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Gilmerton Cove in Scotland
Written by Philippa Burne, UK, July 2012
Don’t be misled by the name, this cove has nothing to do with the sea, and is a trick of language, cove being the old Scots word for cave. Gilmerton Cove in Scotland then, is actually a cave. Or rather, it is a series of caves, a house actually, with three bedrooms, dug 100 feet into the ground underneath Gilmerton, once a village but now a suburb of Edinburgh. No one really knows how the cave dwelling got to be there.
Theories suggest that it could’ve been used as a hideout from the marauding English who kept attacking the Scots around the 16th century, or dug by local miners digging for stone to build roads or possibly even constructed by the 18th century blacksmith, George Paterson, who lived there for nearly a decade and was prosecuted for serving liquor in the caves on the Sabbath (he blamed it on his wife!).
Editor’s Note: This recommendation was taken from our Scotland Things to Do blog. Visit the original post to continue reading the full post and to learn more about things to do in Scotland.
Theories suggest that it could’ve been used as a hideout from the marauding English who kept attacking the Scots around the 16th century, or dug by local miners digging for stone to build roads or possibly even constructed by the 18th century blacksmith, George Paterson, who lived there for nearly a decade and was prosecuted for serving liquor in the caves on the Sabbath (he blamed it on his wife!).
Editor’s Note: This recommendation was taken from our Scotland Things to Do blog. Visit the original post to continue reading the full post and to learn more about things to do in Scotland.
