Jordan Burn, near Blackford

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 18 Apr 2023

Jordan Burn only appears in short sections as it spends most of its time underground - the long culverts were put in due to the expansion of South Edinburgh in the late 19th Century. OpenStreetMap shows the course of the underground sections. Whilst collaborative websites must always be treated with some caution, the fact that only a map enthusiast would bother going to the trouble of adding an underground stream, coupled with there being a huge amount of very detailed old maps of the capital around, means that it can probably be trusted. It used to be called Pow Burn (which makes sense as 'pow' is an old Scots word for 'head') and still goes by that name a little further downstream. It was doubtless renamed in order to be in keeping with the very grand-sounding biblical street-names that were springing up in Morningside at the time of the expansion. It is said that these streets got given their names on account of there once having been a farm called Little Egypt in the vicinity. And this farm apparently got its name because in centuries gone by there were gypsy camps close to its location. They used to think that gypsies came from Egypt but the accepted wisdom these days is that they got to Egypt from India, if indeed they ever passed through there at all. The narrow mud path stops abruptly just behind this spot. This short section can be accessed via Egypt Mews or by following the Eastern wall of the Astley Ainslie Hospital grounds down to the trees.

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