Following the high wall that ascends the hill northwards from the lodge near to Duddingston Church, we reach a point near to Jock’s Lodge, where the boundary takes a turn due east to the junction of the Leith branch of the North British Railway with the Fishwives’ Causeway.[1] Here it follows the line of roadway to the turn of the road where the King’s Road separates the Parish of Duddingston from the Parish of Leith. The present irregular division from Jock's Lodge to the sea, passing through the fields, marke no doubt the position of the old Roman Road, of which only a fragment now remains.
From our elevated position on the “Upper Drive,” nearly the whole area embraced within the bounds of the parish is visible at a glance. A steep descent on the east shoulder of the hill brings us to what is called the "Lower Drive” near the margin of the loch, which is the road most usually frequented by pedestrians from Edinburgh. Here there is a keeper’s lodge with gates, for the "Drive” is within the Royal Park of Holyrood. Formerly there was no carriage way direct to Duddingston, but a rough footpath wended its course in a mysterious fashion from St Leonard’s past the base of “Samson’s Ribs,” and over the rocks of the “Wyndy Gowl” and the "Hangman’s Crag.” Before the present road was made in 1856-7, the entrance to the village was by a narrow lane (or loan) some six feet wide, between two high stone walls; but now the "Drive" is continued up past the Church, completely intersecting what was at one time a spacious tea garden, in which visitors found abundance of “fruits in their seasons,” along with other creature comforts which to some are always seasonable! In the little old-fashioned inn, which rather discourteously presented its back to the Royal Park, or in the arbours which surrounded the well-stocked gardens, merry parties from the city found of old much that was attractive. The village indeed was famous for its inns (or, as we would now say, alehouses), for there were no less than seven or eight of them. It was a “refuge for the weary” and a place of refreshment, whether on Sunday or Saturday, long before Forbes Mackenzie Acts and Local Option were thought of. The famous ″Sheephead Inn” still stands, though somewhat altered now and bereft of much of the picturesque quaintness that once distinguished its pretty little garden, with its fountains,
- ↑ Formerly up till 1895 the Fishwives’ Causeway and the Figgate Burn were the western boundary.
