48-647: The Nor Loch , also known as the Nor' Loch and the North Loch , was a man-made loch formerly in Edinburgh , Scotland, in the area now occupied by Princes Street Gardens and Waverley station which lie between the Royal Mile and Princes Street . The depression, along with the parallel one now occupied by the Cowgate , was formed by glacial erosion during the last Ice Age , when
96-416: A corridor from the ticket office to the eastern concourse; this will also see the toilets replaced and a Changing Places facility installed. The railway company constructed a hotel beside their station. The North British Hotel , adjacent to the station at the corner between Princes Street and North Bridge, on the site of the coachworks, opened in 1902. It closed in 1988, but was re-opened by new owners as
144-517: A hindrance to both invaders and town growth. In the winter of 1571, as part of a plan to end the "Lang Siege" , the Earl of Morton explained that, "One side of the town is 'unwallit', and the frost may give occasion to assault it that way with far less difficulty than otherwise", suggesting that the requested English army could cross the frozen Loch. In 1603, King James VI gave the Town Council title to
192-456: A stream that ran along the foot of the north side of the castle rock . The water level was controlled by a sluice in the dam which was at the foot of Halkerston's Wynd. Because the Old Town was built on a steep ridge, it expanded on an east-west axis, eastwards from the castle; expansion northward, as would happen with the later New Town, was extremely difficult at this point. The Nor Loch was thus
240-482: A well going down to natural ground water level below the loch. The two storey structure was a drinking water source for the castle. It had timber steps leading up the steep slope back to the castle but most water was taken up by crane. It was in ruins by the seventeenth century and little remains today. Although the Nor Loch was drained during the 19th century, neither its legacy nor its name are entirely forgotten. During
288-472: Is St Andrew Square. The tram stop also serves the adjacent Edinburgh bus station , about 200 metres from Waverley station. Some bus services also stop outside the station at Princes Street while taxi ranks are located outside at Market Street. In March 2019, Network Rail announced proposals to redevelop Waverley station in order to meet an anticipated increase in passenger demand by 2048. The Waverley Masterplan drawn up by engineering firm Arup Group envisages
336-823: Is a fjord in Greenland named by Douglas Clavering in 1823. Edinburgh Waverley railway station Edinburgh Waverley (also known simply as Edinburgh ; Scottish Gaelic : Waverley Dhùn Èideann ) is the principal railway station serving Edinburgh , Scotland. It is the second busiest station in Scotland, after Glasgow Central . The station serves as the northern terminus of the East Coast Main Line , 393 miles 13 chains (393.16 miles; 632.7 kilometres) from London King's Cross , although some trains operated by London North Eastern Railway continue to other Scottish destinations beyond Edinburgh. Waverley station
384-539: Is a common Gaelic word, it is found as the root of several Manx place names. The United States naval port of Pearl Harbor , on the south coast of the main Hawaiian island of Oʻahu , is one of a complex of sea inlets. It contains three subareas called 'lochs' named East, Middle, and West or Kaihuopala‘ai, Wai‘awa, and Komoawa. Loch Raven Reservoir is a reservoir in Baltimore County, Maryland. Brenton Loch in
432-409: Is just west of the northern massive stone pier of the bridge and cleverly hides it within its bulk. Waverley Bridge lies at the western end of the station (though platforms extend below it) and it is this road which, by means of ramps, formerly afforded vehicular access to the station and still provides two of the six pedestrian entrances to the station. The valley to the west of the station, formerly
480-596: Is no strict size definition, a smaller loch is often known as a lochan (spelled the same also in Scottish Gaelic; in Irish , it is spelled lochán ). Perhaps the most famous Scottish loch is Loch Ness , although there are other famous ones, such as Loch Awe , Loch Lomond and Loch Tay . Examples of sea lochs in Scotland include Loch Long , Loch Fyne , Loch Linnhe , and Loch Eriboll . Elsewhere in Britain, places like
528-511: Is related to the Latin lacus ( ' lake, pond ' ), English lay ( ' lake ' ) and French lac , as well as the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish word for a lake, lago . Lowland Scots orthography, like Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Irish, represents / x / with ⟨ch⟩ , so the word was borrowed with identical spelling. English borrowed the word separately from a number of loughs in
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#1733084532640576-506: Is situated in a steep, narrow valley between the medieval Old Town and the 18th century New Town . Princes Street , the premier shopping street, runs close to its north side. The valley is bridged by the North Bridge , rebuilt in 1897 as a three-span iron and steel bridge, on huge sandstone piers. This passes high above the station's central section, with the greater half of the station being west of North Bridge. The central booking hall
