Scotland Street Tunnel tunnel was built under
Scotland Street in 1847. It was on the railway line from Edinburgh
Canal Street station in Princes Street to Granton Harbour.
had a gradient of 1 in 27.
A stationery engine was used to rope-haul the trains up the line through
1868: The railway through Scotland Street tunnel was abandoned when a new
line to Trinity and Granton Harbour came into use. The line left North Bridge station
heading to the east, then swung round to the north through Abbeyhill
station and headed for Trinity station.
1887: Scotland Street tunnel was converted for mushroom growing
in 1887 [Railscot website].
Ed McKenna writes:
"The 1889/90 Post Office Directory states that
the Scottish Mushroom Company was a tenant at Scotland Street Station at
I have read, somewhere, that one line of rails
was left in the tunnel so that wagon loads of horse manure could be
transported in to feed the mushroom beds and remove the spent beds.
The 1914/15 Post Office Directory gives the
name of the tenant as The Edinburgh Mushroom Co. Ltd.
The enterprise was abandoned, date unknown,
when the beds became contaminated with
some sort of disease. Production ceased in 1929.
1940s: The tunnel served as an air raid shelter
for part of Central Edinburgh during World War II. The remains of
the air raid shelter apparently still exist in the middle of the tunnel.
See the thumbnail images at the bottom of this page.
1967: Scotland Street Yard continued to
operate as a coal depot until 1967
1960s: Scotland Street tunnel was uses for storing new cars
in the 1960s.
1970s: The most recent use that I know of for the tunnel was for
growing mushrooms in the dark damp conditions. I read a reference to
this in the press, probably around the 1970s.