It's An Archeology Dig

It's an archeology Dig

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It's An Archeology Dig

I moved into my house twenty six years ago, although it sometimes feels like a million. Over the years I have seen many changes to the area that I live in. The people who lived here have gone, they had lived here twenty years when I moved in, and they were good neighbours once I got to know them. Sadly they've all passed on, but not without leaving some of the stories of the area.

When you move into an area to live there will be things that you do know about it and there will be a lot that you don't, like the people, the sounds and the smells. These are the things that you will pick up on as you go along with your journey of life.

Over the years I have looked out of the window, and for years the skyline never changed. The weather changed daily - sometime five times a day, but the skyline and the view from the window never changed for over twenty years. Now when I look out of the window I can see change going on all around the area that had remained unspoiled by the developers.

Behind my house there is a piece of land that has remained vacant for years. It was a tannery at one time until it got burnt down by fire more than thirty years ago. The neighbours who were here at the time told me how their doors got burnt with the heat of the fire and what the plans were for the land redevelopment at the time. They never saw the new building that is going to be built there now.

This year the plans were passed for an extension to a hotel that I can see from my window. They are building a functions room and houses on the land. I knew the land would be built on eventually as Edinburgh changes and gears up for the tourist trade that it relies on. But you never know when.

Over the last month the archeologists have been going over the land and it's been interesting to see what is being uncovered as they work their way through the area. The news did a story on the land and they said the archeologists have discovered land going back to the seventeenth and sixteenth century that must have been under the tannery.

The dig will go on and then the new building will be built on top of it eradicating any links with the past that we might have had. That's what we call progress. I think my neighbours of the past would have been tickled pink at what's going on in Edinburgh in the name of progress. They didn't like change and they didn't like it so fast.

Written by Andrew Murphy 3 July 2008

16th and 17th century structures uncovered in the Old Town of Edinburgh 2008

An archeologist exploring the dig at the back of the Royal Mile

Copyright photographs taken by Andrew Murphy

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e-mail: murphysedinburgh@btinternet.com

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