Turnhouse Road

A member of the public has provided HES with information about a dressed sandstone pillar that stands on the SW side of Turnhouse Road, about 50m SW of Lennie Cottages. The stone, which is rectangular in section, measures 0.53m in breadth by 0.45m in depth and it stands 1.24m in height to a pyramidal top. Most of its surfaces, including the top, are roughly dressed, with either horizontal or vertical droving within panels defined by plain narrow margins. Most of the front (NE) face, however, has been smoothed and its upper part exhibits an incised depiction of a hand with a finger pointing NW, below which is the following inscription: ‘GLASGOW | AND STIRLING | BY | KIRKLISTON | LINLITHGOW | AND FALKIRK’. Beneath this is a panel that has been cut slightly deeper into the face of the stone and which contains another depiction of a hand, this time pointing SE, above the inscription ‘EDINBURGH’. A flattened iron hook, which is attached to the back (SW side) of the pillar, is probably a secondary feature.

The style of the incised lettering indicates a date in the first half of the 19th century and this is consistent with the date of a surviving, probably contemporary, milestone (NT17SE 422) that stands on the NE side of Turnhouse Road some 360m to the SE. Neither the guide-post nor the milestone is depicted on the 1st edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map (Edinburghshire 1853, Sheet 1), but this is almost certainly an omission by the OS, rather than an indication that the stone was not present at the time of survey. The revised 2nd edition of the map (Edinburghshire 1909, Sheet II.NE) also fails to show a guide-post at this location, but it does depict one standing on the same side of the road some 80m to the NW at NT 16791 73746. This is undoubtedly the same stone which has simply been moved. At its former location, a Y-junction, it provided travellers from the east with directions NW to Kirkliston and SE to Edinburgh. It seems the post was moved to its present location when the construction of a link between Craig Road and Turnhouse Road created a new junction. The date the stone was moved is unknown, but it is recorded in its original position on the OS 1:2500 map (PLAN NT1673/1773), which was revised in April 1963 and published in 1964.

Information from HES Survey and Recording (JRS) 15 December 2020.