Please join us on a walk around Granton Harbour on Sunday 23rd February 2025 2.30-4pm to celebrate the Festival of Terminalia with history, art, nature, and community stories.
Explore the boundary of Granton Harbour: an urban walk on pavements and waste ground – past the old Gunpowder Store and site of the Ice House which served the fishing industries of Newhaven and Granton in 1950s, along the old railway lines and discover the original Granton Station, look out across the Firth of Forth and imagine the Esparto Grass boats coming in from the south of Spain and North Africa, check out the latest housing developments, and walk ‘The Wall‘.
Above: On the left -The Old Gunpowder Store (now Corinthian Yacht Club), middle – an old photo of the harbour from Lochinvar Drive, right – an old tram and the train which used to run along past Wardie Bay in days gone by.
Meet at 2.30pm at the corner of Lochinvar Drive and Lower Granton Road, outside the Corinthian Quay Apartments (EH5 1GL W3W phones.solo.groups) on Granton Square. Buggies, dogs and wheelchairs welcome. It is hoped that we can offer Polish and Arabic translations if required. It can be cold on the northern side of the harbour, so please wear warm clothes and sensible shoes. Bring water or a hot drink. Chocolate provided!
Sorry about the poor quality , but here is the meeting point
I am very pleased that my walking art videos are part of the film assemblages of Kel Portman
Equinox. Spring 2025
Terminalia 2025
Walking towards the Light / To the Sea to Celebrate the Morning Summer Solstice 2024
Terminalia 2024
Winter Solstice 2023 / The Walkers
Equinox (Autumn 2022)
Winter Solstice 2022
And I was a participant in Jenny Staff‘s walking art event which was part of the Walking Arts Encounters in Prespa 2023. It was documented by Kel Portman and can be seen here.
A community walk from the Granton:hub, Madelvic House w3w: wished.visit.silver
Captions for the images above: Left – The group, some from inside, some outside the Granton Boundary; Right – The group, checking out the wrapped-up Granton Gasholder, building site for new housing
At the edges of pavements, the walls of dilapidated buildings, the join between the land and the sea, and between homed and homeless, we wandered to mark the Festival of Terminalia on 23 February 2024.
Maps annotated by group members
We walked a route familiar to some and unfamiliar to others, according to a path previously visited 4 months earlier in order to make comparisons. Mapping as we went, we strayed off that path occasionally, moved across the boundary several times when the sea or a plant drew us, and noted changes wrought in the natural and urban landscape over such a short time.
Captions for above photos: Left – Electric Car Factory. Planning permission has been gained for housing. Middle – Where Granton Harbour meets the Brick (Granton or Royston) Beach at the Western Breakwater. Right – Sheila and Margaret.
Leaving the Granton:hub / Madelvic House, we started off through the wasteland area behind, past the old Electric Car Factory which was, unusually, open. We passed the travellers’ community who were building a big fire of tyres and other rubbish; the caravans housing the community which has found its way here in 1s and 2s over the last 5 years (maybe), surrounded by dismembered trees; a couple of renegade trailers where men were working – one a local barber who was known to one of our party so we stopped for a chat – between fences newly erected and ground scraped clear of its soil.
Nat pointed out the copse of silver birch which have been cordoned off for keeping, the result of our extensive lobbying of the developers. Here, an art repository is planned by the National Galleries of Scotland, way down the line. It was also the site of our community orchard (at the Tor), once upon a time.
Captions for above photos: Wasteland area behind Madelvic House where people and more-than-humans live, soon to be developed into an Arts Centre
We skirted ‘The Rabbit Run’ closely bordered by towering new blocks and also threatened to be raised to the ground, and turned down towards the sea along Waterfront Avenue – created, named and planned to be this wide, so we are told, to accommodate the trams, though there is, thankfully, no sign of them as yet.
Waterfront AvenueRabbit Run
Stories were told as we hovered at the corner: of the swift boxes often erected on lamp posts next to the Swift business sign (coincidence); of Jenny’s tenacity – spending an officially homeless year visiting the housing association and getting to know them until she was allocated an apartment in the community ahead of us; and of the day we planted the orchard (from up the road) on the grassy bank by more newbies to the area, The Pianodrome.
