Leith, now part of the City of Edinburgh, was a separate burgh
between 1833 and 1920. The people of Leith had voted against being
merged with Edinburgh, but that did not stop it happening.
The boundary between the two towns ran along Pilrig Street, and
then diagonally across what was at the time empty land from Pilrig
Church to the corner of Easter Road and Albert Street.
In Leith Walk, near the end of Iona Street and opposite Pilrig
Street there is a pub called "The City Limit" (Until a few years
ago it was the "Boundary Bar"). The border between the two towns is
still obvious because the pub had a door in each town: when the
stricter licensing laws in Leith required people to stop drinking,
all they needed to do was to move to the Edinbrgh half of the pub
(local mythology has it that it was the Leith half which closed
later, but that's apparently incorrect).
In Buchanan Street (which did not exist when Leith was a
separate town) there is a reminder of the former boundary in
Boundary Square
These two places could have been possible locations for the
cache, but it would be impossible to find a muggle-free time in
there.
The Cache
The cache is hidden close to the boundary. The GPSr was giving
me an accuracy of 12 metres, so I've taken several readings and
averaged. But in case it's a few metres off, the description will
point at the right spot
There is a gate on the west side of the street leading to a
small green area and an inner gate leading to a community garden.
The first (street) gate is always unlocked, the second gate is
normally locked. You do not need to enter either gate to reach the
cache where it is at the moment, although when some plants grow in
spring I may move it inside to be less obvious to muggles. And you
may find useful to nip into the small area between the two gates to
log your visit in peace.
The place can be busy, especially at weekends when you'll see
people going in and out the the gate, so use the normal
muggle-avoindance techniques. It may be easier in the evening or
the early morning. If however you see somebody wearing a
"Travelling Geocacher" trackable patch, chances are he's the cache
owner and you don't need to hide from him, in fact please stop him
and mention you are a cacher, and don't forget to note the tracking
number.
The cache site is wheelchair accessible, but I am not sure the
container can be retrieved without help; I would appreciate
feedback on that and I would be happy if it turns out that I can
add a "wheelchair accessible" icon to the listing!
Parking is available on the street, but you need to be lucky to
find a parking space: you may need to look in the nearby
streets.
There are also many buses going to Leith Walk as well as the 1
and 35 to Easter Road.
Contents at the time of hiding (in addition to pencil and log
book):
- "Find a Geocache" decision cube
- Small Rubik cube
- Pocket kaleidoscope (you never know when you need one!)
- Geocaching lapel pin
There is also a small FTF token: please keep!
This is my first cache, so if you have any feedback please send
me an email. Thanks.
FTF: Funky Ninja - congratulations
Note that the cache has been temporarily replaced with a micro
container as its initial hiding place has disappeared, so the only
contents are a log book and a pencil. I hope this can change in
spring.