Dean Village

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The Dean Village.

Dean Village (from dene, meaning 'deep valley') is a former village in the northwest of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was known as the "Water of Leith Village" and was a successful grain milling hamlet for more than 800 years. At one time there were no fewer than eleven working mills there, driven by the strong currents of the Water of Leith. The mylnes of Dene were listed in the King David I Charters.

In 1833, the four-arched Dean Bridge, designed by Thomas Telford and 106 feet above the water level, was opened to carry the Queensferry Road over the Dean Gorge, almost at the sole expense of Mr John Learmonth Lord Provost of Edinburgh. The contractors were John Gibb & Son, from Aberdeen. Another intention of the new bridge was to open up the Dean estate to feuing.^[1] Dean Bridge was also featured in Ian Rankin's book, Strip Jack, in which novel a woman is found dead in the river underneath the bridge.

However, the port of Leith began to be very successful, and Dean Village's trade diminished. For many years, the village became associated with decay and poverty. Now the workers' cottages, warehouses and mill buildings have been restored and the area has once more become a desirable residential area.

The Water of Leith has become a local amenity, with a waymarked trail, the Water of Leith Walkway, running from Balerno via Dean Village to Leith.

Among the better known residents of Dean Village was Aleksander Zyw (1905-1995), an artist and painter from Poland.

Dean Cemetery stands on the site of Dean House, a mansion house which was part of Dean Estate which had been bought by Sir William Nisbet in 1609 and demolished in 1845. The cemetery is the resting place of many well-known people, including the railway engineer Sir Thomas Bouch. Sculptured stones from the house are incorporated into the terrace wall on the edge of the cemetery. A painted ceiling from Dean House is now in the National Museum of Antiquities.