“With the dog, we went to the rabbit run, behind that Beech Hedge; I know it will all dramatically change very soon.”
Nat
Captions for above photos: Left – Swift poster, Middle – Where Jenny lives now (before the block was built). Right – The new orchard at The Pianodrome
Now we were on the far northern boundary of both Edinburgh as a whole and Granton, whose territory we were beating the bounds of. Many of us bemoaned the lack of access to the Brick Beach, but then a desire path was spotted which turned out to be a thoroughfare. Jubilation!
“for a while I’ve not been able to get through (the wasteland between West Shore Rd and the sea / brick beach) That’s been irritating, having that little cut through blocked off. That used to be on my route so I could get a seat and watch the sea for a while, undisturbed. Tonight we were able to walk through for the first time in ages.”
Kev
The day was at its evening cusp and it was darkling, so we continued along West Harbour Road which becomes West Shore Road, past the new-to-the-area Edinburgh Palette (what we hope will be new artist studios and home for a weekend Street festival), and turned left onto the Speirs Bruce Way (more stories of Antarctic adventures and explorers are linked to this place). We went hard by what’s left of Granton Castle where the Walled Garden is hidden (a citizen success story as it was saved from developers and now houses countless allotments, natural dye- and community soup-makers), with the Social Bite village opposite.
Captions for photos above: Two A-Z maps of Granton – 2004 on the left showing one gas holder, and 1999 on the right showing three as there used to be
I’m new to the area and walking is a way of feeling the local, recent history
Jenny
Uphill we traipsed, viewing the space for the new Granton Mural (end March 2024) and regaining the Gasholder. We stood in the rain to wonder why Caroline Park Avenue has become Waterfront Broadway, and returned to our starting point just as the fire engine arrived to douse the fire, now emitting acrid black smoke.
We’re from slightly outside the area. I’ve been down here a LOT walking the dogs so it’s very familiar, but it’s interesting to do it in a group because different people see different things. [Did you notice the changes?] Oh definitely.
Sheila
Toasting with a libation (warm apple juice), as is customary at this Festival, we swapped experiences, hopes and fears. Our discussion focused on the place where the inner landscape met the outer.
I used to like going there because of the nature around the gasworks. Because there was such a high fence and nobody could get in, it was undisturbed and there were wild orchids. To see it all demolished and a building site … it’s sad.
Maria
Along the bread line, the coast line, and the invisible lines between here and there, and us and other, we walked. It’s a time of great change in this area: trees taken down, blocks of flats going up, buildings repurposed and roads renamed (no-one knows why, though we suspect so-called ‘gentrification’).
The fire engine arrives just as we return to Madelvic House
A Community Walk was held on Friday February 23rd between 4-5.30pm, with drinks and discussion afterwards to chat about the walk and what we had seen and felt, at 5.30-6.30pm. Eventbrite was used for booking and everyone and their dogs were welcome!
The walk began and ended at the Granton:hub, Madelvic House, Granton Park Avenue, EH5 1HS.
I contributed words and images to a video assemblage, together with a host of other artists and Kel Portman, whose provocation this was. The link is here on the YouTube channel of Kel Arrowsmith. (My part is at 6:30 minutes.)
Introduction
A Granton Boundary walk was made in the Autumn of 2023, in advance of the opening of the Walking Like a Tortoise exhibition at the Granton:hub. It invited people to walk slowly together with a paper map, and annotate that map with places of interest (objects passed, thoughts thought, feelings felt, sites appreciated or not). We meandered, responding to participant’s interest, to their prior knowledge of the area, and to our whim. This might happen again! It was followed by a standing-up discussion and sharing of maps outside the building.
What happened on the walk
I proposed a (repeat) Midwinter walk around the same edgeland, as the evenings lightened, and I invited those who still had their maps to bring them and make comparisons. I brought the ones I was given after the original walk and handed them back for the purpose.
