Canonmills

Canonmills is a district of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It lies to the south east of the Royal Botanic Garden at Inverleith, east of Stockbridge and west of Bellevue, in a low hollow north of Edinburgh's New Town. The area was formerly a loch which was drained in three phases in the 18th and 19th centuries, disappearing finally in 1865.

History

Holyrood Abbey

Formerly a small village, Canonmills owes its origins and name, in the same way as the Canongate, to the Augustinian canons of Holyrood Abbey who operated a mill here from the 12th century. It is shown pictorially as a cluster of buildings, three of which have waterwheels, on the 1560 Siege of Leith map. At a later period a mill lade from the Water of Leith reached the area via the village of Silvermills to the east. The Incorporation of Baxters (bakers) in the Canongate were compelled by law to have their corn ground at the Canonmills, and during demolition work carried out in 1964 to enlarge a local filling station a stone was unearthed bearing the inscription, "The Baxters Land 1686". It is now incorporated into a wall of the Canonmills Service Station. The only surviving building of the original village is a pantile-roofed former mill building on the corner of Eyre Place and Canon Street. Until c.1995 further remnants existed on Eyre Terrace.