With seven offices serving Edinburgh and the Lothians, our knowledge of the local property market is second to none. This month, Partner Mary McQueen shares her thoughts on living in Colinton, a leafy suburb in the south-west of Edinburgh.
Also known as Baile Cholgain in Gaelic, Colinton is a dedicated conservation area with a real “small village” feel with small speciality shops and many original buildings remaining intact. It is a relatively residential part of Edinburgh, with lots of private housing based in Bonaly, a sub-section of Colinton, and is bordered by Dreghorn and Craiglockhart.
Mary, who has lived in Colinton for 11 years now, likes the village feel to Colinton and says “It is a great place to live, with lots of local parks and green space, access to the Water of Leith walkway and walks up into the Pentlands from Bonaly. It is also home to the Arts Festival which is held in the summer in Colinton Park.
Although now a well-established and popular suburb of Edinburgh, the original heart of Colinton is still referred to by locals as ‘Colinton Village’ and there are signs in the middle of the village recording events in the history of the village dating back to the 11th century. In the 19th century Colinton was home to a number of mills producing textiles, snuff, oats and paper, with a railway station carrying both freight and passengers, and today it’s still possible to see the old mill for Scott’s Porage Oats, while the mansion of Spylaw House, built by snuff merchant James Gillespie, has now been converted into flats. The Colinton Tunnel Mural, a community project to transform one of the old railway tunnels and to celebrate local history and heritage, has helped to put Colinton on the map as a visitor attraction today.
The population in Colinton is largely an older generation, but at Bonaly there is a large number of families with school age children due to the excellent primary school in the area. Merchiston Castle school, a well-known independent boarding school, can also be found in Colinton.”
With a genuine village feel and sense of community, Colinton has lots to offer to families and retirees, and with easy access to the City Bypass at Dreghorn and regular bus services both into the city and to the Airport, it is becoming an even more popular place to live.