Robert's home in 1861

This is a story of finding an image of where Robert b1813 and his wife Margaret Ireland lived in the 1860s.  It shows the wonderfully friendly experiences I had in Scotland in 2025, and for me, a major find. I am thrilled to think that he and his family had a substantial home at this time.

I just happened to be driving to Lasswade when I saw Lothian Bridge ahead. On a whim I turned in. The first young woman asked what I wanted and I told her the story of 1861 census address 1 Lothian Bridge. "On no, none of these buildings are old, all came with the caravan park." Oh well.

Leaving the premises I spotted an old tiny cottage being hammered by a young man up a ladder. I told him the story. "I’m just a worker, the owner might know - that’s his office behind the van." When I turned the corner what I saw was a mansion, clearly undergoing renovation. Danny, the owner, duly answered my “hello” through a pane-less window, and said to come around to the front door. Inside it was sumptuous and full of kids toys. Danny was about 30 something. I told him the story.

"Wait here, I have some old papers about the house." He had bought it 8 months earlier for 1.25 million pounds. It looked in pretty good nick in terms of wood paneling, silken wallpaper and long curtains as far as I could see. Danny did know that there had been a row of cottages on the other side of the bridge - a rather magnificent 18 arch span built for trains. But these had been demolished. The Sun Inn was one of these, although it had been enlarged. He duly found the image, and I photographed it.

The mansion was called Craigesk, there being another one in Dalkeith. It had a Dance hall attached in the 1930s, he showed me an advertisement flyer in his Craigesk box. Dennis (informant #5) told me that it was said that 1/3 of the locals were conceived in the dance hall and environs! It had only 5 owners since being built in 1820. Danny referred me to the son of the man who owned the caravan park, who knew all about the house, and he now lived in a stone cottage on caravan park site.

I was not expecting to find him so on walking further towards my car I spotted a low white bungalow like building under the arches. Could this be an old cottage, despite now being part of an auto repair business? I spoke to the grandson of the man who’d bought the blacksmiths house (so not my cottage) and had built on the sheds. He too said "I should speak to the old man at the caravan park.".

Which led me back where I stood on the lawns of the caravan park, a bit uselessly, till a man came by and asked what I was there for, but in a nice way. I told him the story. This was Dennis, son of the old man, who sadly now was in hospital anyway and suffering dementia. He confirmed that the row of cottages had been demolished, they had all looked the same, though the Sun Inn was the only one standing. He spent five minutes scrolling through his phone for an image he thought showed them! I said nothing to interrupt his concentration. Fortunately the sun was now shining, and there is nothing nicer than being in the sun perhaps finding something important.

Yes he had it, and my photographing his phone was not great. So he agreed to Email it to me, though I had to show him how to choose the email icon and I entered my address - that way he said "it would be my fault if it didna work." True. But I had left my phone in the car, and was carrying my iPad. No phone to hotspot off, to be certain that it had arrived in my inbox I needed to get my phone. Back I went to the car. This short interlude was was to be a boon.

When I got back he had dug out a series of framed photographs he had bought ‘somewhere’. You guessed it, they were of the Lothian Bridge cottages and a few locals - perhaps even some Buchan children. We’d moved from nothing, through two increasingly clearer drawings, to actual photographs. 

Dennis' image of the cottages near Lothian Bridge

Being on the ground. Fantastic.

The other extraordinary revelation was that the train I caught into Edinburgh from Galashiels (the closest to Kelso) went over this bridge, and I had been on it it many times before I realised this. So on perhaps my last trip I carefully looked for Craigesk out the window, since it it sat just below the bridge really. The ticket man came just as I was trying to get the photograph.

Craigesk Estate map of the extensive paper mills, note tiny houses within the arches of Lothian Bridge 

Craigesk House from a recent advertisement, Lothian Bridge just behind