When we suggested that our visitors might be interested in seeing the Colinton Tunnel M was very reluctant to go into an old railway tunnel.  However after eventually being persuaded she was pleasantly surprised to have seen the wonderful murals which illustrate Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous poem From a Railway Carriage.
 RLS would have seen the railway being built when he used to visit his maternal grandfather who was minister of the local parish church close by.  The tunnel was opened in 1874 and the last train passed through in 1967 before the tunnel was closed and bricked up.   It was restored and reopened in 1980 on the route of the Water of Leith Walkway but after further deterioration when people found it dark and gloomy Chris Rutterford was invited to design a mural with local people in the community and schools being invited to help.  We saw him working on it a couple of years ago.
 One side of the 140 metre (153yds) long tunnel illustrates the poem and the other side illustrates sights, people and places in the area.  The photo is one section of the poem.
 
From a Railway Carriage
 
Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.
Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And there is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart run away in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone for ever!