Corstorphine
in
Photographs

Photographs and history courtesy of Corstorphine Trust.

copyright Corstorphine Trust.
 

Corstorphine School from the High Street
c. 1890

The schoolmaster's house is the two-storey building just visible to the left.  The school has been expanded and altered over the years, but this part can still be seen in today's school building.

Manse Road at the High Street Junction
c. 1900

This road was once known as the "Slap" because it was a gap where a road could be formed.  A smith called Bernard Hunter lived here so the road was also sometimes called Barney's Slap.
 
 

The "Black Bull Inn"
c 1890

The Black Bull Inn was at the corner of North Saughton Road and the High Street.  It was where James Lord Forrester was alleged to have been drinking on the summer night in 1679 when his niece, Christian Nimmo, had their fatal quarrel and she murdered him with his sword beneath the Sycamore Tree.  She was beheaded at the Cross of Edinburgh three months later.  This area of the village is also known as "Irish Corner", because of the Irish immigrants who lived there.  Some came in 1818 to build the Union Canal.  Others came in 1842 to work on the Glasgow-Edinburgh railway.  Others worked as farm labourers.
 
 

The Dower House
c. 1930

This mid 17th century Forrester family dower house, also known as Gibsone's Lodge from it's late 18th century occupants, the Gibsones from Pentland, stands in St. Margaret's Park. The building is currently the headquarters of
"The Corstorphine Trust", an organization dedicated to the stimulation of public interest in the character and history of Corstorphine and also exists to encourage the preservation, development and improvement of features of general public amenity and historic interest.  The building has recently been restored and has characteristic crow-stepped gables, and scrolled skew puts.  The exterior is harled and lime washed.