Edinburgh | Dean Village & Water of Leith

Edinburgh | Dean Village & Water of Leith

Come on we must be getting close to the time now oh a minute to go I’m counting down too quickly it’s pe oh no there’s nothing worse oh here we go that’s it time to start official time to start there might be a tune I don’t know we’ll

See everyone’s looking at this going this isn’t the dean Village we’ll get there in a second Southampton blue and sunny nice nice so there’s the dongs telling us it’s 4:00 in the afternoon GMT now this is the end of Prince Street okay uh and I just wanted to start here this time just so that people who um aren’t sure how to get to the dean Village when they get here this I’m just going to walk you there okay so you can

See you’ve got St John’s Church just in front of us the one behind with the clock tower St cubber’s and then behind that Edinburgh Castle and there’s the Caledonian Hotel the wal off Historia and Johnny Walkers and I’m just going to walk you over and you’ll be able to see

Princess Street okay so you’re just at the West End of Princess Street it’s running up to loing Road up to the right there so I’ve had you here before right so here we are so we’re just going to walk along queen fairy Street uh once we get across the crossing actually I’ve

Just realized forgot there’s a green man here it’s quite it’s quite bright walking into the Sun at the moment right so Queen’s fairy that comes from St Margaret I’ve mentioned her lots of times but she is quite an important person in her history um and she introduced the fairy or had her husband

Malcolm Canmore introduced the ferry across the river forth so that’s where it comes from oh I’m glad you got here Barb hi Robin so yeah um I just wanted to walk you there just so that you can see it’s it’s really honestly not far um cuz I don’t think half you believe me

When I say it’s 5 minutes quite a lot of um offices and things in this area uh a few shops oops it easy oops and easy Scotland shop there you go all things tting lambs will lots of places to to eat get a coffee that kind of thing

Right now when we’ve done the the new town um I’ve I have occasionally mentioned the Maria States and that’s just ahead of us through the lights there it’s the other side of it cuz usually when I’ve shown you it’s been when we’ve been at the Queen Street end but I am taking you

On um couple of new Time Tours I think it’s is it Tuesday and weddingday so if you’re go on to my channel uh on YouTube and then just click the reminders you know the bells and then you’ll get the notifications when they they come on and remember to allow notifications on your devices

Um most tartans are wool but you can get synthetics as well because there’s lots of people that can’t um handle wool or don’t want to to use wool so this is Melville Street and unfortunately uh you’re not going to get the best view of it because as you can

See the sun is H shining right at us and what you’re looking at at the end of the street is St Mary’s uh Cathedral we have two cathedrals in Edinburgh and they’re both called St Mary one’s Roman Catholic one’s Episcopal St Giles isn’t actually a cathedral it’s the high Kirk

Of Edinburgh and it’s Presbyterian so Presbyterians don’t have Bishops so they don’t have Cathedrals so that’s Randol present just across the main that’s a private Garden um Randol C is like I say part of the Maria States it was a really difficult parcel of land to build on

Because there’s a cliff Edge at the back and it was the first speculative kind of building they built sort of 50 super mansions and the risk was that had never been done before nobody had ever built houses to sell them it had always been you buy your land you build your house

It paid off hi Judy oh excuse me that’s the wind catching me now my nose is beginning run rookie mistake I don’t think I’ve got hanky right some beautiful architecture here as well I am going to do take your Wonder around here at some point so you see it’s not a long walk

We’re nearly There there we are so just looking across rangol present it is a beautiful present back to L right now straight ahead of us the car that’s just gone off to the right that is the dean Bridge so when we’ve done underneath the dean Bridge so just

To let you see how high up we Are they couldn’t be together yeah where is high SED in and there we’ve seen that church when we’ve been down in the valley it’s a Christian Center now just going to come over and get down these steps now there’s two ways to get down into the dean Village from

Here you can walk down this street and there’s flights of stairs that take you down to or you just follow it around and then eventually you walk back into it and but the the most straightforward is this one to take you down so that’s the dean Bridge just over

There I was going to take you on to it but I’m just going to wait till this car gets out the way there we Go so yeah so you can see when you’re walking along here you’re not actually catching much of a view um but I’ll get past these trees and we can have a look down here we are see so it it’s quite far down there and that’s why it kind of gets

Overlooked cuzz people just don’t realize you know all right so that’s the back of the mor States so we’ve seen it from the front but see how far down that Valley goes and then that heads you off out into LEF sky is beautiful it really is we’re so

Lucky get across the door hopefully she says we’ll wait right no traffic I know there’s tons of traffic the chances we just wait until these the lights have clearly changed at the other end of the Street right there’s a few cars coming we’ll just need to wait another two that way and I think we should be fine oh no there’s a bus oh that’s what I get for crossing the road here we are so the height of the building just