Tamsin
There was a brief introduction, then we walked together and had the opportunity to chat about borders and territories.
The remaining Granton Gasholder which is being built around, providing new housing and arts interventions
The immediate area around Madelvic House has changed considerably, as has the Gasholder (it was partially wrapped up) and the harbour, and therefore the new maps created will be likely to chart those changes, together with that of the seasons, and the alterations in us and the environment during the past quarter year.
Some of the group at the gasholder
This was an inclusive walk, paced for everyone, which was therefore on pavements.
Festival of Terminalia
This event was part of the Festival of Terminalia, an annual one-day celebration of walking, space, place and psychogeography.
Terminalia is a one day festival of walking, space, place and psychogeography on 23rd Feburary. Terminalia was the festival of Terminus, Roman god of boundaries and landmarks! Events have been run on this day since 2011.
Tim Waters tim@geothings.net
Tamsin is a wanderer and psychogeographer. She has nomadic habits and is very often found in the marginal areas around her Granton home. She is a qualified walk leader with Paths for All Scotland, and liked to perambulate with the Ageing Well group who belong to Victoria Park in Edinburgh. Her first art exhibition was Walking Like a Tortoise in 2023. She also writes and walks here .
Walking Like a Tortoise around the Granton boundary
This project started with a collective walk on the Festival of Terminalia on 23 Feb 2023. It was followed by further solo and group walks and became the Walking Like a Tortoise project, which incorporated mixed media art exhibitions at Granton:hub (Edinburgh) on 29 September 2023 – 1 October 2023; Granton Station; Spilt Milk Gallery (online); and Edinburgh Central Library between 1 August – 30 September 2024. Community walking and workshops were a key part of this project and attracted a Creative Scotland / City of Edinburgh Council grant. Please also see this post for further artworks
Illustration from ‘On the Festival of Terminalia’ zine
Before
Granton is changing a lot and very quickly. My plan was to make a series of walks using different contemporary and historical maps to explore the edges of the place and document who and what I found there. I was interested to see where the area began and ended, and how it bordered on its neighbours. I was asking, Who or what is in and outside the boundary?
For the first walk, I set off in a clockwise direction, following the map I photographed at the National Galleries presentation of their new project, Art Works, at the Edinburgh College in June 2022:
turning right up Granton Rd and right again onto the cycle path
coming off at Pilton Drive, and walking westwards along Ferry Road
continuing down Crewe Rd North, back towards the sea
turning at the ‘new’ gas building by Caroline Park
making my way along Waterfront Ave to the harbour (I knew that access to the boundary had been cut off here and that the Western and Eastern Breakwaters were not connected by land but by the Firth of Forth rushing between them, so I had to take a detour)
along Wardie Bay beach
climbing up Wardie Steps to the post box
and completing the circle back at Granton View.
I met residents and visitors to Granton as I walked and had some interesting conversations about where they thought the boundary was. I asked permission to take their photo and keep some basic information about them (name, age country of origin if appropriate etc) explaining I might use it for an exhibition in the future.
The Tortoise
The title for this project comes from two sources. The first was a charming story I was told by my former neighbour, Betty, about how as a child she was handed a stow-away tortoise from the depths of an esparto grass boat that had put in to Granton Harbour at the bottom of our road. (Esparto grass was imported for the paper-making industry in the 1940s). The second is related to the Taoist practice of ‘walking leisurely like a tortoise’ which I and other T’ai Chi enthusiasts do as a mindful meditation. When we do that, something fascinating happens: we feel part of what’s around us and also separate; we are conscious of everything—the details as well as the bigger picture—and aware of our own feelings at the same time.
Cushion featuring the Granton Tortoise and the Granton Gasholder (embroidered) with Granton Harbour in the background
I practised a version of this slow walking around Granton as a counterbalance to the pace of life around me. It allowed me to meet other residents in a relaxed way, notice what lives here, and have time for reflection and reassessment, which is something that rushing does not.
“How much are we missing because we are constantly on the go….? When will we make space for our bodies to reflect and for our hearts to widen so we can connect with who we are?”
