Granton.
Wherever you go in Edinburgh you can find history, last week I posted about the City Walls dating back over 500 years, Granton also has a rich history, as well as the station, part of it;s industrial heritage, a castle, and probably substantial land surrounding it, once stood here first documented in 1479, as a building owned by John Melville of Carnbee, Fife.
I am assuming that the walls here were part of the rounds, the third pic shows the top of a dovecot, or as us Scots say, dookit, it is certainly part of the castle, unfortunately it is behind the wall, part of a "Walled Garden", only open from 2-4 pm Saturdays and Sundays, which gives me an excuse for another wee jaunt down here.
So what happened to the castle, which was still there, although ruinous, in the early part of the 2oth century?
Well a previous body, tasked with protecting our heritage, the Ministry of Works scheduled the monument in 1920, unfortunately the paperwork to confirm it was protected was sent to the wrong address! By the time the Ministry became aware of their blunder – the following year – it was too late. the castle was gone, completely demolished! We might not have known this had it not been for someone who worked for the department had attached a hand written note to a file that should have been shredded stating, ‘someone might want to read this someday’.
You can learn more about the castle on the Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden Facebook page. Pics of the castle can be found on the link Historic Scotland/Canmore .
