Saunter Through Sciennes Multi-Cache

SAUNTER: ‘a leisurely stroll; to walk in a slow, relaxed manner. "Do you know the origin of that word 'saunter’? It's a beautiful word. Way back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, "A la sainte terre,' 'To the Holy Land.' And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not 'hike' through them.” -John Muir’

SCIENNES: (pronounced ‘Sheens or Sheenz’) is a district of Edinburgh bordered by Marchmont to the west, Grange to the south, Newington to the east, and the Meadows to the north.

Sciennes used to be part of the Burgh Muir and was outside the city boundaries. In the 16th century it was a place frequented by vagabonds and outlaws who would make camps of a sort amongst the trees. This led to the need for the Church to intervene, so the Chapel of St John, dedicated to St John the Baptist,  was established in 1511. Only 4 years later, Lady Janet Seton, widowed after the Battle of Flodden, was granted permission to take it over on behalf of the Dominican convent of Catherine of Siena. If you ask a passing local why the area is called Sciennes, they will tell you that the name ‘Sciennes’ is a corruption of ‘Siena’; but there is an alternative explanation which I rather like: the convent used to ‘sheen’ a light  from the chapel to guide travellers through the dangerous woods there. An older spelling ‘Shynnes’ supports this. Nowadays there’s not much sign of any woods; the area is now mostly residential, with tenement flats, student housing, and associated businesses. It merges imperceptibly with the similar Marchmont territory. Let's saunter!

This is one of a series of sightseeing historical tours around the leafy suburbs of south Edinburgh. The others are:

• Gambol Through the Grange
• Meander Through Marchmont
• Mosey Through the Meadows
• Bimble Through Blackford
• Birl Through Bruntsfield
  
  
  Once you've done them all, you can try for the bonus cache: Jig Through Half a Dozen History Multis
  
  

  WAYPOINT 1 N 55° 56.289 W 003° 11.339 Royal Hospital for Sick Children

  Stop briefly at the gates of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, known locally as the 'Sick Kids'. The Sciennes Road building was designed by George Washington Browne, cost £50,000, was built on the site of the Trades Maidens Hospital and was opened in 1895 by Princess Beatrice. It was due to move in 2018 to the Royal Infirmary campus at Little France, at a cost of £150 million. However the new building faced many delays and didn't move until 2021. This historic and much-loved building is destined to become yet more very expensive apartments. Look at the dedication plaque on the Lady Charteris Wing, established in her memory by her sister Lady Jane Dundas.
  CLUE 1: There are 2 dates at the bottom of the plaque. 189? and 189?. Add these 2 numbers togther.ALTERNATIVE CLUE IF YOU CAN'T SEE THE PLAQUE DURING DEMOLITION WORK: There are 2 shapes in the name of this development (look at the information near the gate). Count the number of letters in each shape and take the average. .
  

  Walk along Sciennes Road and turn into St Catherine's Place

  WAYPOINT 2 N 55° 56.250 W 003° 11.093 St Catherine's Convent

  Stand at the gate of no. 16 St Catherine’s Place. This is the site of the convent of St Catherine of Siena, opened in 1518 after the Battle of Flodden. It used to cover an area of about 2 acres; at this corner stood the living accommodation for up to 30 nuns, and further east near Causewayside was the chapel of St John the Baptist. There's a plaque in the front garden to commemmorate it. Stand at the gate and try to imagine what this place was like in the 18th century. This place was not without controversy: in 1760 the Lauder family brought a court case against the City Magistrates of Edinburgh in order to claim the land for themselves. The Lauders won their case but it was bit of a 'Pyrrhic' victory because of the high legal costs.
  CLUE 2: What colour is the door? Answer 1 if you think it's blue, 2 if you think it's red and 3 if you think it's green
  

  Our next stop is no. 3 Sciennes Hill Place. To get there, go along to the end of Sciennes Road, turn right into Sciennes, then take the left fork into Sciennes Hill Place. The house is at the bottom left. On your way, you will see a modern housing development called Sienna Gardens, which has been built on the site of what was once St Katherine's Engineering Works, also called 'Bertram's' which closed in 1985. It was a major manufacturer of paper-making machinery.

  WAYPOINT 3 N 55° 56.236 W 003° 10.914 Home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

  This is a rather dull looking building, but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the great detective Sherlock Holmes, lived here as a child with his parents and 8 siblings from 1867 to 1874. There is no plaque to mark this. Sadly it was while they were living here that his father Charles was overcome with alcoholism and the family was not very happy.

  CLUE 3: Look over to the right at the side gate to the garden. What colour is the garden gate? Answer 4 if you think it is green, 5 for brown or 6 for black.

  Now go back round the corner into Sciennes House Place where there are no fewer than 4 different interesting things to see in a very short street!

