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CORSTORPHINE - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

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The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)]
"CORSTORPHINE, a parish in the district and county of Edinburgh, Scotland. It contains a village of its own name, and also the villages of Gogar, Stanhope-Mills and Four-mile Hill. It is bounded by Cramond, Kirkliston, Ratho, Currie, Colinton, and St. Cuthbert's. It is 4 miles long from E. to W. by 2½ broad. Its surface is for the most part level, rising gradually to the N. into the elevation of Corstorphine Hill, 475 feet above the sea. Freestone, whinstone, and trap are largely quarried. The parish is watered by the Gogar and the Water of Leith.

A century ago the village of Corstorphine was a fashionable watering-place, in consequence of a sulphureous spring, which was much resorted to. Much of the ground near the village supplies fruit and vegetables for the Edinburgh market. The parish is well-wooded, and contains many fine residences. There are stations for Corstorphine and Gogar on the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway, which, together with the middle road between these cities, traverses the parish.

The village of Corstorphine is situated 3½ miles W. of Edinburgh. It has recently recovered somewhat of its old favour as a summer retreat for the inhabitants of Edinburgh. This parish is in the presbytery of Edinburgh, and in the patronage of Sir W. H. D. Cunyngham, Bart. The stipend of the minister is £230.

The church is an ancient building in the form of a Jerusalem cross, built by Sir John Forester, of Corstorphine, Lord High Chamberlain of Scotland in 1429. It was dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and was a collegiate church, to which the churches of Corstorphine, Dalmahoy, Hatton, Cramond, &c., belonged. The arms of the Forester family are dispersed over the building, inside which there are life sized effigies in stone of several members of the same family. There is an ancient chapel at Gogar, the burial ground around which is still in use. There is also a Free church in the village of Corstorphine."

"GOGAR, a village and quondam parish in the parish of Corstorphine, county Edinburgh, Scotland, 5 miles S.W. of Edinburgh. It is a station on the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway. It is situated on the Gogar rivulet, which has its source near Kirknewton, and falls into the Almond water. The old parish is principally included in Costorphine, but partly in Ratho and Kirkliston. In 1650 an action took place here between Cromwell and General Leslie; the spot where it occurred being still designated as "The Flashes". Numerous stone coffins have recently been discovered on the field of battle."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]


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