Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Edinburgh, Lochrin, Steam Engine
Steam Engine (18th Century), Steam Engine House (18th Century), Unidentified Pottery(S) (Medieval)
Site Name Edinburgh, Lochrin, Steam Engine
Classification Steam Engine (18th Century), Steam Engine House (18th Century), Unidentified Pottery(S) (Medieval)
Canmore ID 340990
Site Number NT27SW 4758
NGR NT 24733 72842
NGR Description centred
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/340990
- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County Midlothian
Excavation (November 2012 - 30 January 2013)
NT 2466 7276 An excavation was carried out, November 2012 – January 2013, on the site of proposed student accommodation at Lochrin Place, 19 West Tollcross. Cartographic evidence shows the area lies to the N of the former Lochrin Basin and overlies buildings dating from the mid-19th century, including structures associated with a distillery, brewery and iron foundry. The excavations found that the wall foundations, floor surfaces and machine bases of the various phases of buildings survive intact, though the central area of the site has been heavily truncated.
A considerable depth of garden soil was recorded at 3.7m below the current ground surface. This might be associated with gardens shown on early 19th-century maps of the site. Two deposits of buried horticultural soil were visible; the upper deposit contained pottery dating to the 17th to early 18th century. The underlying deposit was lighter in colour and contained pottery dating from the 12th to 15th century. A large ditch, pits and postholes were cut through the earlier garden soil.
Archive: RCAHMS (intended)
Funder: Watkin Jones Group Ltd
Laura Bailey, Headland Archaeology Ltd, 2013
(Source: DES)
OASIS ID: OASIS ID: headland1-144811
Note (14 July 2014)
Lochrin Distillery was built by James Haig (1755-1833) in 1780 in the area that is now the covergence of Ponton Street, Thornybauk and West Tollcross. Lochrin Distillery is depicted and named on the Ainslie map of 1804 (Ainslie, John 'Old and New Town of Edinburgh and Leith with the proposed docks', 1804).
A 'steam engine' is depicted as a circular structure at NT24733 72842, located on land identified as belonging to 'Mr Haig' and is probably linked to the distillery.
James Haig also built the Canonmills Distillery in 1783 and Sudbury Distillery in the early 1800s.
Information from RCAHMS (MMD), 14 July 2014.
