ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN.
This is the third and last part of a walk I did on the same day as the Botanic Gardens and Inverleith Park in Edinburgh. After exploring both I had a look at my Collins Edinburgh Street map and doubled back through Inverleith Park, away from Fettes College, to find Rocheid Path and link up with the Water of Leith Walkway. Amusing account here of a landed gentry person telling off a stranger that he was in the way... and on private property. Then the stranger's reply.
Rocheid Path is still a pleasant walk today and part of the Water of Leith Walkway. I have walked and cycled this route before, that's how I knew it was there, but decades ago. Rocheid Path above. This also passes The Stockbridge Colonies, a set of short but tightly packed streets on the other side of Rocheid Path just across the Water of Leith.
Although they look tightly packed on the street map they are spacious enough and I would guess middle class now, just looking at them and the surrounding district. Built in the mid 1800s by a collective of stone masons outside stairs lead up to the top row of houses with the bottom set having lower prices back in the day. Still in good condition with well maintained gardens softening the overall effect of the stonework. See full information on them and why they were built in the first photo.
Several foot bridges cross the Water of Leith leading to the various districts but on this occasion I stayed on course on the main path as I was heading for two other parks I wanted to explore in the city. It was early May 2026 and the walk was very pleasant, fresh new leaves and spring catkins dancing on all the trees in a faint cooling breeze. Very pleasant afternoon by this point.
A few lilac trees hanging over the stream giving it a lush jungle feel. A plant found originally in the Balkans/ Bulgaria region but scattered worldwide now as a scented domestic garden favourite.
Next came Canonmills and Broughton Districts with a brief hop out of the streambed to cross Inverleith Row into Warriston Road, seen above and down to the left....
Still continuing to follow the Water of Leith Walkway.
As seen here on Warriston Road....
A ridgeline of allotments came next and St Marks Park, where I had a short rest and something to eat. I never buy meals or soft drinks in Edinburgh as I find it much cheaper and easier to buy sandwiches or anything else I fancy in my local Lidl or equivalent supermarket a day or two beforehand rather than a tourist honey-hole deli. A lesson learned many decades ago. "How much for a sandwich!!!?" Plus some of them don't take cash anymore. Self service machines. Phone or card payment only allowed. Out of stubbornness to attempt to save the noble coin and paper money for a few more years I could use these infernal machines sprouting up everywhere... but will not. " From this dead hand... etc etc." Plus by the looks of it Glasgow needs the money more. Edinburgh, not so much.
The view from St Marks Park from my rest stop into Pilrig district with the distinctive spiral of the W hotel in the distance. This is only a small park but on the walkway/ cycletrack anyway so another new tick for me.
I can't exactly remember where I found this shed/ small building mural done by pupils of Trinity Academy but it was on the cycletrack/ walkway between St Marks Park and Victoria Park. Pupil painted but presumably under the guidance of Chris Rutterford.
He certainly gets around and almost every time I arrive in Edinburgh I stumble across his mural work in the city at some point. Some I already have heard about beforehand like the Colinton Tunnel Mural, posted on the blog months ago from an October 2025 visit but this time it was pure luck I found this one.
A close up view. In the shade for better detail.
Birds and cats go together like ham and eggs. Although I like the grace and guile of domestic cats they do kill 50 million UK wild birds and other important creatures like frogs, newts, slow worms etc... annually.
I knew I was getting near Leith when I spotted these two tower blocks but I wanted Victoria Park, another new tick, so I turned left at Gosford Place for my last prize of the day.
Victoria Park. I passed it on the bus a while ago, probably in October 2025, and took note where it was located as it was yet another new area for me to explore. Mid afternoon by now and warm so I was glad of some shade on this bench under the trees. Not for the first time I thought how delightful mature trees are. Cool shade in the summer heat. Shelter in spring, summer and autumn from the elements. My own personal religion and church.
Victoria Park seen from the bench. Newhaven Road in the distance where I already knew I could get a local bus back to the city to city bus station at St James near York Place.
York Place beside the bus station. You can get a number 10 bus and number 11 bus here for Newhaven, Ocean Terminal, and the Firth of Forth coast. Or a bus on nearby Broughton Street to take you past the east gate of the Royal Botanic Gardens but for a weary me it was home time. Back to Glasgow then further out and yet another bus to my outskirts home. Six buses in total. Around six hours travel in one day.
Another great trip in glorious weather.
7 comments:
we never saw the bus station in Edinburgh on our visit as we were staying on Princes Street so could get buses from just outside on the road...
Is your exchange between the gentry and the stranger the one I know where after he asks the guy (a vagrant or a gypsy camping there) to get off his land, the guy asked where he got the land from. After a long description of his ancestral tree passing the land down, he asked how the first one obtained it. The gentleman said 'He fought for it' - and the vagrant/gypsy replied, "Well, I'll fight YOU for it!'. That's in one of my outdoor or my gypsy books and I think it's an hilarious reply!
Hi Carol. Good story but no. It's in that first photo, top of second section over on the right. You might not make it out if it's a small screen you are using.
Have done that walk many years ago. I remember the Colonies but didn’t know that’s what they were called. Maybe there wasn’t an info board back then.
Evening Anabel, I can't remember either about info board as my last visit was over ten years ago to that path and I think I was on a bike so not stopping to read things/signs as much. Some good bike lanes cut through the city but many of them are below street level (old railway lines etc) so it helps if you know the various districts. I remember popping up occasionally to work out where I was as otherwise it's green tunnel adventures cycling down in a trench across Edinburgh.
As you are probably going to ask Carol here's a quick version of the story. James Rocheid, esquire of the estate and trustee of the path ( their family lived in Inverleith House, now the Botanics art gallery) was riding along it one day when a rather plain gentleman, coming from the other direction, got in his way and refused to jump to one side immediately. "Who are you?" James demanded hotly. "This is my land etc"...
"I'm George." replied the stranger unperturbed. "Duke of Montagu." ( he was off to visit his daughter The Duchess of Buccleuch."
Much grovelling, boot licking, and apologies commenced as a Duke is many levels above an esquire in rank.
"How delightful mature trees are", I agree with you so very much. We HAD a Botanical Garden in our small town of Conyers. It had some very large trees , some of them RED MAPLES. We loved to stop in there after a walk under the cool of the shade. It will soon be "Celebration Park". Lots of concrete and a playground area. They have planted new trees with the drought, many of them have died. (And even had they lived, how long for them to make good shade? I really need to do a post about this!
Hi Kay, You may have heard of Scotland's Fortingall Yew. You can look it up on wiki. Thought to be one of the oldest trees in the UK and Europe estimated between 3000 to 5000 years old and local legends say that Pontius Pilate played under it as a child when he lived there. ( Oral history and legends passed down through many generations can be surprisingly accurate. In the middle east the story of Gilgamesh was an ancient legend passed down by some tribes from father to son ( never written down) for many centuries yet when they found an ancient parchment in a cave in more recent times it was almost word for word the same. Also an African tribe always believed they were one of the lost tribes of Israel and didn't mix with other groups locally. This mattered because modern DNA proved they were and even Israel accepted it. Then there's the Dogon People of Mali and the Sirius Star cluster.
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