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Mountcastle, Edinburgh

Areas of EdinburghEdinburgh geography stubsUse British English from December 2017

Mountcastle is a suburb of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is east of the city centre and lies to the north-west of the neighbouring area of Portobello. Mountcastle is primarily a residential area, with many early-mid 20th century houses.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Mountcastle, Edinburgh (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Mountcastle, Edinburgh
Mountcastle Drive North, City of Edinburgh Mountcastle

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Wikipedia: Mountcastle, EdinburghContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 55.951836111111 ° E -3.1327111111111 °
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Address

Mountcastle Drive North

Mountcastle Drive North
EH8 7SJ City of Edinburgh, Mountcastle
Scotland, United Kingdom
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Craigentinny Marbles
Craigentinny Marbles

The Craigentinny Marbles is the mausoleum of William Henry Miller (1789-1848), a wealthy landowner and Member of Parliament for Newcastle-under-Lyme, who retired to his estate at Craigentinny after losing his parliamentary seat in 1841. Miller was childless, so upon his death in 1848, the execution of his will fell to a distant relative, Samuel Christy. The will contained instructions to bury Miller's body in a 20-foot-deep pit above which, The Scotsman reported, would be built a monument "in commemoration of the private virtues of the deceased, for, as a public character, he was unknown." £20,000 was allocated for construction. Although the monument would originally have been a solitary structure in a moorland half a mile east of Miller's house, it is now somewhat incongruously surrounded by 1930s bungalows on Craigentinny Crescent.The mausoleum itself was designed by David Rhind and completed in 1856, with two bas relief sculptures by Alfred Gatley depicting part of the biblical narrative of the Exodus added later. The relief on the north face, 'The Overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea', shows the destruction of Ramesses II's army during the crossing of the Red Sea. The relief on the south face, 'The Song of Moses and Miriam', depicts the Israelites singing a song of celebration for their escape and for the destruction of the Egyptian army. The 'Pharaoh' bas-relief was finished in time to be displayed at the 1862 International Exhibition in London, but the 'Song' bas-relief was completed just before Gatley's death from dysentery in 1863.The monument was designated a Category A listed building in 1970.

Portobello Power Station
Portobello Power Station

Portobello Power Station was a coal-fired power station in Portobello, Edinburgh which was built in 1923 by the Edinburgh Corporation in order to cope with the increasing demand for electricity in the city. Although originally intended to be built in 1913, its construction was delayed because of the First World War, and it was formally opened by George V ten years later. Its electricity was used to power Edinburgh and the surrounding region while waste heat warmed the water of Portobello Open Air Pool. In 1938 the design of the station was extended by Edinburgh architect Ebenezer MacRae; its six individual chimneys were replaced with a single 365 feet tall stack, which weighed 10,000 tons, was made up of 710,000 bricks and cost in the region of £118,000 to build.Between 1952 and 1955, the power station achieved the highest thermal efficiency of any station in the UK, with peak output of around 279 megawatts, although an explosion in February 1953 led to a two-hour power blackout across Edinburgh. The explosion, which could be heard a mile away, was caused by sea spray collecting on high-voltage insulators in the main-grid substation. The power station closed on 31 March 1977 and demolished in 1980; a new housing estate was built on the site. During demolition, the chimney had to be taken down brick by brick because of its proximity to nearby houses.The Portobello coat of arms on the power station was rescued during demolition and it was planned to incorporate it into a new sports centre to be built in the area. This never happened and in 2016 the broken coat of arms was located in a council storage facility in the west of Edinburgh.