OS grid reference NT2969 Sovereign state United Kingdom Postcode district EH17 Local time Tuesday 1:15 AM Dialling code 0131 | Post town Edinburgh Council area Edinburgh | |
 | ||
Weather 11°C, Wind SW at 29 km/h, 77% Humidity | ||
Gilmerton cove p 1
Gilmerton (Scottish Gaelic: Baile GhilleMhoire) is a suburb of Edinburgh, about 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of the city centre.
Contents
Map of Gilmerton, Edinburgh, UK
The toponym "Gilmerton" is derived from a combination of Scottish Gaelic: Gille-Moire– a personal name and later surname meaning "Servant of [the Virgin] Mary", from which comes the first element, "Gilmer", – and Old English: ton meaning "settlement" or "farmstead". Versions of the name are recorded from the middle of the 12th century.
Gilmerton used to be a coal mining village. Below its centre is a series of shallow linked caves collectively called Gilmerton Cove. Traditionally they were attributed to the work of a local blacksmith, George Paterson, who supposedly completed excavations in 1724 and lived in the caves for several years, although there may be reasons to doubt this.
Residents
The Kinloch baronets lived in Gilmerton House to the south-west of the village. Infamously Sir Archibald Gordon Kinloch, 7th Baronet, murdered his half-brother Sir Francis Kinloch in Gilmerton House, in 1795 in part to inherit his baronetcy.