Morningside - that district in Edinburgh, home to the lead character from Muriel Spark's "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and Aileen Paterson's "Maisie the Cat". Famed for its prim and proper ladies who considered sex as something that coal was delivered in and a creche as a collision between two vehicles. The somewhat derogatory term in the title refers to people who pretend to be more than they really are - an allegation that has sometimes been levelled at some of those Morningside ladies.

Morningside was originally a separate village outside Edinburgh - indeed in the mid 1800's the village was little more than a row of thatched cottages, a line of trees and a blacksmith's forge. For a while this was the edge of the city - until the mid 1870's when the builders moved beyond the former toll. People from the New Town would come here to spend their holidays - eventually some of them stayed - and the district became established. It has a number of interesting features and bits of local history.

One curiosity is the names of some of the streets that have a distinctly biblical flavour - for example Canaan Lane, Jordan Lane and Nile Grove. The reason behind these names is unknown.

Trams used to run down Morningside Road and up Comiston Road to the Braids terminus.

In 2006 the local community started their own what they hope will become annual festival.

This cache, which covers a bit of ground, stretches from Holy Corner at the northern end of the district to a final location at the southern end, taking in some of the local history and landmarks along the way. The cache container is very small - with perhaps room for coins and very small travel bugs - but taking a leaf out of Firth of Forth and Jack Aubrey's book, it also contains the coordinates for a rather larger bonus cache.

Holy Corner and Chariots of Fire

The trail starts at Holy Corner at the northern end of the district. This junction has four churches on it, one on each corner - hence its name. Indeed there is no shortage of churches in Morningside! On the south east corner is the old North Morningside church which is now home to the Eric Liddell centre. He was the famous runner upon whom the film Chariots of Fire (with the theme tune by Vangelis) was based. Liddell was actually born in China and didn't come to Scotland until he entered Edinburgh University in the 1920's. He was an accomplished sportsman and was awarded international caps for playing rugby for Scotland. He chose however to concentrate on running and won fame at the 1924 Paris Olympics, when the motto “Citius, Altius, Fortius” was first used, winning a bronze medal in the 200m and gold in the 400m - which was not his favoured event. He had refused to participate in the 100m, his strongest event, because being a deeply religious man he refused to take part in the heats which were held on a Sunday. The film exercised a fair degree of artistic license around this, since Liddell had known six months in advance when the heats were scheduled.

The centre also contains a cafe and photo gallery if you happen to be visiting during opening hours.

Question 1 - Outside the church are two benches, one of them commemorates a lady who was a guide leader. What was the number of the guide troop that she led? 6A

Theatres, stones and schools

Walking up the road you come to The Churchill Theatre. The Church Hill Theatre was originally the Morningside Free Church and dates from 1892. It has a substantial rectangular-plan in a Renaissance style finished in red ashlar sandstone, and was converted for use as a theatre in 1962-5. It is a small theatre in that there are only 360 seats in the auditorium. It is regularly used for productions by various groups, including the Edinburgh People's Theatre. The theatre has recently been refurbished inside and out.

Question 2 - Outside the theatre are two pillars with a number of local districts written on them How many such districts are listed in total? B

Waypoint 3 - N55 55.877 W3 12.593 - The Boar Stone
Continuing down the hill the next stop is the Boar Stone. This is reputedly the stone that James IV placed the standard in when he mustered the Scottish army on the Burghmuir before setting off for the ill-fated battle of Flodden Field where James himself was killed, although there is some doubt about this and it may just be a boundary marker stone.

In fact the battle didn't take place at Flodden but at Branxton. Approximately 10,000 Scottish soldiers - about one third of the total force - are reported to have been killed, compared to 1500 of the English army.

As you continue down the road you cross Newbattle terrace - home of the Dominion Cinema, until you reach what is now a Waitrose supermarket on Falcon Avenue which was originally part of the Falcon Estate. Where Waitrose now stands was the site of the Plaza Ballroom - a popular local night-spot. It eventually closed in 1975 (there used to be a plaque to commemorate its existence) and a few years later became a Safeway supermarket - one of the first to open in Edinburgh. At one time it apparently had the highest turnover of any Safeway in Europe. It subsequently became Morrisons when Safeway was sold to them and then was sold on to Waitrose.

