Granton is a district in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland. Granton forms part of Edinburgh's waterfront along the Firth of Forth and is, historically, an industrial area having a large harbour. Granton is part of Edinburgh's large scale waterfront regeneration programme.
Name According to Stuart Harris, the name is derived from the Anglian grand tun, a farm or place of or at the gravel or sand. It is recorded from 1478 onward, with the division into Easter Granton and Wester Granton appearing from before 1612.
The name appears on maps in the seventeenth century relating to the now-demolished Granton Castle. The name also appears in Granton Burn, which now runs through Caroline Park down to what was Granton Beach.
Granton Castle
Granton Castle is first documented in 1479, as a building owned by John Melville of Carnbee, Fife. It stood to the north-west of the current mansion, Caroline Park. On John's death it passed to his son, also John Melville, who was one of the many Scottish nobility killed at the Battle of Flodden. In 1592 it was sold by the Melville family to John Russell but by 1619 was acquired by Sir Thomas Hope, the Lord Advocate, who greatly altered and extended the castle. On his death it passed to his son, Sir John Hope, Lord Craighall.Stranger on the Shore, James Gracie, p.21
The building fell derelict by the 18th century. At the end of the 19th century the architectural historians MacGibbon and Ross did a survey and created scale drawings of the remnants. This showed a standard L-plan Scottish tower house with a courtyard to the north side. This was accessed by a gateway on the west side, on the outer side of which was a loupin stane, a set of steps to aid a person to mount a horse.
In 1928 a quarrying firm, Bain and Brown, bought the site to excavate the rock outcrop beneath the castle. The majority of the castle was lost due to this exercise. The exercise itself was largely redundant as the steeply angled rock bed quickly meant excavation became too deep to be economic. Now only small fragments of the castle remain.Janet Brennan-Inglis, A Passion for Castles: MacGibbon and Ross (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2022), pp. 108–110.
The walled garden of the castle survives. For many years it was the home of a small scale commercial market garden. It was threatened by housing development proposals but was saved by a local campaign and is now maintained as a community resource by the Friends of Granton Castle Garden.
Granton Harbour
In 1834 Edinburgh debated the need for a larger harbour. James Walker in his capacity as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers oversaw a committee, also including Admiral David Milne, to choose between three options: an extension to the existing Leith Docks; a new harbour at Trinity or a new harbour at Granton. The initial bid for Trinity did not receive parliamentary consent and in 1836 a second bill promoting Granton was agreed. The Granton Pier Act 1837 (7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. xv) received royal assent on 21 April 1837.Stranger on the Shore, by James Gracies
Construction began in June 1837 and the initial central pier was opened on 28 June 1838, coinciding with the coronation of Queen Victoria. The entire project was funded by the 5th Duke of Buccleuch. The original project included a central pier named the Victoria Jetty and a road running eastwards to Leith. The young Queen Victoria landed at the pier on RY Royal George on 1 September 1842 on her first official visit to Edinburgh as queen. In 1843/44 the pier was extended in length to a total of 1700 feet (around 500m) this stage being completed in October 1844. By 1845 an "exceedingly low" cost steamboat service used to run between Stirling and Granton.
Lighthouse engineer Robert Stevenson oversaw the later construction of the outer breakwaters, which were completed in 1863. Thereafter the Resident Engineer was John Howkins, followed by his son, also John Howkins. The original concept to create two large wet docks on the landward side was abandoned as this proved impractical.Stranger on the Shore, James Gracie, p.14/15 (map)
Granton became a successful port for the export of coal, and import of esparto grass for making paper. The fishing fleet grew considerably, leading to the development of an ice house in the late 19th century, to the west of the harbour. There were some 80 fishing trawlers resident just before World War II. The first example of the fossil crustacean Waterstonella was found in the Granton shrimp beds by the keeper of geology at the Royal Scottish Museum, Dr. Charles Waterstone. The foreshore area between Granton and Newhaven is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) aimed at encouraging and preserving the resource of fossils in the area.
From 3 February 1850, the world's first ferry-train began operating between Granton and Burntisland, Fife. The paddle-steamer Leviathan carried the trains, which formed the main link across the Forth until completion of the Forth Bridge in 1890. Passenger and car ferry services continued into the 1960s.
In 1884, John Murray set up the Marine Laboratory in Granton, the first of its kind in the United Kingdom. In 1894, this laboratory was moved to Millport, Isle of Cumbrae, on the Firth of Clyde, and became the University Marine Biological Station, Millport, the forerunner of today's Scottish Association for Marine Science at Dunstaffnage, near Oban, Argyll and Bute.
During the First World War Granton harbour was used as the base for mine-sweeping equipment: mainly Scottish trawlers and their crews, called into active service and conscripted as part of the Royal Navy Reserve. During this period the harbour was officially renamed as "HMS Gunner" when referred to in military documents, in reference to the name of the largest trawler in its fleet. The harbour was then home to mine-sweepers, decoy ships (Q-ships), and anti-submarine vessels. The north section held smaller support vessels specifically built for Navy use, including 24 motor launches, 18 paddle mine-sweepers, and 30 boom-defence vessels, with a total of 103 craft.The War at Sea: WW100 Scotland
Granton Depot was the key base in Scotland of the Northern Lighthouse Board with their boats taking lighthouse keepers and their supplies to and from lighthouses around the coast of Scotland. Granton also became the base for pilots from 1920, guiding ships into the Firth of Forth, a service it still provides a base for today.
