Craigmillar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Craigmillar is a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the south east of the city, consisting mainly of council housing. It is next to Niddrie. The name comes from Scottish Gaelic Crag Maol Ard meaning "High Bare Rock".

Despite the relative newness of the area, the settlement is very old, and contains Craigmillar Castle, built in c. 1400.

In recent years, Craigmillar has seen riots in the 1980s and also complaints about the lack of facilities. It now has an arts centre, and a library, and there is some grassroots based community action trying to tackle the area's problems, including the highly regarded Craigmillar Festival Society.

Helen Duncan, the last woman to be convicted as a witch, lived in Craigmillar. Bill Douglas, the famous filmmaker was born and raised in Newcraighall. The former Craigmillar Primary School building houses a renowned mural by John Maxwell, who was trained by Fernand Léger and fellow student to Marc Chagall in Paris. There is a fine example of 20th century stained glass by Sadie McLean in The Robin Chapel in The Thistle Foundation. The area also has the largest concrete sculpture/playstructure in Europe^{[citation needed]} called "Gulliver, The Gentle Giant that cares and shares" by Jimmy Boyle and built by The local CAT team for The Craigmillar Festival Society in 1976.

The University of Edinburgh has playing fields in this area, including one of the oldest modern style shinty fields in Scotland.