locals here.

28. Craigmillar Castle built 1374
Noted for its grandeur and historic interest. A favourite resort of Stuart Kings and Mary Queen of Scots, it became the scene of some of the darkest and most sinister events in Scottish history. Today it is a tourist attraction treasured by the surrounding population, who use it as a unique theatre linking past, present and future, enabling them put down roots on which to keep journeying towards the creation of an outward looking sustainable sharing, caring, creative community.

List of places to see

1. Newhailes House
2. Bill Douglas Plaque, Newcraighall Village
3. Balfour Fountain
4. Mining Sculpture by Jake Harvey 1989.
5. Craigmillar Art Centre
6. Niddrie Burn
7. Monument to Andrew Gilbert Wauchope.
8. Hayes High Chair Sculpture by Douglas Cocker
9. Jack Kane Sports Centre and Community Wing
10. Niddrie Standing Stone
11. Cemetery
12. Pavillion/Vault (1735)
13. Ice House (listed)
14. Site of Battle of Niddrie Edge (1594)
15. Gulliver
16. Public Library
17. Robin Chapel’s stained glass windows by Sadie McClelland
18. Richmond Church
19. Children’s House Nursery
20. The Maxwell Mural-. Children’s Games & Amusements by John Maxwell
21. Adventure Playground (the Venchie)
22. Craigmillar College Settlement
23. Monument to an unknown murdered baby
24. Niddrie Marischal School. (1930’s Art Décor listed building)
25. The Whitehouse Roadhouse (1930’s listed Art Décor building).
26. Peffermill House,
27. Peffermill Inn, Peffermill Industrial Estate and Breweries.
28. Craigmillar Castle built 1374

You can walk, tour, cycle this tour yourself or simply contact us to arrange a guided tour. Group and School tours are welcomed.

Prices are £3.00 per adult, £1.50 per child.

All proceeds from the tours go back into the Community via the Craigmillar Communiversity.

The Craigmillar Communiversity is a voluntary organisation.