Immediately opposite Waitrose is the old school, also known as "the wee school", which doubled up as the local church. Children would come from all around the surrounding districts including as far away as Swanston, often by horse and trap. The horses would be tied up to graze in the adjoining and appropriately named Cuddy Lane.

Pubs, Clocks and another school

As you continue further down Morningside Road you pass the local library on your right - which amongst other things houses a local history collection. The library is on the former site of the Free Church School and Old Smiddy. It opened in 1906.

On the corner of Canaan Lane you come to the Canny Man pub, formerly officially known as The Volunteer Arms. This establishment - at one time boasting exotic dancers - houses a curious collection of artefacts in its various rooms, including a number of dusty clocks. Judging by a shiny brass sign on its exterior it hardly appears as the most welcoming of places! At least it doesn't say "No Geo-cachers" (yet).

Continue down the road towards Morningside Station, passing Braid Church on your left and Maxwell Street on your right. Maxwell Street is home to the local telephone exchange. The trams reached here in 1881.

Next you cross the railway and come to Morningside station, part of the suburban line.

This also used to be the site of the Morningside toll-house. Road tolls were abolished in Scotland in 1883 and the original toll-house was relocated to the entrance of the Hermitage of Braid, close to the start of the multi-cache of the same name.

The suburban line was opened to freight transport on 31 October 1884 and to passenger traffic on 1 December of that year. As well as Morningside it included stations at Gorgie, Craiglockhart, Blackford Hill, Newington and Duddingston. Also on its 14 mile route but not part of the line itself were Portobello, Piershill, Abbeyhill, Waverley, and Haymarket. The line is still used for freight, but the last passenger train ran on 9th September 1962. There have been attempts in the recent past, notably by the Cockburn Association, to have the line reopened for passenger traffic, but so far without result. At the time of writing a report is due to be delivered to the Council that again examines the feasibility of this option.

The Morningside Station clock, one of the best known landmarks in the district, was at one time outside what is now the Morningside Glory pub, (formerly the Commercial Bank). More recently it used to be on an island in the middle of the road until the junction was re-modelled a few years ago whereupon it was placed to one side after restoration. A more recent addition are some spiky bits intended to discourage pranksters from climbing up and changing the time.

This is a busy junction with roads leading off to the four compass points - Belhaven Terrace/Balcarres Street to the west, Cluny Gardens to the East, Morningside Road to the North and Braid and Comiston Roads to the South.

Looking south, on the corner of Braid Road and Cluny Gardens is Morningside Parish Church. This church boasts the longest aisle of any parish church in the UK. It is also the place where the former Labour leader, John Smith's funeral was held on 20 May 1994 following his sudden and untimely death at the age of 55. His family home, although not his parliamentary seat, was nearby.

Now walk up Comiston Road - passing Comiston Place on your left on the way. Alison Cunningham, Robert Louis Stevenson's nurse lived here at no 1 in the later years of her life. She died here on July 17th 1913 - 22 days after suffering a fracture of some description at the age of 91. I believe she also lived on Balcarres Street at one time - although I don't have any documentary evidence of this. We meet her again later in the tour.

You should now be outside South Morningside School, which is one of the places where Manylegs senior was educated and learned some of the local history that you are now being treated to.

The school came into existence largely as a result of the Education (Scotland) Act of 1872 which made elementary education from the ages of 5 to 13 compulsory - and in 1889 such education became free - meaning that school boards were forced to provide sufficient capacity.

The architect was Robert Wilson, who was employed by The Edinburgh School Board as their own. This was a typical board school in its symmetrical design with girls on one side and boys on the other. Wilson designed a number of Edinburgh primary schools. The school opened its doors for the first time on 5 September 1892 at 9 0'clock and within a few days the role stood at 572.

