History today

Since I've been visiting the big pond at Straiton, I've been interested in the history of the area.  Where now are the identikit sheds of Lidl and Halfords and Boots and Sainsbury's and 47 different carpet shops was once a huge shale oil works.  Not a lot of the old Straiton is left: two rows of East Straiton Cottages on what used to be the main road were demolished only about twelve years ago, along with the Straiton Inn, which was latterly Coach House and quite respectable until it closed and rather quickly fell into ruin.  Mid Straiton Cottages are still there, slightly further south, and the odd alignment of them marks the route of the old road before it was all dual carriagewayed.

But Straiton Oil Works was quite an enterprise from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, a mass of small buildings housing retorts and shafts and little tramways and things to make paraffin.  The Straiton shale field was quite extensive, and ran as far north as the lime works at Burdiehouse.  Parts of the facility were still going in the 1950s.  One bit that closed much earlier though was the railway that connected the northernmost mine, the Mortonhall Pit no.10, with the oil works at Straiton.  Where the pit was is now a sort of park, and there is no sign of the railway – except for where it crossed under the main road that leads southeast to Loanhead.  Amazingly the little tunnel is still there!  It's shut up at the southern end, and I've no idea about the northern end but will have a nosy one day.  You could go up and down the road and never have any idea, and only rampant curiosity brought about by a very old and out of place looking piece of wall might encourage the visitor to investigate further.  But it's why there is a neat line of trees behind the Lidl.  The Mortonhall pit didn't last all that long and the railway was gradually dismantled between about 1900 and 1910.

A bit south from Straiton Oil Works the railway jinked west and there was a level crossing on the A701, but that has long gone along with the Pentland Oil Works it connected with.  Interestingly, the Pentland works only lasted about 15 years.  There was a huge argument with the then Edinburgh and District Water Trust, who already had underground pipes bringing water into Edinburgh from Glencorse and Loganlea reservoirs in the Pentland Hills.  After ten years of wrangling, the E&DWT won, and the Clippens Oil Company lost, and by then their Pentland facility was derelict.

After tunnelbagging it was a whizz round the shops for the usual supplies and then home to zonk with a headache: probably a combination of tiredness and yesterday morning's migraine.