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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. [1] It is sometimes included in the Wester Hailes area, while the Calders, Bankhead and Parkhead are sometimes considered parts of Sighthill. [2] [3] Administratively it has formed a core part of the City of Edinburgh Council's Sighthill/Gorgie ward since 2007. [4]
For nearly 50 years, the skyline of western Edinburgh was dominated by four high rise residential tower blocks in northern Sighthill (Broomview House, Glenalmond Court, Hermiston Court and Weir Court). [5] [6] [7] [8]
The 11-storey 'slab' block Broomview House was demolished on Sunday 21 September 2008 by Safedem. The flats came down at 11:15 am in a controlled explosion where a longstanding former resident pushed the ceremonial button to implode the building. The remaining three blocks were demolished on Sunday 25 September 2011, also at 11:15 am. All of the remaining low-rise council-built properties in the vicinity were also demolished over the next few years. Plans for a new development called Broomview by Keepmoat were approved, and the area was successfully redeveloped, with construction work completed in 2020. To the north of this new housing is the area's public park.
The older, southern part of Sighthill consists mainly of cottage flat (four-in-a-block) homes, and has remained relatively unchanged since its construction in the late 1940s along with neighbouring Parkhead.
Edinburgh College (formerly Stevenson) and Edinburgh Napier University's Sighthill Campuses (formerly Stevenson College and the Edinburgh Business College respectively) are based here. [1]
There are a medical centre and a fire station. There are a public library and some shops. The Health centre was one of the first modern Health clinics in the UK (the other was in Cardiff) as a trial to see if it worked (before this, doctors made house visits to the patients' homes).
The Calder Road, one of the city's main arteries, runs through Sighthill, around 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from the Edinburgh city bypass (A720) road and the connection with the M8 motorway. The Edinburgh–Dunblane line railway (also connecting to Glasgow Queen Street) is nearby to the north, as is the route of Edinburgh Trams between the city centre and Edinburgh Airport. The Union Canal skirts the area to the south-west.
Lothian Buses provides 14 buses to the area:
Ethnicity | Sighthill/Gorgie | Edinburgh [9] |
---|---|---|
White | 79.4% | 84.9% |
Asian | 12.9% | 8.6% |
Black | 3.1% | 2.1% |
Mixed | 2.5% | 2.5% |
Other | 2.1% | 1.9% |
Sighthill has been used as a location for film and television productions. The most notable production to be filmed in Sighthill was the 1998 BBC Scotland television drama Looking After Jo Jo which featured Robert Carlyle in the title role and was filmed in and around North Sighthill and Niddrie. Other notable film and television productions to be filmed in Sighthill include Quite Ugly One Morning starring James Nesbitt and an adaptation of the Christopher Brookmyre novel and Trouble Sleeping - a tale of a Palestinian refugee struggling to survive in the UK. More recently the flats in Sighthill have been used as backdrop for the film Outcast a Celtic supernatural thriller once again starring James Nesbitt and released in 2010.
This page lists residential areas of Edinburgh situated in the Edinburgh (settlement) urban area. The urban area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is located in the City of Edinburgh council area and in East Lothian. The City of Edinburgh council area is divided into wards areas that are combined into four operational management areas termed "localities":
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 West is a Scottish constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, first used at the 2005 UK general election. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. Since 2024, it has been represented by Scott Arthur of the Labour Party.
Wester Hailes is an area in the south west of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Longstone is a suburb of Edinburgh in Scotland. The area is primarily residential in nature, although the area includes several small shops, eateries and supermarkets, as well as one of the main bus depots for the city's buses. The population of Longstone was 4,678 in 2019.
Bankhead is a non-residential area of western Edinburgh, Scotland. It borders the Edinburgh City Bypass (A720) and Hermiston Gait to the west, the Calders neighbourhood to the south – accessed via a pedestrian underpass, Sighthill to the east, and South Gyle/Edinburgh Park to the north. It is mostly occupied by a large industrial park. Amongst the companies here, Royal Mail and Burtons Biscuits have a large presence. Ethicon also had a plant here, but it has closed, and will reportedly be replaced by a sports facilities. Edinburgh College, the former Stevenson College and the Sighthill campus of Napier University are just to the west.
Edinburgh Park railway station is a railway station in the west of Edinburgh, Scotland, serving the Edinburgh Park business park and the Hermiston Gait shopping centre. The new station building was designed by IDP Architects, and it opened on 4 December 2003. It is the first intermediate station between Haymarket and Linlithgow since 1951. Ticket barriers came into use on 25 March 2015.
Edinburgh is a major transport hub in east central Scotland and is at the centre of a multi-modal transport network with road, rail and air communications connecting the city with the rest of Scotland and internationally.
The Calders is a residential neighbourhood in Edinburgh, Scotland – not to be confused with the Calders of West Lothian aka West Calder, Mid Calder and East Calder, three separate villages. It is sometimes considered to be part of Wester Hailes or Sighthill, larger developments to its south and east respectively. From 2007 to 2017, it fell within the Sighthill/Gorgie multi-member ward of the City of Edinburgh Council administration along with Sighthill, but following a boundary change has been in the Pentland Hills ward since then, along with Wester Hailes.
Riccarton is an area in Edinburgh's Green Belt, in Scotland. It is mainly undeveloped, with much farmland and few houses.
Niddrie is a residential suburb in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is situated in the south-east of the city, south-west of the seaside area of Portobello, and west of Musselburgh in East Lothian near Fort Kinnaird retail park. The western section of Niddrie is also known by the alternative name of Craigmillar.
Newbridge is a village in the civil parish of Kirkliston, west of Edinburgh in Scotland. It formerly lay on the western fringe of Midlothian, but it has belonged to the City of Edinburgh since 1975. The original village consists of a small crossroads settlement to the east of the eponymous New Bridge, which spans the River Almond. Around it is a confusion of roads and industrial estates converging on the Newbridge Roundabout, the meeting point of the M8 and M9 motorways.
Parkhead is a residential area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It was one of the smallest wards in the Edinburgh City Council before a reorganisation into larger multi-member wards in 2007; since then it has been part of the Sighthill/Gorgie ward.
Slateford is an area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is east of the Water of Leith.
The Edinburgh Suburban and Southside Junction Railway was a railway company that built an east-west railway on the southern margin of Edinburgh, Scotland, primarily to facilitate the operation of heavy goods and mineral traffic across the city. The line opened in 1884. Although its route was rural at the time, suburban development quickly caught up and passenger carryings on the line were buoyant; the passenger service operated on a circular basis through Edinburgh Waverley railway station.
Ebenezer James MacRae was a Scottish architect serving as City Architect for Edinburgh for most of his active life.
St Joseph's Church, Sighthill,, is a Roman Catholic church situated in Broomhouse, in the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. The parish boundary extends to Broomhouse, Parkhead, Saughton, Sighthill, Gorgie and further.
Sighthill/Gorgie is one of the seventeen wards used to elect members of the City of Edinburgh Council, established in 2007 along with the other wards. Its territory comprises a corridor of land in the west of the city with a northern boundary formed by the railway lines between the Haymarket and Edinburgh Park stations, encompassing the Broomhouse, Dalry, Gorgie, Longstone, Parkhead, Saughton, Sighthill and Stenhouse neighbourhoods. It elects four Councillors. In 2019, the ward had a population of 33,826.