Inveresk

Inveresk

St. Michael's Parish Church, Inveresk
Inveresk
Inveresk shown within East Lothian
OS grid reference NT346719
Civil parish
  • Inveresk
Council area
Lieutenancy area
Country Scotland
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town MUSSELBURGH
Postcode district EH21
Dialling code 0131
Police Scottish
Fire Scottish
Ambulance Scottish
EU Parliament Scotland
UK Parliament
Scottish Parliament
Inveresk Lodge Garden
The western section of Inveresk Village is typified by high stone walls and mansion-houses screened by trees
A typical mansion in Inveresk Village
Typical 18th-century houses at the east end of Inveresk Village

Inveresk (Gaelic: Inbhir Easg) is a village in East Lothian, Scotland situated immediately to the south of Musselburgh. It has been designated a conservation area since 1969. It is situated on slightly elevated ground on the north bank of a loop of the River Esk. This ridge of ground, 20 to 25 metres above sea level, was used by the Romans as the location for a fort in the 2nd century AD.[1]

The element "Inver", from the Gaelic inbhir, refers to the confluence of the river Esk with the Firth of Forth.[2]

The village was formerly in the Midlothian parish of the same name and developed distinctly from the separate burgh of Musselburgh.

Inveresk is notable for its fine street of 17th- and 18th-century houses. Inveresk Lodge is now privately leased, but the adjacent Inveresk Lodge Garden belongs to the National Trust for Scotland, and its west facing gardens overlooking the river Esk are open to the public. This was formerly the mansion of James Wedderburn who had made his fortune as a slave-owning sugar plantation owner in Jamaica. When his son by one of his slaves, Robert Wedderburn, travelled to Inveresk to claim his kinship he was insultingly rejected by his father who gave him some small beer and a broken or bent sixpence. This experience turned Robert Wedderburn to radicalism.

St. Michael's Church

The village is dominated by St. Michaels church that stands at its west end on the summit of the local hill overlooking Musselburgh. Its graveyard/cemetery stretches westwards for almost 300m and is split into separate walled sections (marking its various stages of extension) which can be broadly bracketed as original (mainly 18th century), a late Victorian extension, an Edwardian/ early 20th century extension to the north, and a modern section to the far west.

The current church is by Robert Nisbet and dates to 1805 and has a stone spire of Wren-influence but is believed to date to the 6th century.[3]

Noteworthy graves

Major William Norman Ramsay's grave, Inveresk

The graveyard has a number of interesting graves:-

Other notable persons linked to Inveresk

References

  1. ↑ Burnet,JEM (1999) A reason for Inveresk. Courtyard Press, Inveresk. ISBN 0-9537450-0-7
  2. ↑ Dixon, Norman. "The Placenames of Midlothian" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-07-04. "'The mouth of the R. Esk' v. G. inbhir, inbhear: 'the confluence of a stream with the sea.'"
  3. ↑ McWilliam, Colin (1978). Buildings of Scotland Lothian except Edinburgh. Penguin Books.
  4. ↑ Dickson Wright, Clarissa (2012). Clarissa's England: A gamely gallop through the English counties. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 9781444729139.
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