The Heritage Trail

Had a wander along the Corstorphine Heritage trail ... the weather is quite nice today, which is obviously the calm before the remnants of Hurricane Katia appears.

The signs for Corstorphine's heritage trail feature a sycamore leaf, a reference to the affection felt locally for the Corstorphine sycamore. A separate subspecies (Acer pseudoplatanus Corstorphinense) the tree was 55 feet in height and 12.5 feet in girth when it fell victim to gales in December 1998. The stump can still be seen, as can several of the tree's descendants - most notably in Corstorphine churchyard.

Many tales surround the sycamore. Some say there is buried treasure nearby. One tale with its basis in fact is that of the fiery-tempered Lady Christian Nimmo, mistress (and also niece) of Lord James Forrester. One day in 1679, after a quarrel, she ran her lover through with his own sword, a crime for which she was later executed. It?s said that her ghost, the White Lady of Corstorphine, can still be seen close to the site of the sycamore.

The local new Wetherspoons pub is called 'The White Lady'.