Cannonmills

Category

Library Item

Item no

1124

Title

Cannonmills

Artist / maker

Skene, James

Date

1818

Size

15 x 20 cm.

Type

Watercolour

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

The locality of Canonmills lies approximately half a mile north of Princes Street on the boundaries of Edinburgh's' northern New Town. The name Canonmills is derived from its medieval origins. During the reign of King David 1 (1123-1153), Augustinian canons from Holyrood Abbey founded the village. The King constructed a large mill for their use on the south side of the water of Leith. The Canongate Loch, pictured in James Skene's watercolour drawing, lay immediately below what is now the Royal Crescent. Coots and water-hen built their nests in the sedges (1). The last part of the Loch was drained in the early 1860s made way for the Patent Royal Gymnasium, a large outdoor area given over to fitness and recreation. Devices included a rotary boat, 471 feet in diameter, seating 600 rowers, and a giant see-saw capable of seating 200 people and raising them to a height of 50 feet from the ground.

(1) Grant, James, Old and New Edinburgh, Edinburgh 1883, Vol III, 87

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Related subjects

Architecture > Architectural features > Chimneys

Landscape > Water > Loch, lakes and ponds

Manufacturing Industry > Manufacturing facilities > Mills

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Plants > Trees > Trees

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