  WAYPOINT 4 N 55° 56.269 W 003° 10.921 Burns and Scott

  No. 5 Sciennes House Place, previously Sciennes Hill House, was built in 1741 for Robert Biggar, who lost his fortune in the Darrien Scheme and had to sell it to Adam Ferguson, the renowned philospher of the 'Age of Enlightenment'. The house originally stood in its own grounds with its main entrance round the back, but in the late 19th century it was altered then altered even more in 1989 when it was restored and converted into flats. Adam Ferguson enjoyed having dinner guests and included amongst them both our national bard Robert Burns and author Sir Walter Scott. There are 2 plaques on the wall to mark that occasion.
  CLUE 4: What season of the year was it when the 2 men met? Take the 2nd letter and convert it to a number using A=1, B=2, C=3 and so on.

  WAYPOINT 5 N 55° 56.266 W 003° 10.894 Victorian Fire Station

  Sciennes House Place used to be called Braid Place up until 1968, and this was Braid Fire Station. It was established around 1820 by Edinburgh's famous firemaster James Braidwood. It is now a commerical property. Try to imagine the scene if a fire appliance was to come racing out into this narrow street, siren screaming!
  

  CLUE 5 How many round windows are there?

  Cross over the road to the other side opposite the fire station.
  
  

  WAYPOINT 6 N 55° 56.263 W 003° 10.894 Jewish Burial Ground

  This is a tiny cemetery which was at one time the only one in Scotland for those of the Jewish faith. It was built in 1816 and closed in 1870 when the Edinburgh Jewish Congregation purchased a section of Newington Cemetery for their use. It has a rather peaceful air about it and you can read some of the inscriptions in Hebrew on the headstones.
  CLUE 6: Look up to the building on the right which forms the west wall of the cemetery. How many windows are there?

  Now continue eastwards to the end of Sciennes House Place and look at the building on the corner of Causwayside: the one with the curved and knotted rope decoration round the large door.

  WAYPOINT 7 N55º56.270 W003º 10.877 Causewayside Police Station

  This former 'B' Division Police Station closed in the 1980s and is now a community centre. It gets a mention in one of Ian Rankin's novels about Detective Inspector Rebus.
  CLUE 7: Look way up above the 'rope' door to see the coat of arms of Edinburgh in Latin. How many letters in the last word?
  
  

  One more stop. You should now walk northwards down Causewayside and turn left into Melville Terrace. You can walk along the pavement or the path, it doesn't matter.

  WAYPOINT 8 N 55º56.375 W003º 11.139 Gate Pillars

  I've brought you here to point out one set of stone pillars that once marked the north boundary of the original feus on Sciennes Loaning, now known as Sciennes Road. These ones are opposite the foot of Gladstone Terrace. There are other examples: opposite the foot of Sylvan Place; and at Argylle Park Terrace. North of these gates lies the Meadows recreational park, which was once the Borough Loch. The land lying between the Meadows and Sciennes Rd prior to 1860 was known as Hope Park and had half a dozen large houses with big gardens, such as Argyle Park, Warrender Lodge and Westerhall Lodge. They were the homes of eminent citizens and artists. Their entrances were on Sciennes Road and their gardens stretched all the way to the meadows. They were picked off by developers and only Sylvan House remains. The tenements on the east side of Argyle Place are situated where the garden of Argyle Park used to be. The streets with the names 'Roseneath' and 'Argyle' were once part of a commnity called 'New Cambeltown' which had narrow lanes criss-crossing between the houses. Some of these remain still.
  CLUE 8: Look at the post with numbers on it. add the 4 numbers together and add 2 .
  

  Take a seat on one of the benches and do your sums. There are lots of places nearby where you can have a snack, and wifi, if you prefer to do your calculations indoors.

  I hope you have enjoyed your short saunter, which has taken you to some places of interest in Sciennes.

  The cache can be found at:

  N 55º56.ABC W 003º11.DEF

  Where:

  A = clue 8 minus clue 6
  B = clue 4 minus clue 3
  C = clue 7 minus clue 3
  D = clue 8 minus clue 3
  E = clue 7 minus clue 5 minus clue 2
  F = clue 1 minus clue 2 minus clue 5
  

  Checksum: your northings should add up to 10 and your westings should add up to 12.

  

  MAXIMUM STEALTH REQUIRED PLEASE TO AVOID MUGGLE INTEREST

  A note about parking: there are no public carparks in the area. On-street parking is pay and display, with charges applicable Monday to Friday from 08:30 till 17:30. At other times and at weekends there is no charge, but it is advisable to avoid resident permit spaces.

  A note for wheelchair users: I think most of the route could be done in a wheelchair, however there are some roads without dropped pavements, and some rather uneven surfaces and narrow pavements, hence the 'T' rating of 1.5.

  Congratulations Elpth, First to Find! with lots of help I'm told from MiniElpth and MicroElpth who cycled the full route! Well done all!

  Congratulations wee-z, Second to Find!