Water

In a previous century Edinburgh Town Council realised they needed a new source of clean water for the Royal Mile. After much debate, Dutch engineer Peter Bruce was comissioned in 1674 for 'inbringing the water to the city'. He was variously known as Peter Brauss and even Bruschi, perhaps driven by a number of litigations in which he was embroiled. In any case the Dutch knew how to design for water.

A water-house was built to gather several burns together... fox, peewit, hare, swan... in Comiston, before sending them downhill through a viaduct to a similar collection point near Edinburgh Castle. Although the original wooden pipes were eventually replaced by iron, the well-head buildings can still be found in gardens around Comiston.

Sadly, animals originally identifying the 'sweet waters' have had a rather less grotto-esque end, in the Museum of Edinburgh. It is startling to imagine them sitting in the dark for hundreds of years.

Blindwells 2020

< Home