Did you know Edinburgh’s iconic Princes Street Gardens used to be occupied by the Nor’ Loch, or that for every hill in the Capital there was a loch? Indeed, Auld Reekie was once dominated by rugged hills, volcanic crags, and deep bodies of water. Tens of millions of years of intense volcanic activity followed by several thousand years of glacial erosion in the Lothians carved out a dramatic and picturesque landscape.
Some of Edinburgh’s most famous lost lochs include Canonmills Loch, the Burgh Loch, and the aforementioned Nor’ Loch, where more than 300 men and women were sentenced to be tried for wizardry and witchcraft – either in the loch itself or around its banks. Others – such as Duddingston Loch and Lochend Loch – still survive to this day, but they are now much smaller than they were back then.
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5. Burgh Loch
The Burgh Loch once occupied almost the entirety of what is now the Meadows parkland. Over the centuries the loch shrank considerably, to the point where the town council agreed to begin draining it in 1657. Hope Park, or the Meadows, which we all know today was created in stages over the next 200 years Photo: Ian Georgeson
6. Holyrood Loch
Whether intended or not, the artificial ponds located outside today's Scottish Parliament hint at Holyrood's prehistoric past. Study of sediments during a dig in the 1990s revealed there had once been a natural body of water in the area. Photo: Ian Georgeson
7. Little France Loch
Today the site of Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary, there is scant visible evidence of the large body of water that once existed at Little France. However, alluvial deposits discovered on the banks of the Burdiehouse Burn suggest that there was a loch here in prehistoric times. Photo: Greg Macvean
8. Corstorphine Loch
The former village of Corstorphine was once situated between two bodies of water: the now-drained Corstorphine Loch and Gogar Loch. Corstorphine Loch was by far the biggest of the two and fed into the Water of Leith. Photo: Freelance Photographer Steven Sc