Next to us this is the height of some of one of the the Mills that was here let me just so there you okay there we go isn’t that beautiful you’ve got the crossed peels of the backers you’ve got a wheat sheath you’ve got scales with bags of flour you’ve got hourglasses

Um and I can’t read what it says uh but I can see the date 1690 so that’s been preserved placed here this is Kirk B house steam bridge look at the the entrance over it as well nice gate yeah right let’s get you down into the village it is quite

Steep um so just take it easy right if you go down this way if you don’t want to have to to walk you can actually get a taxi now in the distance you can see two chimneys sticking up that’s um mod 2 and it’s the dean orphanage um it’s now a modern art

Gallery too right oh I’ve not done the art galleries for a while maybe should do it now the way we were walking is kind of the way people had to um go before the bridge was built to actually cross the water of leth which is the the river

That runs through it um so they would have to come down in to the dean Village although the dean Village was slightly up the hill on the other side and we had the water of leth uh Village and you know they eventually became one right so yeah I mean the good thing is

You don’t get tour buses and things coming down here cuz it’s just it’s just not suitable for big buses so it usually isn’t too crowded although you do get like student groups as you can see so this is the original flagstones that we’ve got and then we’ve got the modern

Ones just here and then we’ve got houses well buildings that have served other purposes now turned into houses so this was a garage you can see where the original opening was there and you can just make out some of the the old Saage there is a lovely host that one oops so easy there so we’re in BSB a bre a hill see up between the buildings and then this yellow building that we’re seeing that was built in 1675 or there Abouts if we turn around here you can see the bridge so that’s where we’re we were standing looking down on this when we were up There oops it Daisy so here you can see the date stone so this has been turned into houses now this used to be like the townhouse for the backstairs there was green storage and all that kind of anything here there’s a huge um student population in Edinburgh um we have the

University of Edinburgh we have haret W University we’ve got Napier University and we’ve got Queen Margaret University so we do have a lot of students um living here keeps the place young the way and so this was originally the main entrance um but it’s been blocked up

Here you can see see God bless the backers of Edinburgh who built this house 1675 and then if we look up we have their symbol which is the crossed peels the two bags of flour on the right of the peel you can see it has a hole in it

That’s a pie and on the left there should have been three round loes there’s only two now one’s falling off it’s a lovely day for a tour no it really is a lovely day for a tour and here you can see you’ve got a Turnpike staircase we see see these a

Lot in in any of the old times that you’ll visit they’re compact they’re built defensively and here we’ve got this little cutout and that’s so when the horses and carriages would go this way um to go to the Ford to cross the river that nothing would get knocked off and

They wouldn’t knock the edge of the building uh the bridge that’s there we’ll see it again that bridge was built in the 16 00s the flowers are looking lovely they’re all beginning to bloom so it won’t be long she really looks after the flowers here the lady and one of these

Days I’ll be able to stop and have a good look at them so lots of stairs just like anywhere else stairs are for going down don’t try and claim them you always turn a corner and there’s another 100 steps in front of You right yeah I mean Robin cuz we build in stone I think that helps um but yeah it is amazing so quite a nice view from here you’ve got well Court we’ll have a we look at that soon and then if we look down here you see the White Water that’s where the

Trench was it’s like a funnel um to supply water to the Mills that were in this area so it kind of condensed the power and just for the bridges ahead of us just in front of it is actually where the kind of Ford part was that you would go

Over it’s beautiful building we’ll get a look at it from the bridge now if you go up there it takes you into where the back Gardens are here we go as long as you made it it’s all that matters there we are so that’s the B

Bridge we’ll cross over that in a little while and underneath the bridge you can actually see the opening into the side of the West Mill I’m just taking easy going down here let’s just go down here so you can get another little view that isn’t that beautiful so peaceful with the water and

This is a private Garden yeah our buildings are listed uh the ones a lot of them are listed and protected right so just head up on the bridge so normally I usually start as up around the corner there uh the patron scent of Scotland is St

Andrew um so St Andrew’s day tends to be celebrated rather than St Patrick cuz that’s the Irish one but yeah know the Irish themed pubs and things will do celebrations for it and obviously people of Irish descent will but yeah the Scottish one St Andrews so yeah that’s just looking back where

We’ve just come down from h Lane Hawthorne Bank Lane and the Hawthorne Bank buildings there what a difference it makes when the sun comes out and then just here we’re looking at welt and their Garden so that’s the welt Gardens there for the residents and then just over the wall

