A seaport suburb of Edinburgh, Granton lies on the Firth of Forth, 2½ miles (4 km) to the north of the city centre. Granton Castle dates from the 15th C. and was the property of John Melville of Carnbee. The Earl of Hertford caused much damage in 1544, although it was rebuilt. Almost completely demolished in the 1920s, only a fragment of its walls, a doo-cot and a walled garden remain. Granton House lay to the southwest on West Shore Road. This substantial mansion was built by the Earl of Hopetoun in 1807 on land leased from the Duke of Buccleuch. In 1883, the house became the property of the judge Lord Gifford (1820-87). Visitors included Sir Walter Scott and Florence Nightingale, the latter describing Granton House as "the most poetic place I ever saw." Around 1902, it became the residence of the Chief Engineer and Manager of Granton Gas Works. The house later passed to Edinburgh Corporation and was used by homeless families following the Second World War but was destroyed by fire in 1954.
Granton's development as a seaport dates from 1836 when the building of a harbour was initiated by Walter, 5th Duke of Buccleuch (1806-84) on his Caroline Park property. Designed by the engineers James Walker and Robert Stevenson, the harbour provided an important link with Fife and the north, the world's first train-ferry, the Leviathan, operating between Granton and Burntisland from 1850. Designed by Sir Thomas Bouch (1822-90), builder of the ill-fated Tay Railway Bridge, the complex series of ramps created to load and unload carriages had to accommodate the sizeable tidal range of the Firth of Forth. A coaling jetty was built in 1937 and car and passenger ferry services continued until the building of the Forth Road Bridge in 1964. The home of the Royal Forth Yacht and Forth Corinthian Yacht Clubs, Granton was once the base for a large fishing fleet. The Granton Gas Works industrial complex dates from 1898 for the production of gas for domestic consumption, its massive gasometers being erected in 1902, 1933 and 1966. It now receives gas from the North Sea and much the site has been redeveloped The redundant gasometers were demolished in 2004, but Scottish Gas remains occupying a modern office building on Waterfront Broadway as its headquarters. Bruce Peebles built industrial electrical equipment here from 1904 to 1999 and was an important manufacturing plant during World War II, so much so that King George VI visited twice. The National Museums Collection Centre is also located here.
Granton Quarry appears in records as early as the 16th C. and went on to produce sandstone to build the breakwaters around the harbour, as well as the Granton Hotel. In 1884, it became the first home of the Scottish Marine Station, founded by Sir John Murray (1841 - 1914), which later moved to Millport and then Dunstaffnage.
A raised beach behind the harbour is represented by a steep slope running parallel to the shore of the Firth of Forth, connecting Granton, Wardie, Trinity and Newhaven.
