Currie is a suburb of
Edinburgh
, Scotland
, situated 10
kilometres south west of the city centre. A former village
within the County of Midlothian
, it lies to the south west of the city, between
Juniper
Green
(NE) and Balerno
(SW) on the
Lanark Road. Administratively, Currie falls within the
jurisdiction of the
City of
Edinburgh Council.
In 1995 the population of Currie was 6,343 and it contained 2,300
houses, 850 of them less than 20 years old.
History
There is no accepted derivation of the name Currie but it is
possibly from the
Scottish Gaelic
word
curagh/curragh, a wet or boggy plain, or from the
Brythonic word
curi, a dell or hollow or perhaps the anglo saxon for
'dilapidated or dirt hole'.
The neighbouring suburb of Balerno derives
its name from Scottish Gaelic, while
the nearby Pentland
Hills
derive their name from Brythonic, so either is
possible.
The earliest record of a settlement in the Currie area is a
Bronze Age razor (1800 BC) found at
Kinleith Mill and the stone cists (500 BC) at Duncan's Belt and
Blinkbonny. There are a few mentions of this area in
mediaeval and early modern documents. One of the
first is when Robert of Kildeleith became Chancellor of Scotland in
1249. Kildeleith means Chapel by the Leith, and survives today as
Kinleith.
Robert the
Bruce gave Riccarton
as a wedding present in 1315 and in 1392 the land
passed to the family of Bishop Wardlaw. In 1612 the land
went to Ludovic Craig, a Senator of the
College of Justice. In 1818 it passed to
the female line and became the property of the Gibson-Craigs.
There has been a Christian community in the area for more than
1,000 years. In 1018, the archdeacons of
Lothian set up their headquarters in the area.
John Bartholomew's Civic and Ecclesiastical
maps of the 13th century do not show Currie, but the Index of
Charters 1309-1413 records Currie as being 'favourite hunting
grounds' for the Lords and Knights of Edinburgh Castle
. A settlement began to take shape around
Currie Kirk and the main Lanark Road, which was the main route
south and continues to be known as 'The Lang Whang'.
The period 1921-1951 brought great changes with the building of
more council houses in Currie and private building along Lanark
Road. Wider scale development began in the late 1950s and early
1960s with the construction of a private housing estate to the east
of Curriehill Road. House builders began to promote Currie as a
pleasant commuting suburb of Edinburgh and much house building took
place to the north of Lanark Road West. Currie High School was
constructed on its present site in 1966 and extensively refurbished
and renewed in 1997. The physical topography has ensured that the
original historic core to the south of Lanark Road West including
the Water of Leith has remained undeveloped. In March 1972 the
historic centre of Currie was declared a
Conservation Area.
Currie today
Education
The earliest record of education in the area is contained in the
Minutes of Edinburgh Town Council in 1598, when Baillie Lawrence
Henderson was sent to "the toun o Currie to help the gentlemen of
the Parish select a Schoolmaister"; however it is not stated where
the school was situated. In 1694, the heritors appointed a Mr
Thomson to teach scholars in the Church until Thomas Craig of
Riccarton found a place for the building of a school and house for
the schoolmaster. The foundations of the school were laid in 1699.
The school and school house cost 500 merks and the salary of the
Schoolmaster, a Mr Thomson, was 20 pounds Scots per year.
Currie is
served by Currie High
School
, Nether
Currie Primary School and Currie Primary School, formed by an
amalgamation in 2005 of Curriehill Primary School and Riccarton
Primary School which shared neighbouring campuses.
From the
1970s onwards, Heriot-Watt University
moved from its city centre location to occupy the
lands of the former Riccarton Estate, gifted to the university by
the then Midlothian District Council. The move has now been
completed and the main campus of Heriot-Watt University occupies
and manages a superb wooded area with enough space for future
expansion.
Sport
Football
Currie is home to two football teams Currie Boys and Currie Star.
Rugby
Currie has one rugby team, Currie RFC.
Culture and attractions
Local newspaper
The
Currie and Balerno News is Currie's community
newspaper which also includes coverage of nearby Balerno, Baberton
and Juniper Green. Published monthly, the paper features local
news, a monthly police
neighbourhood
watch update, an
SSPCA appeal and coverage
of local planning applications and developments.
Local History Society
Currie and District Local History Society meets 12 times a year and
has speakers on all aspects of the area.
The society meets every first and third Monday in the month and our
year starts in October.The venue is in the Gibson Craig Hall on the
Lanark Road in Currie.Meetings start at 7.30 p.m.Our website for
the syllabus is
[231439]
Transport
The
A70 runs through the area and Currie is
serviced by the 44 bus route, which is operated by both
Lothian Buses and
First Edinburgh.
Currie is served by
rail by Curriehill railway station
on the Glasgow-Edinburgh via
Shotts Line. Currie is also close to the City of Edinburgh
bypass and is bordered by the Union Canal
to the north and the Water of Leith
to the south. Edinburgh Airport is
located approximately 4 miles north of Currie and the M8 motorway
to Glasgow
is around 2 miles north. It also has
connections to Livingston in West Lothian through Prentice
Westwood's 424, between Juniper Green and Livingston.
Famous residents
See also
References
- Currie and Balerno News
External links
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