One Midsummer Morning

Pentland Hills and T Plantation circa 1914 (Photographer Unknown Edinburgh Libraries, Museums and Galleries Collection)

This wonderful old photograph from a century ago shows three school-girls walking down Swanston Road through the farmland and fields. 

There is no sign of Swanston Farm or Swanston Golf Club. The Old Schoolhouse in Swanston Village was in existence so perhaps the girls are heading off to school in the morning. 

Swanston Farm, Robert Hope

The Pentland Hills and the T Woods can be seen clearly in the distance. 

The scree slopes of Caerketton were no different fifty years later when in the 1960s the Blades; the Hoggs; and the Hoffmanns stood at their living room windows looking out for the number 16 bus. 

There are hay stacks in one of the distant fields and one of the girls is only wearing a blouse, so we might surmise it is late summer. They are all dressed smartly in their straw hats; skirts; and dresses and each of them is carrying a metal case perhaps containing their books and school lunches.

On a fine late summer morn at the commencement of a new term after the school summer holidays or in early autumn the walk would be refreshing and enjoyable. However, on a bitter winter's morning, in the semi-darkness or in the cold of a March morning with a biting wind, it would have been quite a different story. At least they walked together which would have eased their passage and no doubt they will have enjoyed the company. Still, it's a long exposed country lane and one which we at The Stair often travelled on our adventures to the Pentland Hills half a century later and half a century ago.

I wonder where the girls are coming from as back then there wouldn't have been many houses in Fairmilehead. Perhaps they were sisters and lived at the old Hunters Tryst Farm. It's a lovely photograph capturing a moment in time. I also wonder who the photographer was. Was it set up or just serendipity? Perhaps their mum or dad wanted to capture a special moment in time to treasure and hold dear in their hearts, before the girls grew up, left home and moved on to follow life's journey.

They are all smartly dressed and don't look poor. Their outfits - straw hats, skirts and dresses remind me of the two girls in The Railway Children. They all look very lady-like; quite composed and serene, but not prim. If there had been a companion photograph taken at the end of the school day it would have looked quite different. We would of course see their faces and perhaps being the end of the day and free from school, we might have seen them un-lady-like taking to their heels, racing downhill from Swanston Village to head homewards for their tea and back to the welcome bosom of the family home.

Because we can't see the girls’ faces it adds to the elusiveness of the subject material. It forces the viewer to use their imagination; and of course one can't but help wonder what happened to each girl. The First World War was only a matter of months away. Did they go on to become wives and mothers or follow a career in nursing or teaching? Did they remain in Edinburgh or move on to other towns or even make a life for themselves abroad?

In a way, the photograph reminds me of the cover of the novel Three German Farmers On The Way To A Dance by Richard Powers which was based on an old photograph. It seems to me that in the hands of a fine novelist such as Joan Lingard a rather good story might be weaved.

Joan Lingard

Postscript: If you look more closely the girls aren't carrying schoolbags at all!  Still, much of my musings on what happened to the girls remains true so I thought I would leave the vignette as it stands!

Swanston Village and the Pentland Hills

After reaching Swanston Pig Farm we wandered up through the revelation that was Swanston Village (a hamlet preserved in time with cottages with thatched roofs) and followed a small burn set amidst a sylvan green pasture.

From there we climbed up to the army’s firing range. If there was a red flag flying we needed to make the difficult decision whether to turn back or somehow reconnoitre and by-pass the T Woods. It was not really a T but actually a cross which was disguised from the northerly Edinburgh direction. One of the children said the T stood for the Trotter family who had planted it. 

Photograph Dave Hennicker

From there we began the steep climb and scramble up the scree slope of the northerly side toward the summit of Caerketton. I found this quite scary; but I had to keep up with the party or risk becoming distanced and isolated so I pushed on. 

But the climb was worth it because once at the top we could survey and take in the whole panorama of Edinburgh and where The Stair and Oxgangs Avenue fitted in. It was an early opportunity to take our bearings and to look at the bigger picture and realise there was a world beyond Oxgangs.

The next generation of Hoffmann brothers (d’Artagnan and Atticus) on the Pentlands above Edinburgh, 2005.

