Greenhill Place from St Margaret's Road

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 23 May 2023

In common with the vast majority of Central Edinburgh, this is part of a conservation area - Merchiston and Greenhill. Greenhill Place, whilst just as grand and sedate as its neighbours, is slightly different, consisting of just one long (for the area) terrace; the other side is garden walls. The two properties straight ahead - numbers 10 and 11 - are a smidge taller than the rest. My theory is that since they have the best view the developers decided to add slightly more to their value and resulting profit margins. The whole terrace is Category B listed. They would have looked up St Margaret's Road to St Margaret's Convent (now the Gillis Centre), famous for being the first Catholic convent established in Scotland after the big Protestant takeover centuries before outlawed such establishments. The last nun(s) left in 1986, presumably rehoused due to decreasing numbers and the size of the place. Greenhill was an estate created by the subdividing of a bigger estate in the 16th Century. It once had a big house, which makes a brief appearance on a 1680s map, then disappears. By the 19th Century another Greenhill House is shown close to Bruntsfield Links - online sources seem quite confident they weren't one and the same. Heading into the city centre from Morningside, the main road climbs quite steeply before dropping down a little to Holy Corner, then rises a little again. It seems most likely that Green Hill would have once referred to either the Southernmost top, roughly where the road of Church Hill is today, or the small hill as a whole, despite the second Greenhill House being sited on the Northern 'shoulder' bump.

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