Boroughloch and the Boroughloch Brewery Traditional Cache
Boroughloch and the Boroughloch Brewery
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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A wheelchair accessible cache in the vicinity of the one time Boroughloch Brewery adjacent to the Meadows in Edinburgh. The cache is in plain sight but overlooked - extreme stealth required.
The information for this cache is taken from a pair of articles written by Charles McMaster in 1988 for the Scottish Brewing Archive Newsletter - edition numbers 11 and 13.
As noted in some of the logs, extracting the log from the cache can be a bit challenging. You might want to bring a pin or a needle with you to assist in this task.
This area in southern Edinburgh was once an expanse of water known as The Burghloch (or Boroughloch, Burrowloch or Borrowloch). Records dating back to the 16th century describe how this body of water was utilised as part of Edinburgh's water supply and then drained over the course of nearly 200 years (makes the Holyrood parliament debacle almost sound efficient) to become the recreational area we know today as The Meadows.
The loch was originally approximately 3/4 mile long by 1/4 mile wide. By the 16th century it had become a major source of water for the city of Edinburgh
In 1554 the magistrates of Edinburgh ordered the Burgh Loch to be enclosed to stop it overflowing, then in 1575 the city authorities directed the brewers concentrated in the old town to draw their water from the loch in order to preserve the supplies in the town wells that were drying up due to their increased use.
To support this, a windmill was built in 1598 to pump water to a reservoir in the Cowgate to supply the the Society of Brewers. However after about 20 years this had resulted in such a significant lowering of the levels of the loch that this had to be stopped and a dyke and sluice constructed at the western end to allow the levels to be restored. In 1653 the brewers were once again ordered to take water from the Burghloch rather than the town wells, as by now water was being piped from Comiston springs to supplement the supply.
In 1657 a decision was made to drain the loch to provide grazing ground or meadows, but the initial attempts simply resulted in a marsh. In 1722 Sir Thomas Hope was granted a lease on the former Burghloch with the proviso that he complete the drainage work, which was still not completed by the time of his death in 1771. Towards the end of the 18th century what remained was little more than an open sewer, consisting largely of an area of stagnant pools and ditches and recognised as a health hazard. In 1804 a new cut was approved from the Eastern end to the King's Park - but even this didn't solve the problem. The drainage was not finally completed until the 1850's by which time it had come under the control of the police commissioners.
There is a long history of brewing in Edinburgh, much of it at breweries that no longer exist that operated during the 18th and 19th through to the early 20th centuries.
The main run off from the loch was at the western end where the Dalry Burn ran off towards Roseburn. The run-off at this point was known as the Loch-Rin and gave its name to the Lochrin Brewery which was established in 1731.
The records of early brewing around the Boroughloch are a bit hazy, although it is known that Walter Scott brewed at a pool within the partially drained loch called The Goosedub in 1735. It is likely that domestic brewing may have been going on in the 16th century, but commercial brewing probably only since the 18th century.
On the North Eastern edge was the eponymous Boroughloch Brewery. It was one of a line of breweries that stretched south from The Potterrow Brewery, including the aforementioned Boroughloch Brewery, The Summerhall Brewery and The Newington Brewery at Sciennes. They were situated to take advantage of a line of wells that ran North-South through this part of town.
The Boroughloch Brewery was established around 1798. It changed hands a couple of times until it became owned by Alexander Melvin sometime before 1850. By the 1860's they were reputed to be the 5th largest brewing firm in Scotland with a large domestic trade and a healthy export business. A bad fire in the 1890's led to extensive reconstruction.
Brewing ceased on the site in 1907 - approximately a hundred years before the placement of this cache.
In 1909 it appears to have been converted into an "aerated water manufactory" - just to show perhaps that the modern fad for bottled water goes back further than maybe thought.
Much of the brewery was converted into dwelling houses in 1916 - with other parts being let out to a variety of different businesses. In about 1951 the buildings were sold to a firm of property developers - and have since been transformed into today's form - Boroughloch Square off Boroughloch itself. These are now private residential dwellings.
The cache can be found at one of the original entrances to the brewery - denoted by the sign at the top of the arch - which strangely enough says "Boroughloch Brewery". As mentioned at the top of the page, the cache is in plain sight, so keen eyesight should suffice to spot it - but the area is extremely overlooked and has a lot of muggles passing through. I would recommend removing to a quieter less overlooked spot to fill in the log.
The cache is wheelchair accessible, although cobbles and narrow pavements may make the terrain slightly challenging.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Zntargvp anab. Vg vf va cynva fvtug ba yrsg unaq fvqr bs gur nepu ybbxvat va sebz gur bhgfvqr.