Trisha Hershey, Rest is Resistance
The project aimed to contribute to our collective memory by asking: ‘Where is the boundary of Granton?’ ‘Is it important that things stay the same or are changes welcome?’ ‘Is the decision-making process which is precipitating these changes a democratic one?’ and, ‘Is belonging somewhere important to a sense of identity?’
Once, Granton was outside the main city and shown in a ghostly grey on the plans. Once, there was no harbour, no outward reaching / welcoming arms from our shores. Later, Granton was part of Crammond, a large and sprawling geography which contained parts of the River Almond, Newhaven, Inverleith, most of Ferry Road, swathes of Leith, and Davidson’s Mains. It has got smaller over the years, halved and subdivided.
Walking the Granton Boundary copyright Tamsin Grainger
Maps
‘Walking like a Tortoise’ became the title for two mixed media art exhibitions based on the Granton walks. The introduction explained that I had used maps of the area from 1870 to the present day, skirted the urban and coastal landscapes of Granton, looked into hidden corners, viewed the architecture from unlikely angles, and spent time meeting those who live and work there.
I showed a lot of Granton maps in the exhibition, the ones which were used to plan the walks, and others which showed exactly where the area was and is according to different political and social groups, and in different eras. Granton is part of entities of varying sizes and shapes and it’s not always easy to know where the dividing line is between it and its neighbours – Pilton, Wardie and Trinity. There is ‘Edinburgh North(ern) and Leith’, the Scottish parliamentary constituency, and also the Westminster (UK government) ward of ‘Forth (Edinburgh)’. Then there’s the Edinburgh Parish of which we are part, the EH5 post code area, or the more generic ‘North Edinburgh’. Each map charts different distinctions and definitions which serve to separate and unify people and places. They are always political and prompt the question, ‘Are you in or out?’ Like all maps, they are networks; a tracery of streets and cycle tracks which lead to somewhere important. I walked these pathways and discovered that though they sometimes connect with each other, they are sometimes dead ends offering privacy, but no way through.
Through photographs, words, textiles and found materials, I asked how the act of slow walking can develop a sense of belonging somewhere, and how mindful noticing of the area, on foot, promotes appreciation of, and connection to what is home. Then the official boundaries are less important and it’s the human and natural links that matter.
New Building
The Granton, Royston and Wardieburn schemes (social housing estates), which started being built in 1932, have long been demolished and substituted. Much older, formerly industrial buildings have also been raised to the ground, and now green / brownfield sites have been replaced with tall, rectangular boxes of oddly coloured bricks with little history and no gardens (although some advertise dog grooming facilities). All this is despite Historic Environment Scotland stating, “The historic environment shapes our identity. It tells us about the past, the present – even points the way to the future.”
‘New’ building, Granton, Edinburgh
Planned at least as far back as 2019, it’s only recently that the Council, an hour’s bus journey away in the middle of the city, actually embarked on further extensive apartment building out here at Edinburgh’s edge. Although the architects and planners who spoke at a recent Pecha Kucha public event (EDI- v.45: RETROFIT “The greenest building is the one that already exists”) were unanimous in agreeing that changing existing buildings is infinitely better for the environment than putting up new ones, these newbuilds are now happening apace.
Slow
Walking slowly around and hearing people’s stories helped me and those who walked together in the community events feel part of a multi-cultural community. We found that we all have different backgrounds, but share a need to belong somewhere, that there is something unifying about how we live and use our local resources. Going to one of the Co-op stores slowly on foot is a chance for us to catch up on news; the Granton Community Bakery queue is ideal for some lively banter; returning your book and using the computer at the precious Granton Library offers time to listen to and exchange local gossip, securing community ties; and scything wheat in the Granton Community Garden followed by eating lunch together is a choice opportunity for swapping experiences.
Slow is “a position [that is] counter to the dominant value-system of ‘the times … We believe there is a positive potential in slowness as a means of critiquing or challenging dominant narratives or values that categorise contemporary modernity for many”.
