New Craig House

Another lovely spring day, so I had a walk up to Easter Craiglockhart hill. I used to go there a lot when I lived just across the road, but I haven't been back for quite a while. It's a lovely green space where you can escape from the grey of the city, and there's always a lot of wildlife around.
I wandered through the woods and past the pond before I went up the hill, and I came across a new (well, new to me - not sure how long it's been there!) information board about the history of the estate and what it's been used for. Very interesting!

You get a great view from the top of the hill, looking right over the west of the city, and if you come down the other side, there's a lovely view of the castle, old town, Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat, and on a good day (like today), you can see North Berwick Law.

I was almost going to use one of these views for today's blip, but in the end decided to go for New Craig House, which you pass on the way down the hill (or up, depending on which way you go!). There are several buildings on this site, including Old Craig House, which dates from 1565! The newer buildings were built in the 1800s as a mental hospital, and were used to treat patients until the mid 90s when they were bought by Napier University.
Unfortunately, the future of the site currently seems to be up in the air. Planning applications have been put forward for housing, but many Edinburgh residents have campained against these as it is thought the buildings would destroy a very important area for the community and for wildlife - and it's on one of the famous seven hills of Edinburgh!
Hopefully something positive will be done soon though, as at the moment a lot of the windows are boarded up, some buildings are fenced off, and it all looks a bit sad. Such a shame to see such history and amazing architecture slowly starting to decompose!
There are some really interesting old photos of the interior here.