Liberton | |
---|---|
Liberton Kirk | |
Location within the City of Edinburgh council area Location within Scotland | |
OS grid reference | NT274696 |
Council area | |
Lieutenancy area |
|
Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | EDINBURGH |
Postcode district | EH16 |
Dialling code | 0131 |
Police | Scotland |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
UK Parliament | |
Scottish Parliament | |
Liberton is a suburb of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is in the south of the city, south of The Inch, east of the Braid Hills and west of Moredun.
Liberton Community council's area includes Liberton, Gracemount, Kaimes, Alnwickhill and Mortonhall. [1] Historically the parish covered a wide area and included Burdiehouse, Gilmerton, Niddrie and Straiton. [2]
Incorporated into the city in 1920, [3] the area was once home to Arthur Conan Doyle, who lived in a small cottage near the Braid Burn, which is now inside the grounds of the Cameron Toll Shopping Centre car park and is now a small school.
Increased development in the area from the mid 1970s to current times has seen Liberton develop into a popular choice for homeowners with areas such as Double Hedges, Alnwickhill and Howdenhall often representing better value for money than locations closer to the city centre.
In recent years once thriving community pubs and hotels have closed with the likes of the Liberton Inn, Northfield House Hotel and The Marmion, formerly The Captains Cabin, all having been converted to or planning permission being sought for retail premises or flats.
The name, of Old English origin and formerly written Libertun, [4] has generally been believed to signify 'Leper Town', the area being supposed at one time to have contained a small colony of lepers exiled from the city. However modern authorities have suggested it may more probably have meant ‘barley farm on a hillside’, from the Old English words hlith, hillside and bere-tūn, barley farm. [5] [6]
This rural parish was split into Over Liberton and Nether Liberton, the latter centring on a water mill standing on the Braid Burn.
The suburb is home to a prehistoric standing stone just over 6-foot in height. [7]
A chapel of Liberton was granted to the monks of Holyrood Abbey in 1143 by MacBeth, Baron of Liberton. The latter is mentioned in the Charters of King David I from 1124. In 1240 a document records the transfer of the church from St Cuthberts in Edinburgh back to Holyrood Abbey and this control continued until the Reformation. [8]
In 1387 Nether Liberton was under control of Adam Forrester (whose family later owned Corstorphine) and is recorded (with Provost Andrew Yichtson) as benefactor of the repairs and rebuilding of St Giles Cathedral that year. [9]
At the time of the Reformation a church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, already existed at Liberton, under control of Holyrood Abbey. [10]
The current Liberton Church, designed by James Gillespie Graham, was built in 1815 after the old church was burned beyond repair. [11] The graveyard contains a "table stone" to the south-west of the church bearing one of the earliest known sculpted depictions of ploughing. [12] A modern cemetery lies to the north-west of the older kirkyard. The war memorial at the western entrance (1920) is by Pilkington Jackson.
Liberton Tower is a well-preserved and restored late medieval (15th century) tower house standing to the south of the Braid Hills. [13] Liberton House nearby is a late 16th-century A-listed fortified house, also restored. The house is open to the public free of charge by appointment only. [14] [15]
Liberton became part of Edinburgh on 1 November 1920. [16]
Although the area is mostly residential, it has a riding school and stables, which take advantage of the nearby Braid Hills to offer pony trekking leisure activities. Also in the area is Liberton High School, Gracemount High School, numerous primary schools (Liberton, St John Vianny, Gracemount and St Katherine's) and sporting activities are represented by Liberton Bowling Club (Website) based opposite the Kirk, a Golf club off Gilmerton Road and a Rugby Union club situated at Double Hedges Park.
Southfield Sanatorium once occupied Southfield House; Ellen's Glen House community hospital (2000) was built in the grounds to meet 21st century NHS Lothian needs. Liberton Hospital opened in 1906 and currently specialises in geriatric medicine (NHS Lothian).
