Newhaven harbour

Newhaven is a district in the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, which lies between Leith and Granton and is about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the city centre of Edinburgh, just north of the Victoria Park district. Formerly a village and harbour on the Firth of Forth, it had a population of approximately 5,000 inhabitants at the 1991 census. Newhaven was designated a conservation area, one of 40 such areas in Edinburgh, in 1977.] It has a very distinctive building form, typical of many Scottish fishing villages, with a "forestair" leading to accommodation at first floor level. The lower ground floor was used for storing nets. More modern housing dating from the 1960s has replicated the style of these older buildings. Victoria Primary School, created in 1844, is a historic, listed building in Newhaven Main Street and was the oldest council primary school still in use within the City of Edinburgh council area until pupils and staff moved to a new building across in Western Harbour in 2021. It latterly had a school roll of around 145 children. The site has now been acquired under the Community Asset Transfer scheme, by the Heart of Newhaven Community, a volunteer-led charity, who will be running it as a community hub. The new Western Harbour development extends north into the Firth of Forth from Newhaven. It is also the home of Next Generation Sports Centre (now named David Lloyd Newhaven Harbour), where the tennis player Sir Andy Murray regularly played as a youngster. History Early history The village lies on the line of a prehistoric raised beach. It was part of North Leith Parish, being situated north of the Water of Leith which divided Leith into north and south parishes. It was once a thriving fishing village and a centre for shipbuilding. King James IV wanted to build a Scottish navy, but the existing port of Leith proved unsuitable for large warships. In 1504 he created "Newhavin" (meaning literally "new harbour") as a custom-built port, specifically for the construction of the warship Michael (popularly called the "Great Michael"). The ship was built between 1507 and 1511. The site of the original harbour is the current open space at Fishmarket Square (see photo above). Surviving walls of the Chapel of St. Mary and St. James, believed to have been built for the dockyard workers and mariners, can still be seen in Lamb's Court and Westmost Close off Main Street. The chapel was ruinous by 1611; the grounds were acquired for use as a graveyard by the Society of Free Fishermen in 1766 and used as such until 1848. In the reign of James VI the Flemish entrepreneurs Cornelius de Vos and Eustachius Roche set up salt pans at Newhaven to make sea salt.