624-700: Is unusual. Some lochs in Southern Scotland have a Brythonic , rather than Goidelic , etymology, such as Loch Ryan , where the Gaelic loch has replaced a Cumbric equivalent of Welsh llwch . The same is, perhaps, the case for bodies of water in Northern England named with 'Low' or 'Lough', or else represents a borrowing of the Brythonic word into the Northumbrian dialect of Old English. Although there
672-663: The Afon Dyfi can be considered sea lochs. Some new reservoirs for hydroelectric schemes have been given names faithful to the names for natural bodies of water. For example, the Loch Sloy scheme and Lochs Laggan and Treig (which form part of the Lochaber hydroelectric scheme near Fort William ). Other expanses are simply called reservoirs, e.g. Blackwater Reservoir above Kinlochleven . Scotland has very few bodies of water called lakes. The Lake of Menteith , an Anglicisation of
720-804: The Balmoral Hotel in 1991. Several train operating companies serve the station. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) and trains per day (tpd) as of the December 2022 timetable change is as follows: London North Eastern Railway also operate their Flying Scotsman service once per day to London, southbound only, departing at 0540, calling at Newcastle only, and arriving at London King's Cross exactly four hours later at 0940. Lumo started operating services from London King's Cross to Edinburgh Waverley via Stevenage , Newcastle and Morpeth in October 2021. The main station facilities are located in
768-827: The Falkland Islands is a sea loch, near Lafonia , East Falkland . In the Scottish settlement of Glengarry County in present-day Eastern Ontario , there is a lake called Loch Garry. Loch Garry was named by those who settled in the area, Clan MacDonell of Glengarry , after the well-known loch their clan is from, Loch Garry in Scotland. Similarly, lakes named Loch Broom , Big Loch , Greendale Loch , and Loch Lomond can be found in Nova Scotia , along with Loch Leven in Newfoundland , and Loch Leven in Saskatchewan . Loch Fyne
816-611: The Scots Laich o Menteith meaning a "low-lying bit of land in Menteith", is applied to the loch there because of the similarity of the sounds of the words laich and lake . Until the 19th century the body of water was known as the Loch of Menteith . The Lake of the Hirsel , Pressmennan Lake , Lake Louise and Raith Lake are man-made bodies of water in Scotland, referred to as lakes. As "loch"
864-637: The Waverley Novels by Sir Walter Scott , was used for the three from around 1854 when the through "Waverley" route to Carlisle opened. Canal Street station was also known as Edinburgh Princes Street, not to be confused with the Caledonian Railway railway station later built at the West End which was named Princes Street station from 1870. From 1866 to 1868, the North British Railway acquired
912-499: The Calton Road access in 2014. In mid-2017, as part of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement Programme , platform 12 was extended. At the same time the former Motorail bay platforms were extended into a former car park area and taxi rank to allow platforms 5 and 6 to be extended to accommodate additional London North Eastern Railway services. Platforms 5 and 6 were brought into use on 28 February 2019. Work began in 2020 to reopen
960-487: The anglicized form " lough ". A small loch is called a lochan . Lochs which connect to the sea may be called "sea lochs" or "sea loughs". Some such bodies of water could also be called firths , fjords , estuaries , straits or bays . This name for a body of water is Insular Celtic in origin and is applied to most lakes in Scotland and to many sea inlets in the west and north of Scotland . The word comes from Proto-Indo-European *lókus ( ' lake, pool ' ), and
1008-573: The auspices of the North British, the LNER , British Railways (rebranded as British Rail after 1965), Railtrack and now Network Rail . From its opening in its current form by the eastward tunnelled extension from Haymarket, Waverley has been the principal railway station in Edinburgh. From 1870 to 1965, the city had a second major station, Princes Street , operated by the rival Caledonian Railway , but this
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#17330845326401056-453: The construction of Waverley station and the railway lines through the area, a number of bones were uncovered. Princes Street Gardens were created in the 1820s and now occupy much of the loch's former extent. The Nor Loch is not the only "lost loch" in the city. Another example is Gogarloch in the South Gyle area. Like the Nor Loch, this was mostly marshland, rather than a true loch. It
1104-441: The creation of a new mezzanine level concourse above the main platforms to facilitate passenger circulation within the station, with a link through to the neighbouring Waverley Mall shopping centre. As part of the redevelopment, the entrance ramps from Waverley Bridge into the station would be removed and the new concourse would be enclosed in plate glass to provide panoramic views over the Old Town. The plans also make reference to
1152-446: The eastern end to allow construction of the North Bridge . Draining of the western end was undertaken 1813 to 1820, under supervision by the engineer James Jardine to enable the creation of Princes Street Gardens . For several decades after draining of the Loch began, townspeople continued to refer to the area as the Nor Loch. The Nor Loch was never a source of drinking water, and indeed
