Edinburgh's lost tunnel was the first ever underground railway line in Scotland

Published date31 May 2021
AuthorJohn Paul Clark
The St Leonards Tunnel, built between 1827 and 1830, is used today by locals as a thoroughfare for runners and cyclists, but its historic beginnings are sometimes forgotten.

The underground tunnel was built as part of the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway to transport coal from the pits and ended at Edinburgh's first ever railway station, St Leonard's Station.

Today, the old railway station is a modern residential development but Lothian Region Council saved the tunnel when they bought it in the 1980s as part of a deal with British Rail to purchase disused railway lies in North Edinburgh.

The atmospheric tunnel is now part of Edinburgh's Cycle Network and the U.K. National Cycle Network's Route 1 but in its heyday it was part of the industrial revolution.

Edinburgh isn't known as Auld Reekie for nothing and the capital was consuming 350,000 tonnes of coal a year by 1830.

Getting the coal into Edinburgh by horse-and-cart along cobbled roads proved to be problematic.

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A consortium of Midlothian pit-owners came together to try and solve the issue and proposed a horse-drawn tramway to link their pits with Edinburgh.

The engineer James Jardine took on the project and the terminus was identified in the St. Leonard's area of the city.

The public body Historic Environment Scotland explain on their website that the name Innocent Railway comes from the horses.

They said: "From its early days the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway was commonly referred to as the Innocent Railway due to it being horse drawn.

"In an age when the early steam engines had been viewed with mistrust for being too dangerous and too fast, this horse drawn version was thought a safer alternative."

The 518 metre long tunnel opened in July 1831 and was only a limited track from the terminus at St. Leonards to Craighall.

However, it was...

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