ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN.
Another post from my Edinburgh trips in the autumn of 2025. Calton Hill from Princes Street, seen above.
I jumped on a no 19 bus from Princes Street to Granton which went over Dean Bridge, seen here, where the Water of Leith has carved out a deep wooded gorge at this point. Also a good walk along it from Murrayfield Stadium or Dean Village down to Leith and the seaside following the Water of Leith. The no 19 bus runs past Granton Square next to the Eastern Breakwater, which is where I was heading but on a whim I jumped off it at Boswall Parkway in the heart of Pilton. I've wandered through Pilton many times in the past, going right back to the 1970s and early 1980s when a large circle of flat roofed 3 level high tenements stood. Football stadium sized. ( West Pilton Circus. A unique oddity as apart from the shape, a perfect large circle of dilapidated tenements with grass in the middle, just like the Coliseum in Rome, but also similar to the flat roofed tenements that once adorned Priesthill and Penilee in Glasgow. All three constructed 1940s early 1950s. And of course Trainspotting ( the book) was set in Muirhouse, Pilton, and Leith. The first Trainspotting film mainly took place in Glasgow's housing estates though as Edinburgh's city fathers didn't want that city tarnished for tourists. They didn't mind if Glasgow's reputation was tarnished though :o) They did the same with Rebus, an Edinburgh detective series in the books but filmed in Glasgow as well.
Anyway, no photos in Pilton this time sadly as loads of locals happened to be watching me getting off the bus so I had to blend in like a local myself and getting out a camera or a map... (or my lurid pink umbrella!) might tip them off. Pilton and no doubt some of the other less upmarket estates were the only places in Edinburgh I could see without double yellow lines in every street although I would not be temped to leave my car here. So I just wandered through Pilton quietly and discreetly this time, using my eyes as a camera. Not changed much. You can see West Pilton Circus if you type that in plus 1970s then Edinburgh. images. I only took my camera out when I was nearer Granton. Part of an industrial Estate here mixed with housing.
I also came across this oddity, almost a dozen streets from the coastline. I was perplexed until I looked it up later. Built in 1874 as a lighthouse training station for new lighthouse keepers to get the hang of it, using different types of lighthouse methods and illumination found all across Scotland's period era lights. Easier to get proficient here than during a storm on a remote lump of rock with ships counting on you to guide them to safety. That plus land reclamation since the 1800s meant it didn't have to be directly on the coast but now it's well inland, tucked away down a back street, far from the seaside.
An artists view of the new Granton Harbour housing project. ( which is why I was here and why I got off the bus early)
The reality never quite matches up to the artistic impression. No parking here either unless a local living or visiting these flats. You can park easily in Glasgow outside many of it's outlying parks and safer suburbs for a wander round without any problems on its outskirts but Edinburgh is definitely a no go area for visiting cars, even the places I used to park in 20 years ago are off limits now. Double yellow line land it should be called. And no Dorothy or Toto in sight.
Edinburgh has its own modern version of tenement life but unlike its historic city centre which could be called a fine example of 'mathematical beauty' as featured in the Mandelbrot Set link a couple of posts ago and in many open world games Edinburgh's more modern housing estates...imho....are not included in that category.
But they still fascinated me anyway.
I was also fascinated by these rusting pipe caps everywhere. I initially thought they might be remnants of an old factory but then I found out they were foundation piles for new housing apparently, just held back for some reason, so old and rusting ( street markers, base for houses etc.)
There was a wide range of different styles of housing here.
And some nice paths running between them.
Still in Granton here...
But what I was really here to see was the famous Eastern Breakwater of Granton Harbour. Constructed in the mid 1800s Granton Harbour and its km long breakwaters originally held a fishing fleet of local boats, coal barges, and numerous pleasure craft, including paddle steamers.
Unlike many old mega structures though, which have been fenced off you can still walk on this one. The Eastern Breakwater. Platinum Point here and a wind turbine ship.
Almost forgotten local legends say this breakwater and harbour was not built by human hands and heavy horse at all but by the last of the Central Belt Lowland giants... Colin MacCasker. Who had magical power and could morph at will from normal man sized to over one hundred feet tall... and that it was he who built it ... as easily as a child connects lego bricks together. And when you look at these ton blocks, slotted in without any mortar you understand why. I was here to prove that legend true. First I needed to find the magical key stone.
The portal... ages old lichen growing on the cold stone....
Which would reveal the footprint of Colin MacCasker... man sized. As the oracle P.J. Harvey once foretold. I took off my shoe and sock. Ah! A perfect fit.
Next I found the holy hole in a different block. Just like Arthur, the legend states if you can fit your entire appendage down this holy hole and claim Colin MacCasker's gold ring 3 foot down on the slimy bottom you can claim it as your own. I stripped off and flattened myself on the freezing platform. Success!
I put my jacket and shirt back on after wiping dry my right arm, soaking to the socket bone.
Next I found the triptych. Where Colin MacCasker, man sized again, rested his holy knuckles before having lunch, halfway through the project. Any one hundred foot giant, even a friendly one, would have required too much feeding, a whole flock of cattle or a herd of geese and a brewery sized drink so this way he made do with some normal sized sandwiches and a bucket of beer. Remarkable to see the marks after so long... but then you look at the nearby Arthur's Seat - What a big lad he must have been!
The last test was to find the holy face where Colin MacCasker rested at the end. If you look like this first thing in the morning and can stick your forked tongue down the separate holes to tickle the squirming sea wall creatures living deep within, spawned from Colin's drool as he slept overnight you too can claim kinship rights with this master builder.
Housing at Granton Harbour.
Painted Stones at Granton.
Close up of wind turbine ship.
Colourful cottages at Granton.
Ship passing Inchkeith. An island in the Firth of Forth.
Getting a different bus back to Princes Street and the city to city bus station. A no 16 Torphin. I love jumping around Edinburgh by local bus, so much to see that's new and different.
Granton Square, right next to Granton Harbour and the Eastern Breakwater where you can get off the no 19 bus if you don't fancy a Pilton traverse. But where's the fun in that?
