Craigleith, an extensive sandstone quarry near the W border of St Cuthberts parish, Edinburghshire, ¼ mile E of Blackball village, and 2 miles W by N of Edinburgh; close to it is Craigleith station on the Leith branch of the Caledonian. Belonging to the upper group of the Calciferous Sandstone series, it presents a deep excavation 12 acres in area, and long supplied most of the stone with which the New Town of Edinburgh was built, its original rental of only £50 rising to £5500 during the great building period in Edinburgh, from 1820 till 1826. The Craigleith stone is of two kinds-the one of a fine cream colour, called liver rock; the other of a greyish white, called feak rock. Three trunks of great fossil coniferous trees have been here discovered.
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