Friday 15th August - Departure day

It has finally arrived - the day we had to get packed up for the last time and then head off to Edinburgh airport to fly back to London, Dubai, Sydney and finally Auckland: New Zealand:

Heathrow airport from the transit lounge

Quantas flight QF 2 - to Dubai and Sydney

Thursday 14th August - Edinburgh city

Neil took us on a wander through the rest of the city down to where we had to catch the bus home:

Fringe ad for a NZ show

Fringe ad for Haka

Houses

West College Street - I think

Edinburgh tram

Near here was Victoria Street which led downhill to where the gallows used to be. Now there is a pub there called "The Last Drop"!

Edinburgh public transport was great!

Here is one of the Edinburgh buses:

Thursday 14th August - Greyfriars Church and George Herriot's College

Gravestone of the dog - "Greyfriars Bobby"

The Greyfriars Church

The front of the church

George Herriot's College

George Herriot's College site of "Hogwarts" in Harry Potter. George Herriot, a wealthy businessman, provide the money to establish the school. He acquired the nickname of "Jingly Geordie". He also lent money to James V1.

Closer view

Thursday 14th August - Edinburgh University

After looking at Mum's School we went to Edinburgh University that Neil was familiar with:

James V1 of Scotland and the 1st of England

Up the stairs in the Playfair Library

The interior of the library

James V1 of Scotland and 1 of England was a well educated man for his day, but acquired the title of the "Wisest fool in Christendom".

The main building

The old quadrangle 1583 designed by Robert Adam

The left-hand side of the quadrangle

Charles Darwin's lodgings: 11 Lothian Street

The plaque

Thursday 14th August - George Watson's Ladies' College

Neil had said that one of the things that he could do would be to take us to George Watson's Ladies College next to George Square, which is where my mother went to school:

The door lintel

Te main facade

The entrance lintel

If you look carefully under the triangle left and right you can see the inscription: "George Watson's Ladies College"

From down the street

Wednesday 13th August - J K laidlaw's house at 13 St. Bernard's Crescenr

Here is J.K.Laidlaw's house in Edinburgh where he lived while working as a conveyancing lawyer. Dad, Uncle John and Aunty Flora grew up here.

The house itself

The front door

Neil told a story about J.K. while he was working in Edinburgh.
He had a horse and cab and employed a driver to get around while conducting his business. At some time the cab had an accident and the driver was killed! J.K. went round to the driver's wife - a Mrs. Fairweather, and offered her a job as his housekeeper and accommodation to go with it.

She was a largely uneducated woman. J.K. like to use Demarara sugar with his coffee. When Mrs. Fairweather served the coffee she announced the sugar as, "drumhairy sugar"!

Wednesday 13th August - Dad's old school "Edinburgh Academy"

Neil then drove us to our fathers' (William and John) old school "Edinburgh Academy".
Here is the pillar at the entrance

and then the views either side from the gate.

The main entrance

Left hand side

Right hand side

Last there is a close up view of the main entrance. Note the inscriptions: latin above and the greek below

Wednesday 13th August - J K Laidlaw's house "The Gair" at Juniper Green

Today the weather improved and we could see sunshine.

After breakfast Neil drove us off to the airport to find out where the Europcar rental car return was, and how to get from there to the Airport Departure lounge. In the end it was only a 300 yard walk!

Then we came back for a cup of tea before heading off to "The Gair", Curriemuirend, Colinton, Midlothian, (Title on Neil's picture of the Gair) at Juniper Green Village which J.K.Laidlaw (1860 to 1931) built in 1897 for 700 pounds. That paid for the land, the architect (Edward C.M. Maidman) and the building.

Lanark Road

The Gair - 442

Juniper Green Village

"The Gair" - 442 Lanark Road, Juniper Green

Front path to the door

The door lintel

If you look carefully to the left of the latin motto - "Fides Probata Coronat" you can just see the initials J K L - John Kinlay Laidlaw

Tuesday 12th of August - Neil and Helen Laidlaw's place in Edinburgh

We woke to a wet morning.
I had another cooked breakfast at the hostel: sausage, egg, tattie scone, hash brown, baked beans, haggis and black pudding. I couldn't eat all of it!

We had a walk down to Woodlands Road to see where the sliproad to the M8 was not far away, just so that when we drove the car we would get into the right lanes.

Off we went! When we got to the end of the M8 at Edinburgh we took the A720 to the Biggar Road, but turned right instead of left and got lost. Eventually we found our way back, onto the correct road and arrived at 35 Swanspring Road.

35 Swanspring Avenue

Helen and Neil

The road got its name from the fact that the area had a number of springs that, at one stage, were used to supply Edinburgh as well as Comiston with fresh water.

Spring well head

Neil and Helen Laidlaw gave us a warm welcome and went out of their way to make sure that we saw all the things that we were keen to find out about. At one time we went for a walk through Braidburn Valley Park which had been a haunt of Robert Louis Stevenson when he walked from Comiston, where Neil and Helen live, to the Pentland hills.

Braidburn Valley signpost

Pathway through the park looking back from where we entered it.

Mealtimes were great with a lovely outlook into their garden. We could see the bird feeder and a procession of birds making use of it - sparrows, finches and a pigeon. But the best of all was a squirrel that appeared.
Here is a video clip of the squirrel "up the pole" as it were:

Climbing the pole

Checking the rain gauge

On our last night they took us out to a restaurant that had been called Tusitala and is now called ......?

Neil's brother J.A.K.L. was John Alan Kinlay Laidlaw but was known in the family as Iain so as not to be confused with John, his father John (my dad's brother). Iain in Gaelic means John. He was quite artistic and quirky. Neil showed me a book of cartoons that he had drawn. They were really funny and well drawn.

Monday 11th August - Glasgow Mitchell Library

A blustery and sometimes wet day - not nice to be outside.

In the morning we went down to the Mitchell Library, which was impressive as a building and as a library!

The Mitchell Library Glasgow

Mary-Ann wanted to pursue her ancestry explorations and I wanted to find out about:

1. The history of 23 Park Circus
2. Henry Bell and the steamship that he invented and sailed on the Clyde called The Comet!

The young man in the archives section pointed me in the direction of the Post Office Directories that went way back to the 1880s. I picked out the one for 1944, looked up 23 Park Circus and there it was: The Park Circus Maternity Home registered under Mrs. MacCallum!

The lady in the references section found me a book called "Henry Bell" by Osborne and photocopied  the colour picture of Henry Bell from the back - for a pound!

From there we went down town to The Tron Gate.

A tron was a weighing beam in medieval Scotland, usually located in the marketplaces of burghs. There are various areas of several Scottish towns that are named for them. Etymologically the word is derived from the Old French tronel or troneau, meaning "balance". 

From the 12th century the city fathers of Scottish burghs needed to standardise weights and measurements, partly to collect the correct taxation on goods, and partly to stop unscrupulous merchants shortchanging citizens. Trons were set up in marketplaces throughout Scotland, with each burgh with its own set of, sometimes differing, weights. Some burghs had more than one tron; in Edinburgh a butter tron was located at the head of the West Bow, while a salt tron was located further down the Royal Mile.

Tron Gate Clock Tower

Tron Gate building

Tron Gate Police memorial

View of the Tron Gate from Argyll Street

to pick up the two smaller cases that we wanted to replace one big one