Wendy Parking and Geoffrey Craig, Slow Living
Collaborations
The first Walking Like a Tortoise Community Walk took place on Friday 29 September 2023, followed by the opening of the exhibition at Granton:hub. Granton:hub is the home of the community archive where I volunteered and worked for 6 months during this project, meeting members of the public at the weekly drop-in sessions, sharing community walks, an open day, and art workshops, some with members of the Granton History Hub and volunteers.
Granton Waterfront were also funders of part of this project, incorporating more community walking and including translations of the text into Arabic and Polish, art workshops for children and for adult carers, and an evening of community sharing and discussion – Women’s Heritage in Granton and North Edinburgh which focused on Black women and women of colour and involved Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council (ELREC), the Edinburgh Carribbean Association, and Project Esperanza. This project was also involved in Cultural Heritage at the Metropolitan Edge (CUMET), with Granton:hub and the Edinburgh College of Art.
Walking Like a Tortoise exhibition at Granton:hub (September 2023)
Visiting the exhibitionCommunity mapping
A children’s workshop was held at the Edinburgh Central Library on 14 September (see below). On 18 September 2024 there was an adult event: a tour of the exhibition, a slow walk (like a tortoise – a style of marital art), an explanation of the project in the context of geography (counter-mapping), anthropology and the changing population from the past to the present, and an author/artist reading from The Wall (short-listed for a Sound Walk September Award).
Children’s workshop at Walking Like a Tortoise exhibition Edinburgh Central Library Sep 2024
I have now circled these roads and byways many times, and as a long-time Zen practitioner I always aim to walk without expectations of what I may find, to be in the moment. I’m ready to encounter and notice what arises. Though I’m a psychogeographer, I resist straying if my interest is piqued, sticking instead to the prescribed boundary route, but taking care and paying equal attention to the urban and the rural, the so-called banal and the beautiful.
There were more questions arising from the Walking Like a Tortoise project
The City of Edinburgh Council have sliced off the coastal strip and named it Edinburgh Waterfront. Does that mean that we need to let go, then, of that fragment of Granton and accept that our border is now an inland one, that we have no seaside?
The Council have also renamed buildings and streets, disorienting older, local people and confusing their memories. Was this necessary? Did they take care to think it through or were considerations of image more important?
Granton has no equivalent of the Leith ‘Persevere’ emblem, and I took to thinking about and discussing what one might look like. I wondered whether the tortoise could be part of it. What do you think? What else could we add to represent our community?
Stitched Steps
Tensions
There are tensions at this edge of Edinburgh. A young Chinese woman told me about her feelings of loss over the cutting down of trees overnight to make way for new blocks of flats, despite the fact that the previous day she and other residents had chained themselves to the railings to make it very clear they were opposed.
Flora and Fauna – Heritage
I walked to the fringe, to the beach and wastelands at the border of Granton where the best wild herbs grow for foraging, and where there is hidden art. I diverted into the centre where the library and health centres, homes for the elderly, and clubs for young people are. I wrote about it on Caught by the River magazine. Places transform all the time, but it became plain that the alterations that people and the climate have wrought on the built-up environment and natural spaces are happening at a rapid pace; there are new no-go areas, streets and stations with new names, and views which have disappeared.
Slowly wandering the boundary and making artwork has stimulated a deeper understand of local history and heritage, but how much of this will have soon vanished?
Secular, Urban Pilgrimage
I often make secular pilgrimage in places previously unknown to me, and though Granton is familiar territory, it is nevertheless a pilgrimage of sorts. As with the St Magnus Way, I left home, visited venerated places, and returned to my doorstep. There was no triumphant arrival, just a simple home-coming. It was, however, inevitably a sort of transformation – for the landscape through which I travelled, for the other human and more-than-humans (plants, birds, animals) I met along the way, and for me. After all, any stepping changes a place and it’s inhabitants.
Sound Walk Map (Edinburgh) A link to a map which shows the locations of my three site-specific sound walks: The Wall, No Birds Land and Is There a Place for REVOLution or Peace and Biscuits
Walking without a donkey 