From 1942 to 1946, Granton harbour was home of shore-based minesweeping training establishment HMS Lochinvar. As the scale of the harbour restricted ship size, it became a site for scrapping former Royal Navy ships, including HMS Newport and HMS Hedingham Castle.
Today two boat clubs jointly run the Edinburgh Marina: the Forth Corinthian Yacht Club and the Royal Forth Yacht Club.
Fishing The Annual Reports of the Fishery Board for Scotland provide an insight into fishing in Granton and Newhaven in the years before the First World War. The specific circumstances have to be taken into account. The report from 1902 states that "there were 44 steamers fisning from Newhaven, all of which were engaged in trawling". In the report for 1909, we learn that "at Granton about 70 trawl vessels land their catches, about two thirds of which are carted to and sold in Newhaven, the remainder being railed directly to Glasgow".. The Second Edition Six-Inch Ordnance Survey Map illustrates the harbours and their railway connections at the time. It it was not until 1910 that the Board decided to include steam trawlers as first class vessels, and their crews in their statistics for fishermen - hence the abrupt differences to be seen in the charts below from then on. Similar differences can be observed in the results for Dundee and Aberdeen.
From 1901 to 1909 the Fishery Board chose to group the results for Newhaven and Granton together. For reasons of continuity, all the other results have been added together in a similar way to produce the charts below. In order to gain further detail, only the local results are shown in the entry for Newhaven.
At the start of 1914 up to seventy one vessels were trawling all through the North Sea, but their movments were restricted after the outbreak of war. Although twenty seven of the trawlers were employed by the Admiralty during the concluding five months of the year, good results were obtained.
Industry
Granton quarry to the west of the harbour was initially developed to provide stone to build the harbour. Later it provided stone for parts of Holyrood Palace, and for the statue of Lord Nelson on Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London.
The oldest surviving car factory building in Britain is located in Granton. The Madelvic Motor Carriage Company works were built in 1898 for the manufacture of electric cars. Like the gasometers, the factory is also a listed building. However, approval has been granted for its demolition as part of wider redevelopment of the area.Historic Madelvic car factory set to be demolished after Edinburgh Council U-turn – Edinburgh Evening News 12 January 2010 In June 2017, planning permission was granted for a community garden on the site. In November 2021, a Red Wheel plaque was unveiled at the site. Red Wheel plaques are installed by the National Transport Trust to identify sites of significant transport heritage.
Granton Gasworks were formerly one of Edinburgh waterfront's most prominent landmarks, comprising three blue gasometers which were clearly visible from Fife. Two of the structures, built in the 1930s and 1970s, have now been demolished. The third structure remains, and is listed as an example of Victorian industrial architecture. In 2023, the inner 'bell' of the surviving gasholder was removed, leaving the listed frame to be part of the regenerated waterfront. In 2025, the gasholder was opened to the public as a public park.
Development during World War Two included the construction of the works of Bruce Peebles (later Parsons Peebles), that made high voltage electrical equipment, including transformers for electricity power stations. The works burnt down in a huge fire in 1999, and is now part of the waterside redevelopment. The firm continues in business as Parsons Peebles Generation Limited, Wood Road, Royal Dockyard, Rosyth. Ferranti's factory on Ferry Road was built to make electronics for aircraft, including gyro-based gunsights for the Supermarine Spitfire. Today the site of the former Ferranti's is still under a defense contractor Leonardo.
Transport
Buses Bus services are mainly provided by Lothian Buses. Buses that Terminate in Granton either stop at Granton Square or the Scottish Gas HQ, the Scottish Gas HQ journeys will have West Granton, Pilton or Muirhouse as their destination blinds.
8 Muirhouse - Granton - Pilton - Canonmills - North Bridge - Newington - Moredun - Royal Infirmary
14 Muirhouse - Granton - Pilton - Ferry Road - Elm Row - North Bridge - Newington - Prestonfield - Niddrie
16 Colinton - Oxgangs - Morningside - Tollcross - Princes Street - Leith - Newhaven - Granton - Muirhouse - Silverknowes
19 Granton - Pilton - Western General - West End - Princes Street - Meadowbank - Lochend - Portobello
24 West Granton - Muirhouse - Drylaw - Western General - Stockbridge - West End - The Meadows - Blackford - Royal Infirmary
32 Granton - Muirhouse - Davidson Mains - Drum Brae - Sighthill - Wester Hailes
38 West Granton - Western General - Craigleith - Ravelston - Murrayfield - Gorgie - Morningside - Blackford - Kings Building - Royal Infirmary
47/X37 Granton - Western General - West End - Lothian Road (47) Princes Street (X37) - Newington - Liberton - Straiton - Penicuik Ladywood (47) Penicuik Deanburn (X37)
N16 Torphin - Colinton - Oxgangs - Morningside - Tollcross - Princes Street - Leith - Newhaven - Granton - Muirhouse - Silverknowes
Railways