Scotland Street Tunnel
Location type
TunnelName and dates
Scotland Street Tunnel (1847-1868)Opened on the Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway.
Description
This is a disused railway tunnel running opened between Scotland Street (to the north) and Edinburgh Canal Street (to the south).
The tunnel is 1,052 yds long and carried a double track line under the New Town streets (from north to south)
- Scotland Street
- Drummond Place
- Dublin Street
- Duke Street
- North and South St Andrew Street
- Princes Street
The tunnel was on a gradient of 1 in 27 requiring a continuous rope for haulage from Scotland Street to a stationary engine at Canal Street station.
With the opening of the Easter Road Deviation (North British Railway) the tunnel closed. Scotland Street remained open as a goods yard on a short branch and the site of Canal Street was able to be absorbed by expansion of Edinburgh Waverley. Waverley Market on the site was redeveloped as Waverley Centre. An access point to the tunnel was behind a grill fence in the station.
The tunnel was used until around 1890 for redundant wagons.
The Scottish Mushroom Company operated from the tunnel afterwards, one track being retained the other used for growing. The company was very successful, after its formation mushrooms were barely imported to Britain. There were 800 mushroom beds in the tunnel, each bed 12 ft by 3 ft. Manure came in by rail and mushrooms out. The company's offices were at Scotland Street. The company also used the Law Tunnel in Dundee. The company became bankrupt in 1929 following a parasitical infection.
The tunnel was a railway bunker in the Second World War.
The tunnel still exists. The northern portal at Scotland Street can be seen today.
| Nearby stations St Andrew Square [Tram] York Place [Tram] Scotland Street Picardy Place [Tram] Princes Street [1st] Edinburgh Waverley Princes Street [Tram] McDonald Road [Tram] Leith Walk Powderhall Edinburgh Princes Street Lothian Road Balfour Street [Tram] Pilrig Street Easter Road | Waterloo Place [Tram] Waterloo Place Rodney Street Tunnel Mound Tunnels Heriothill Goods Logie Green Workshops The Mound [Tram] Edinburgh Signalling Centre Tourist/other Scottish National Portrait Gallery Scott Monument The Balmoral Hotel Scottish National Gallery Calton Hill Gladstone^s Land St Giles Cathedral |
| Location names in dark blue are on the same original line. | |
Chronology Dates
| / /1846 | Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway Scotland Street Tunnel completed. |
| / /1887 | Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway In the Scotland Street Tunnel the down track was removed and the trackbed planted with mushrooms, and the up truck used for manure wagons. |
| / /1929 | Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway Mushroom growing in Scotland Street Tunnel ends. |
