Also known as
or
Feud in 1810 from the Ramsays of Barnton, by Alexander Osborne who built the house c1836.
James Melville (46) W.S.
Margaret (45),
Augustina (8),
James (6),
Elisabeth (4),
Thomas (5).
James Moncrieff Melville (59) W.S., b. St Andrews,
Margaret Melville (55) b. Newburn, Fife,
Augusta Mary (19),
Elizabeth Janet (14).
Valuation rolls give the following details
1855 James Moncrief Melville.
James Melville (67) W.S.
Elizabeth (24),
Edward Inglis (66), visitor half pay Lt. (Army), born Cawpore, India.
Valuation rolls give the following details.
1873 Robert Hannay.
1878 James Walker.
1914 Misses Elizabeth Mary Moncur, Laura Moncur and Agnes Moncur.
1948 William Arnott McLeod & Co. At this time they owned Craigpark Quarry.
The house was used as a sports club or such like as the various building sites of the firm all had football teams who used the house for changing and the grounds for games and recreation.
1949 Secretary of State for Scotland.
Teind Roll 1957 Secretary of State for Scotland.
1988 Trustees for Gogarburn Golf Club. (Nortonhaugh was one of the fields of Roddinglaw Farm, which belonged to Kellerstain and now forms a large part of the golf course).
The property has long since been demolished. Unfortunately no photographs or other information has come to light to date.
On 27th August 1650 Leslie repulsed Cromwell’s forces in a battle on this site that lasted from 3pm - 6pm. The Protector himself describes the battle: -
“We marched westward of Edinburgh towards Stirling, which the Enemy perceiving, marched with as great expedition as was possible to prevent us; and the vanguards of both the Armies came to skirmish, - upon a place where bogs and passes made the access of each Army to the other difficult. We, being ignorant of the place, drew up, hoping to have engaged: but found no way feasible, by reason of the bogs and other difficulties. We drew up our cannon, and did that day discharge two or three hundred great shot upon them; a considerable number they likewise returned to us; and this was all that passed from each to the other. Wherein we had near twenty killed and wounded, but not one Commission Officer. The Enemy, as we are informed, had about eighty killed, and some considerable Officers. Seeing they would keep their ground, from which we could not remove them, and our bread being spent, - we were necessitated to go for a new supply: and so marched off about ten or eleven o’clock on Wednesday morning,”-first to camp at the Braid Hills and thence to Musselburgh.
25 days later Cromwell fought the Battle of Dunbar.
From 1809-1835 many stone coffins were found on the lands of Gogar, no accurate account of these before 1834 remains.
In 1834/5 when the Villa of Hanley was being built, a sandpit was excavated (on the highest part of the ground about 100 yards to the north-east of the house) for building material. This excavation was 60 feet by 35 feet. It exposed about 24 stone coffins/cists, these all lay east to west at a depth of only 13 inches. Constructed of water worn flagstones which form the bed of the river Almond and are similar to those at Hully Hill Newbridge.
Their shape was as nearly that of a modern wooden coffin as laying of slabs permits. Both ends of the coffin were of single stones, and the sides were sometimes also of single stones, in which case, the one end of the coffin was broader than the other; but more frequently the sides were formed of four separate stones, and then the coffins bulged out in the middle. The bodies seem generally to have been laid on the bare gravel or on a thin plate of clay slate, and the tops or covers were all of this substance, except one or two, where both the bottom and cover were formed of flagstones.
From the nature of the soil which is a loose gravel, and from the slightness of the covers, few of the coffins were in a perfect state when laid open. Degradation by soil and water as well as ploughing meant that most of the graves only contained fragments of their occupiers and those were not in a good state. However several produced entire skeletons. No relics were found, in these or any of the other graves.
The length of the coffins was from 5 to 6 feet, and the width from nine inches to 1 foot.
Whilst digging pits for the trees in the grounds other graves were found and in another excavation for building material yet another large group of graves was discovered. This contained a double burial (or at least more than two thigh bones) in a much larger coffin than the rest; one coffin was only 2˝ feet in length. Several coffins had been constructed using the side of a previous one, or perhaps a larger burial where the coffins for several bodies were constructed at the same time, using each as a part of the other. A large group of human bones was found that had been interred without coffins and suggested a burial pit. (Could this be where the dead from the Battle of the Flashes were interred?)
Towards the end of October 1835, another excavation was made at Hanley, behind the gardens, about 100 yards to the west of the first excavation. The space here was 50 feet in length and contained six coffins, four lying together in one corner.
The whole space over which these coffins were found was some 250 yards in length and over 50 yards wide.
Single coffins were found in other parts of the villa grounds and a few are said to have been found in the grounds of the adjoining villa, Gogar Burn.
Remains of a similar nature were discovered at Cramond in 1822.