Old Photograph St Bernard's Well Stockbridge Scotland

Old photograph of St Bernard's Well in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland. Originally a small outlying village, it was incorporated into the City of Edinburgh in the 19th century. This mineral water well is on the south bank of the Water of Leith, on an estate once known as St Bernard's. Just below a footpath is St Bernard's Well; the well house was originally built in 1760. The waters of the well were held in high repute for their medicinal qualities, and the nobility and gentry took summer quarters in the valley to drink deep draughts of the water and take the country air. In 1788 Lord Gardenstone, a wealthy Court of Session judge who thought he had benefited from the mineral spring, commissioned Alexander Nasmyth to design a new pump room. The builder John Wilson began work in 1789. It is in the shape of a circular Greek temple supported by ten tall Doric order columns, with a statue made in 1791 from Coade stone of Hygieia, the Greek goddess of health, in the centre. St Bernard's Football Club, a once successful Scottish team but now defunct were named after the famous well and played in Stockbridge. The mosaic interior is by Thomas Bonnar.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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