Local family names include Speedy, Flockhart, Inch, Tod, Plenderleith, Borrowman and Torrance.
Liberton was a relatively important rural charge.
Dunedin, New Zealand, a sister city of Edinburgh's, has a suburb called Liberton.
Midlothian is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh council area, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders.
Edinburgh South is a constituency of the House of Commons of the UK Parliament created in 1885. The constituency has been held by Scottish Labour since 1987, being represented by Ian Murray since 2010. Murray was the only Labour MP in Scotland to retain his seat at the 2015 and 2019 general elections and this is one of only three seats never held by the Scottish National Party (SNP).
Edinburgh South was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality method of election. Also, however, it was one of nine constituencies in the Lothians electoral region, which elected seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Corstorphine is an area of the Scottish capital city of Edinburgh. Formerly a separate village and parish to the west of Edinburgh, it is now a suburb of the city, having been formally incorporated into it in 1920.
Duddingston Kirk is a Parish Church in the Church of Scotland, located adjacent to Holyrood Park in Duddingston Village, on the east side of the City of Edinburgh. Regular services are held at the kirk, conducted by the minister, Rev Dr James A. P. Jack.
Sighthill is a suburb in the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. The area is bordered by Broomhouse and Parkhead to the east, South Gyle to the north, the industrial suburb of Bankhead and the Calders neighbourhood to the west, and Wester Hailes to the south. It is sometimes included in the Wester Hailes area, while the Calders, Bankhead and Parkhead are sometimes considered parts of Sighthill. Administratively it has formed a core part of the City of Edinburgh Council's Sighthill/Gorgie ward since 2007.
Clan Cranstoun is a family of the Scottish Lowlands.
Alnwickhill is a suburb of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is on the southern edge of the city, approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) from the city centre. It neighbours the areas of Liberton and Kaimes.
Gilmerton is a suburb of Edinburgh, about 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of the city centre.
The Parish Church of St Cuthbert is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in central Edinburgh. Probably founded in the 7th century, the church once covered an extensive parish around the burgh of Edinburgh. The church's current building was designed by Hippolyte Blanc and completed in 1894.
Dumbiedykes is a residential area in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. It mainly comprises public housing developments.
North Leith Parish Church is a congregation of the Church of Scotland, within the Presbytery of Edinburgh. It serves part of Leith, formerly an independent burgh and since 1920 a part of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Ellen's Glen House is a facility providing services to elderly and mentally ill patients in Liberton, Edinburgh, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Lothian.
The Inch is a district of Edinburgh, Scotland, located to the south of Inch Park in the south of the city. It is located 2 miles south south-east of central Edinburgh. It incorporates the Inch housing development, Inch Park and the category A listed Inch House, a former country house now used as a community centre. The associated Inch Doocot or dovecot, also a category A listed building, is situated close by, west of Gilmerton Road.
Corstorphine Old Parish Church, formerly St. John's Collegiate Church, is at the old centre of Corstorphine, a village incorporated to the west area of Edinburgh. Built in the 15th century, in the churchyard of a 12th-century or earlier chapel, the former collegiate church was listed category A by Historic Scotland on December 14, 1970.
Inch House, a former country house situated within Inch Park in Edinburgh, Scotland is a category A listed building. The oldest part, a Scottish vernacular L-plan tower house, dates from the early 17th century. From 1660 it was owned by the Gilmour family, who arranged for additions and extensions to the house in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was sold to the then Edinburgh Corporation in 1945. Since then it has been used as a primary school and more recently as a community centre.
Liberton/Gilmerton is one of the seventeen wards used to elect members of the City of Edinburgh Council. Established in 2007 along with the other wards, it elects four Councillors.
Gracemount is a neighbourhood in the south of Edinburgh, Scotland, bordering Alnwickhill and Kaimes to the west, Liberton to the north, Gilmerton to the east and Southhouse to the south.