Park information

History and Heritage

The Braids were purchased by the Edinburgh Corporation in 1890 with authorisation from the Edinburgh and Police Extension Act “to be used in all time coming for the purpose of a public park and pleasure and recreation ground for the use of the inhabitants of Edinburgh”. At that time the transaction did not include the whole of the Braids as we know them today and some 22 acres along the Liberton Road were leased.

Nowadays the Braids is the only park in the city where horse riding is permitted. On the highest point an indicator pinpoints local landmarks, hill ranges and distant mountains as far away as Ben Lomond, Ben More above Crianlarich, Beinn A Ghlo by Blair Atholl and the Sidlaws near Dundee. Erected in 1995 as a plinth set on three legs of Dumfries red sandstone, the indicator provides a 360-degree sweep, and includes height, distances and information about how the landscape was fashioned and major historical events, The indicator was financed and designed by local residents George Russell and John Bartholomew.

The Braid Hills contains areas of Urban Forest (on the Braid Hills Golf Course), is part of a Local Biodiversity Site (with the Mortonhall Estate) and is part of an Area of Great Landscape Value (with Blackford Hill and the Hermitage of Braid).

Geology

The Braid Hills are composed of Devonian trachyte lavas. There are the remains of several quarries around the north eastern and west edges of the Braid Hills, where stone such as claystone and feldspar was extracted.

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