You can see the font that was taken from the bford church um when it got turned into a youth hostel that was brought Here it it’s a lovely day it’s actually quite warm as well I’m regretting my jumper wishing I had put it on time oh now in this area H fler the dean Village was known as a bread basket of Edinburgh and the backers were one of the most powerful um

Guilds in the city but we also had a taner there was brewing um and the last Mill in the area was actually a wood flower Mill for the lenium trade uh but it exploded because of P ventilation um in the 1970s and that was the last of the

Mills well the water looks very dark or brown um because of the PE that stained it yeah although it’s running faster there is a lot of H other stuff in there you know silt off the bottom and whatnot so here you can see the date 1884 well

Court now the founder of the Scotsman newspaper um was a philanthropist I can never say the word um and he lived up there where those houses out at the back and he didn’t like the view of the dean Village um because it had become very down and

He decided to do something about it so he built well court and a couple of other buildings here as well uh very strict rules and this is where the Factor’s office was um he had his office in house on the ground floor and upstairs there was a hall which could be

Used for readings meetings weddings and on a Sunday it was used as a church so yeah very strict rules you couldn’t come home drunk you had to be home by a certain time all that kind of thing but if you look at the stairs very forward thinking they’re open so there’s

Fresh air flowing through the building um which I think got forgotten for a while now this is a communal drying green because a lot of people don’t have space inside their houses to dry washing so lots of tenaments and blocks of flats have communal Ling greens so you can dry

Your washing outside if the weather’s right then just above the door here you can see the date again 1884 now just down here takes you to that little garden I’m not sure I don’t think there was anybody in there so we can just pop down quickly and have a a little look

Around the corner yeah so it’s a peaceful a lovely peaceful little area um right so this has been restored but it it still has like the original windows with the green paint and all this it has been restored really well it originally was accommodation for the working classes but it’s actually

Very expensive to live here now the houses are cost a fortune so yes it’s now fashionable but they you’ve got the water right next to and who doesn’t like the sound of running water kind of arts and crafts and a bit of Scots bonal going On now the red Sandstone that’s from the west side of the country so Glasgow side um and bring in mind this was um sort of social housing this was an expensive U bit of detail that was put onto the building the sandstones is sort of creamy color notice loitering and football playing

Strongly prohibited you’ve been told and here’s another building at the same period it just depends it’s been out quite quite often now this is a little playground and it was originally for the school which I’ll show you in a minute and those are millstones and that’s just to remind the

Children of the history of the village take in so Dean path just goes up the hill here might start you up there one day next time I do it so you can see the stones these are quite small there are much bigger ones to see but you can see

The band of metal going around them and it’s it’s just to to remind the people that live here now of its past this is quite a nice little map if you want to try and get a screenshot of that just gives you a kind of highlight and I love that little coffee

Stand coffee bike is that brilliant so this is the Old West Mill but here’s the school just come out a bit so the school stopped being used as a school in the 1960s um you can see it says Edinburgh school board and on the round in the

Middle you can see a woman and child she’s got a book and things uh that is St Margaret Queen Margaret she’s Scotland’s only female Royal Saint um she died 1093 in Edinburgh Castle and was canonized around 1250 she is very very well remembered throughout Scotland and I know people bang on about there

Being so many statues of men and hardly any of women but her likeness outdoes them all because she’s represented in so many places you just need to look up and you can see her right I think we’ll go across the road here we go if we look up you can see

Another round and you can see the wheat Chief in the date 1805 that’s when it was refurbished um it has now been turned into accommodation it’s no longer a working Mill and then that’s the yellow building we saw coming down the hill this is the

Backers toll booth I HTH is like a Civic Center um for our town so that was built in 1675 I think the bridge was about the same time and that’s where we just walk down so it’s a beautiful little place to come and have a little wander around and if

You don’t want to walk back up the hills it’s not a problem you can phone for a taxi or you can continue along the water Rel I’ll show you where the path goes in a minute so if you look down at the bottom you can see there’s two archways here and

That’s where the water would go in then it go through the building and come out at the other side of the Weir there so just ahead of us you can see the Weir and then as we look up you can see the church we saw right at the very

Beginning when we were up on Dean Bridge there’s there’s little clues about the past of the village in lots of places so if you look up here again you can see the crossed peels that’s the from the Lindsay Mill which stood here uh the Lindsay Mill dated back to the

1500s so youve got the crossed peels with the bread on it so if you can’t read you know what that’s selling and then just here you have a lintle that was above a door um and it’s got blessed be God for all his gifts and then you’ve

Got 15 so the other part of the DAT is missing but but they’ve preserved the lenal putting it in place here oh sorry I didn’t have you on screen honestly I’m enjoying oh I was worried man thought I was filming on but I didn’t have on screen

