IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Burns Place, EDINBURGH, EH6 5QD

A tenement on Newhaven Road built for the workers of Robert Burns' skinworks which was established at Bonnington Mills in 1832 and rapidly expanded. The block was built in 1890 and renovated in the 1970s. Image

The tablet on a tenement built for employees of an adjacent tannery shows a sheep and the tools of the tanner's trade. Image

A narrow building between Newhaven Road and Bonnyhaugh Lane.

A group of preserved buildings recalling a time when the Water of Leith powered 76 mills along its course. The figure, from 1792, comprised the following types of mill: 24 flour; 14 oatmeal; 2 barley; 7 saw; 6 snuff; 5 cloth fulling; 4 paper; 2 lint; 2 leather [information from Hamish Coghill's book 'Discovering The Water of Leith' 1988]

The only surviving example of the 64 waterwheels which existed on the Water of Leith in 1854. It was removed from its original position nearby to this section of the former mill lade in the 1980s.

The wheel was of the 'undershot' type, its blades being pushed by the water moving under it. The water level in the lade was controlled by sluice gates at Redbraes weir.

The centre is just south of the Water of Leith. There was something noisy going on in the room above the vennel, but it doesn't seem to be a pub or other place of recreation.

The mill manager's house at Bonnington Mills.

The land and mills of Bonnytoun are mentioned in King David I’s confirmation charter to the Abbey of Holyrood in 1143. Like the nearby village of Canonmills, Bonnington was a milling village making use of the river’s water-power. In 1617 the Town Council bought the land and mills from the Logans of Restalrig and installed Jeromias van der Heill from the Netherlands as a dyer to teach his craft to the locals. This house was built for him in 1621 and named Bonnyhaugh* by a later occupant. When the mill buildings were demolished in the face of local protests in the 1980s, the house was saved, restored and converted into private apartments. The low cottage at its side was the original dying room which later became a blacksmith’s smiddy. *pronounced hawch or haw, meaning a riverside meadow For the rear view, see Image

The house dates from the early 17th century and was originally the home of a dyer. One of its later occupants was the learned scholar, Robert Keith, a bishop of the Scottish Episcopal Church and strong supporter of the exiled Charles Edward Stuart with whom he conducted a long correspondence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_(historian)