Currie, 14 Kirkgate

NT 18165 67620 A historic building survey was undertaken, 16 May 2016, of the former goods shed at 14 Kirkgate prior to its conversion to a house. The goods shed and sidings are to the S of the former Currie Station, part of the Slateford- Ravelrig (Balerno) line, a branch of the Caledonian Railway

from Carlisle to Edinburgh. The line was closed in 1968 and the tracks taken up, and the former railway line to the N of the site is now the Water of Leith walkway.

The building is a single large brick shed with sandstone copes and a modern cement tiled roof, dating to the late 19th century. There are large entrances at the gable ends, where trains would have ran through along the sidings, and smaller arched entrances on the N elevation (facing the railway) for carriages or trucks. The small office building adjoining the E has a raised floor, level with the former internal loading platforms, and a stepped entrance from the outside.

Inside the building, burnt timbers along the walls provide evidence of the location of the former loading platforms, and burnt timbers with iron fittings at the wall heads indicate the fittings for the former sliding doors across the arched entrances. The recent concrete floor of the building is absent in places revealing an earth floor with no evidence of the former tracks. Since the closure of the railway, the building and yard have been used as a coal yard, as a youth training facility for carpentry by Edinburgh City Council and most recently by the Ranger Service.

Archive: NRHE

Funder: K Perry and A Gordon

Elizabeth Jones – Addyman Archaeology

(Source: DES, Volume 17)