The formal opening of the school took place on 3rd October 1892 and included amongst the guests was Andrew Carnegie the celebrated philanthropist.

The school role was calculated weekly and varied enormously, peaking at 1014 in May 1907.

The following are the recollections of a former pupil from those days..."The edifice was built of dressed stone, and was a sombre affair with high windows...In front it was guarded by a dwarf wall and lofty iron railings pieced by the two gates, while round the back a high wall separated the playground from the gardens of superior terraced residences. There was a door in the wall dividing the two playgrounds and on the rare occasions when this was opened, the boys were marched through, each doffing our cap as we passed under the lintel. The classes comprised boys and girls, but there was a fairly rigid segregation - boys and girls had their own playgrounds, each with its own gate and separate doors into the school. In each classroom there was a central alleyway between the desks and the boys were on one side and the girls on the other"

The first edition of "Edinburgh for Children" also came from South Morningside school - in this case it was some members of the Parent Teacher Association who produced it in 1971. There have been a number of editions since.

As a more modern piece of history, the first person in Scotland to have the proceeds of their drug dealing enterprise confiscated by the courts lived in one of the adjoining flats.

Cemeteries and Calculations

Turn right on Comiston Drive, then onto Dalhousie Terrace, which will bring you to Morningside Drive. Cross over and turn right until you come to the entrance to Morningside Cemetery at N55 55.401 W3 12.835

The cemetery has been extensively vandalised by the council in the name of health and safety.

There are a few notable people buried here - including Nobel prize winner Sir Edward Appleton who won said prize for research into the so called Appleton layer within the atmosphere - off which radio signals could be bounced, enabling short-wave radio communication with Australia without the use of satellites.

Waypoint 8 - N55 55.476 W3 12.798 - Alison Cunningham's Grave
However, that's not who we're looking for here... First find Alison Cunningham's grave. As noted earlier in the tour she was Robert Louis Stevenson's nurse, going by the nickname "Cummy". Her calvinistic views are thought to have had quite an influence on RLS. He remembered her fondly and wrote her a number of letters in his relatively short life. He dedicated "A Child's Garden of Verses" to her.

Her gravestone didn't escape the council vandalism, but in her case it was re-instated. The scotsman story is here

Waypoint 9 - Ralph Copeland's Grave N 55° 55.406 W 003° 12.891
Next find the grave of Ralph Copeland and some of his family.

He was the 3rd Astronomer Royal for Scotland, and was responsible for selecting the site and over-seeing the building of the Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill.

He is buried here with his second wife (Theodora) and two of his daughters (Paula and Agnes) from that marriage. He had another daughter (Fanny, who's own life is a major story in itself) and son (Theodore) from that marriage as well as a son (Richard) and daughter (Elizabeth) from his first marriage.

Born in Lancashire in 1837 he led an interesting and varied life which included gold mining in Australia and working for the locomotive manufacturer Beyer and Peacock in Gorton, now part of Manchester before travelling to Gottingen University in Germany - one of the foremost universities of the day where famous mathematician Gauss was based - to study astronomy. From there he worked in Ireland at Parsonstown and then at Dun Echt in Aberdeenshire where he was Lord Lindsay's (later the Earl of Crawford) personal astronomer. Lord Lindsay donated the instruments from his observatory as well as his library and personal astronomer to the nation in order to create the Royal Observatory - which resulted in Copeland being offered and accepting the post of Astronomer Royal in succession to the perhaps better know Piazzi-Smyth. Amongst other things he catalogued the aforementioned library, now known as the Crawford collection of astronomical and other scientific books. This collection is housed at the observatory on Blackford Hill and is well worth a visit should the opportunity arise. It contains amongst other things 1st editions of Newton's Principia and Copernicus's Die Revolutionibus.

Now to compute the final location. The cache is a very small lock and lock box, big enough for the log and a few coins but little else, however it also contains the coordinates for the Fur Coat and Nae Knickers Bonus Cache.

Final Location