On one of those early adventures we had forged beyond the hill tops deep into the glens perhaps between Fala Knowe and Woodhouselee Hill and then in the direction of Glencorse Reservoir; but for some reason my wee brother Iain (two and a half years younger than me) and I had to turn back to go home early. Unlike the older boys I didn’t know the way and of course back in the day we didn't have any maps or mobile phones. 

We were both in tears. However eventually we found our way back to the summits of Capelaw, Allermuir and Caerketton. And what a happy relief it was to be able to survey the whole panorama of Edinburgh and to say to Iain we’re fine and I think I know the way home. 

From the heights of Pentland it was downhill through Robert Louis Stevenson’s Swanston Village and home to Oxgangs and the bosom of The Stair and back for tea, either Heinz baked beans or spaghetti, toast and tea and as far as our parents knew we could just as easily been have down at Colinton Mains Park all afternoon!

Monday 2nd July 1973

I went up to town from 45 Durham Road Portobello first thing, quite early on. 

With the birthday monies from Nana and Gaga I bought myself a new jumper and then headed out to Oxgangs to join the lucky schoolboys on holiday (I've got two days' holidays from working at Thomas Graham & Son Ltd. Balcarres Street). However only Iain was about; when I knocked on the door he was still asleep. 

Alongside Les Ramage we spent much of the day sitting out on the shed roof sun-bathing; halfway through Paul Forbes arrived from Broomhouse. 

Caerketton, Dave Hennicker

It’s always such a wee sun trap out the back of 6 Oxgangs Avenue as it faces south on to the Pentlands. 

We travelled down to Meadowbank to run a session before I came back to Oxgangs to stay the night. We had the gloves out and I was boxing with Iain.

Training: 300 metres (40.0 seconds); 2 x 200m (26 secs); 4 x 100m (11.9; 11.3 (p.b.); 11.7; 11.7)

The School Summer Holidays

It was always a delicious moment awakening on the first few days knowing that you didn't need to attend school.

For many of us at The Stair it didn't mean a long lie in bed as we would often have a job on the go, either delivering milk or newspapers, usually the latter.

However, out-with our paper runs and Sundays when we visited our grandparents at Portobello there was no structure to each day. Games of football would occur spontaneously, but mainly in the early evening.

During the day we'd go jumping the burn, following the burn from the lower part of Redford, through Colinton Mains, Firrhill and on to Braidburn Valley.

Small villages would appear in the back field when the girls draped blankets on the fence to form tents.

Sandra Young and her sister, Braidburn Valley grass steps.

Sometimes families packed a picnic and some blankets and headed to Braidburn Valley for an outing.We’d go deep into the alley toward the grass steps; an outing wasn't an outing without the children rolling over and over and down the steps from the top to the bottom.

The picnic wouldn't include anything much more than a sandwich.

And as with the Pentlands I always felt a certain sense of apprehension and excitement when I ventured to The Craigies, because they always felt both familiar and unfamiliar; this was because we would only visit them once or twice each summer.

Part of the excitement of the Craiglockhart Hills was that we (always visited as a group) might bump into other older, bigger boys from other parts who could be menacing and second the groundsmen who looked after the Merchants Golf Course who often spotted us when they were out on their tractors.

They would chase us away giving us a real frisson of excitement.

On the blind par three third hole we'd sprint on to the green, place a golfer's ball in the cup as if they'd achieved a hole in one and then hide in the woods. The golfer would search all around for his golf ball before taking a desultory glance in the cup followed by a merry jig!

Another memory was the hypnotic effect I felt whilst standing high up on the top of one of the hills, quite close to the edge, and looking down at the long grass on the valley floor which was gently swaying in the wind; I thought how easy it might be to be drawn over the edge such was the effect.

It was great fun being up on the Craiglockhart Hills because it would have been a sunny day which had attracted us up there; and sitting up high on the dry ground with the grass gently swaying and the sun beating down looking over 360 degree views enabled us to take in the panoramic view and enjoy everything that is wonderful about the city. The whole of Edinburgh was laid out before us and being a clear day we could see clear across the River Forth and to the north and to the Highlands; turning around we could look to the Pentland Hills and to the south.