Gladsmuir

Gladsmuir

Gladsmuir Parish Church
Gladsmuir
Gladsmuir shown within East Lothian
OS grid reference NT457732
Civil parish
  • Gladsmuir
Council area
Lieutenancy area
Country Scotland
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town TRANENT
Postcode district EH33
Dialling code 01875
Police Scottish
Fire Scottish
Ambulance Scottish
EU Parliament Scotland
UK Parliament
Scottish Parliament

Gladsmuir is a village and parish in East Lothian, Scotland, situated on the A199 and near Tranent and Prestonpans.

Description

The name Gladsmuir stems from the Scots word gled, meaning a bird of prey, (usually a buzzard), combined with muir; the Scots form of moor, thus Buzzard's Moor might loosely translate Gladsmuir into English.

Gladsmuir's principal "claim to fame" relates to its role as the site of the Battle of Prestonpans (1745). Some sources - particularly maps - occasionally refer to the confrontation as the Battle of Gladsmuir. The Jacobite poet William Hamilton (1704-1754) wrote a poem entitled Gladsmuir in celebration of the battle.

The philanthropist George Heriot, jeweller to James VI, King of Scots and founder of Heriot's Hospital, (later George Heriot's School), in Edinburgh, was born in Gladsmuir.

Gladsmuir Parish Kirk is a Romanesque cruciform church dating from 1839 and designed by William Burn. A replacement was built after a fire in 1886 by John Farquarson of Haddington with later improvements made in 1929. The older ruined kirk can still be seen and explored behind the new kirk. The graveyard contains several CWGC graves from both world wars.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.