Edinburgh Bridges #02 : Canonmills Bridge

This plaque is affixed to the middle of the wall on the Leith side of the Canonmills Bridge, but it is wrong.

To go back to the origins of Canonmills, it was a small village on the Water of Leith with water wheels or mills operated by the Augustine canons of Holyrood Abbey back in the 12th Century. There was a small loch towards the west of the village and although it was partially drained (it was probably originally a flood plain for the river which might relate to the flood problems we see now) it was enough to deter the development of the Edinburgh's New Town, however a properly constructed bridge across the river was first established in 1767, not 1840 as stated to the plaque as the houses of Inverleith Row and Warriston Crescent were built before 1840. The 1840 date will refer to a rebuilt bridge and the consequent upgrading in the later part of the 19th century to aid the access to the North part of Edinburgh. These days thousand of people cross over the bridge, every day probably not realising that they are crossing over the Water of Leith.