Um so just here you’ve got Miller row and it’s telling you exactly what it is it’s a row of Millers or Mills and we had a green elevator here uh called Jericho which is about six stories high and hopefully at some point they will finish um the building work that they’re doing

Ahead of us and we’ll be able to get out onto that part and I can show you the the millstones close up can really hear the water today right so we can just see the top of the World’s End we just here and behind the

Bench over on the grass you can see the opening where the water would come back out now there was a mill lead that ran all the way downhill from here to service the Mills further Downstream uh but there was a land slip in the 1800s and that washed it away and that was

Basically the sort of the end um of Milling in the dean really um the the trouble was the the backers in the dean Village in the using the water of leth didn’t Embrace steam power whereas leth did so the port of leaf did Embrace steam power and then um they kind of

Took over so I’m trying to get you through there so those are big millstones that look at the state of them they they weren’t in that bad of a condition last year that’s shocking anyway um you can see it’s segmented like an orange and you’ve got

A metal band around it and those metal bands are there um you would have a few and as it wears down when it’s being used you take a band off it wears down somewhere you take a band off um and that’s how they were used but they were

Segmented because we had to import the Stone from France um because the grain that we were ended up having to Mill because it was coming in by ship from other countries and things it had time to dry out and it was very hard and the local Stones weren’t any good for that

So we had to import it from France and if you have a big Stone like that and you drop it it breaks where if it’s in segments it it’s less likely to be damaged although this has sustained quite severe damage in the last last year or so that is that

Shocking to be fair anyway we’ll see it when it’s open um we’ll go in and have a look it’s it looks like it’s getting close to the point where it’ll be getting reopened pned so yeah so that’s the bridge it’s a what 106 ft um from the surface

Down now when it was being built uh the Builder actually finished the job early and asked before he handed over the the bridge he asked if there was a bonus for bringing the um the bridge in early and he was told no so he didn’t sign it off

He just kept hold of the bridge and charged people to walk across it to be the first people to cross the bridge so he made he made his bonus that way instead now the we building in front of us is I think it’s 199 or something like that it’s not as

Old as it looks this is Scots bonial and it’s a very um well-loved style of architecture that keeps coming back into fashion and if you just look above it there you can see the house that we stood and had to look at and then we

Look down here so you we are really low in the valley here now the legs of the bridge are Hollow uh it is it’s a beautiful bridge and the water’s moving quite fast today so I don’t know if we’ll see um oh no we can still see him right so just below me

Here it’s easy to spot because he’s got a bit of Red Plastic Bag stuck to him that’s one of the artworks that are in the water of Le so if you walk the water of Le there’s artworks all the way along it if walls could talk it would be

Amazing just to to hear the history you know isn’t that beautiful so as we come along here now today the Dinan is spelled D e a n back in the day it was d e n e and it’s kind of descriptive of this dark Valley that we’re

In so just let you see the the name so here you can see it the now the other thing you have here just ignore the graffiti cuz you get idiots everywhere these holes okay that was so they used like a sort of a caliper thing to clip onto it

Lift the stone into place and then let go so that’s why all those holes are there now if we to keep walking along here this would take us um to Stock Bridge the signal comes and goes along this way so that’s why I haven’t really done it with you properly

But I’ll just bring you over just so you can see where it is very peaceful and to walk from here to Stock Bridge you’re lucky if it’s 5 minutes it is so close so you can do a really nice walk um start with the dean Village Walk Through

Stock Bridge there’s lots of coffee shops book shops um clothes all sorts of things it’s like a little village in its own right um that’s also been swallowed up by Edinburgh so there’s lots to do if you’ve been to the city before and you want to just get off the Beaten Track a

Bit or if you’re you don’t want to get lost it’s it’s also a really easy one right okie dokie um oops do see what happened there right everyone I hope you enjoyed that I think I’ll put again next month sometime so we can come and see the

Seasons change um if you enjoyed it and you’re new to the channel remember to subscribe give it a thumbs up um you can support me I have coffee I’ve got bu me a coffee I have subscriptions memberships so yes uh do you want me to keep going I need money is basically

What I’m saying to you there right any questions before I let you go I’ll just give you a couple of seconds cuz there’s usually a bit of a a delay between me asking and the an starting to come in I’m not sure I think you may Bill

You’ve had enough no you’ve been talking too long just stop we’ve had it okay Natasha see you later right everyone well if you’re oh thanks for that Mark bye JY right well I’ll let you go cuz I’m pretty sure there’s another tour another live going on um just after me so yeah

Okay bye Hillary thanks bye Ley bye to S see you later okay right bye everyone

Afternoon stroll from the West End of Princes Street down into the Dean Village and along the water of Leith.

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