Hailes

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Hailes, an estate, with a mansion, a village, and a great quarry, on the NW border of Colinton parish, Edinburghshire. In 1104 Edelrad, Earl of Fife, bequeathed the lands of Hailes to the Church of the Holy Trinity at Dunfermline; and the abbot and monks of Dunfermline retained the superiority of Easter Hailes down to the Reformation. St Cuthbert's Church, however, of Hailes or Colinton, was soon transferred to Holyrood Abbey, and later, in 1445, to the Knight Templars' Hospital of St Anthony at Leith. Hailes House, above the left bank of the Water of Leith, 1 mile SW of Slateford, and ¾ NW of Colinton village, is thought by some persons to occupy the site of the ancient church, and is the property of the Rev. Sir W Gibson-Carmichael, Bart. of Castle-Craig. Hailes village, 3 furlongs N by W, stands close to Kingsknowe station on the Caledonian, and to the N bank of the Union canal. The quarry, near it, consists of dark grey sandstone, of slaty conformation, easily divisible into blocks for steps and paving flags. During the great building period in Edinburgh, from 1820 to 1826, it yielded no fewer than 600 cart-loads of building stone daily, and brought its landlord £9000 a year; but since it has seldom got demand for more than 60 to 70 cart-loads a day.—Ord. Sur., sh. 32, 1857.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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