1200-484: The glazing of the roof of Waverley station was entirely replaced with new strengthened clear glass panels, replacing the old 34,000 m (370,000 sq ft) of mixed surfaces including felt, cloudy wired glass and plastic sheet. Part of a £130 million upgrade, this has greatly increased the amount of natural light in the station. From 2012 to 2014, improvements included: a new set of covered escalators at Waverley Steps leading to Princes Street (narrowing
1248-401: The huge set of previously open-air steps); a rebuilt and widened entrance from Market Street; a rebuilding of the canopies on the southern suburban line; a restoration of the central space in the ticket hall; and major improvements to the Calton Road access. Internally, several new lifts and escalators have greatly aided circulation. A new drop-off point and disabled parking/access was added on
1296-506: The icepack was forced to divide by the volcanic plug now known as Castle Rock . A marsh formed in the hollow and was part of the natural defence of the Old Town of Edinburgh. In 1460, King James III ordered the hollow to be flooded in order to complete the defences of the town and Edinburgh Castle . The loch was formed by creating an earthen dam to block the progress of the Tummel Burn,
1344-463: The land, pools and marshes of the loch. As the Old Town became ever more crowded during the Middle Ages , the Nor Loch became similarly polluted, by sewage, household waste, and general detritus thrown down the hillside. The loch was never used as drinking water but there were wells beside it (see below). The Nor Loch fulfilled a variety of other roles during this period including: However, in 1685,
1392-442: The law of Scotland outlawed drowning as a form of execution. Before then many lives were taken. On one day in 1624, eleven women were drowned. Four years later, George Sinclair confessed to committing incest with his two sisters. All three were sentenced to death, but it was said that the clergy commuted the sentence on the younger sister. Sinclair and his older sister were placed in a large chest with holes drilled in it and thrown into
1440-535: The level of Princes Street, and further west a park would be "kept and preserved in perpetuity as pleasure ground" in what became Princes Street Gardens. In the mid-1830s proposals for a railway from Glasgow running along the gardens to a station at the North Bridge were set out in a prospectus with assurances that the trains would be concealed from view, and smoke from them "would scarcely be seen". An association of "Princes Street Proprietors" who had feued houses in
1488-515: The loch to drown. Two centuries later, in 1820, the chest was rediscovered by workmen digging a drain near the Wellhouse Tower of the Castle. James Skene of Rubislaw , who was present at the work in the gardens, reported that the skeleton of a tall man was found between those of two women. Later 19th-century accounts report only two skeletons being found in the chest. Draining of the Nor Loch began at
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1536-619: The loughs in Northern England have also previously been called "meres" (a Northern English-dialect word for "lake", and an archaic Standard English word meaning "a lake that is broad in relation to its depth"), similar to the Dutch meer , such as the Black Lough in Northumberland . However, reference to the latter as loughs (lower case initial), rather than as lakes , inlets and so on,
1584-461: The middle of what is essentially a large island platform which is surrounded by platforms on all four sides. There are 20 numbered platforms, in a clockwise direction from the north east. There are three pairs of platforms which share the same tracks. Although there is currently no direct interchange, the nearest tram stop on the Edinburgh Trams service between Edinburgh Airport and Newhaven
1632-557: The modern Scottish English loch . In Welsh , what corresponds to lo is lu in Old Welsh and llw in Middle Welsh (such as in today's Welsh placenames Llanllwchaiarn , Llwchwr , Llyn Cwm Llwch , Amlwch , Maesllwch ), the Goidelic lo being taken into Scottish Gaelic by the gradual replacement of much Brittonic orthography with Goidelic orthography in Scotland. Many of
1680-532: The north to serve the increased proportion of through rail traffic. During 2006 and 2007, parts of Waverley were extensively refurbished, including two new through platforms and the electrification of platforms 12 to 18 in preparation for electric trains from the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link and future lines in Scotland to be electrified by the EGIP (Edinburgh/Glasgow Improvement Project). From 2010 to 2012,
1728-450: The north. The "noxious lake" was to be narrowed into "a canal of running water", with a bridge formed across the east end of the loch adjacent to the physic garden . This link was built from 1766 as the North Bridge and at the same time plans for the New Town began development to the north, with Princes Street to get unobstructed views south over sloping gardens and the proposed canal. The loch
1776-538: The only remaining natural lochs in the city while St. Margaret's and Dunsapie Lochs, also in Holyrood Park, are artificial. 55°57′N 3°12′W / 55.950°N 3.200°W / 55.950; -3.200 Loch Loch ( / l ɒ x / LOKH ) is a word meaning " lake " or " sea inlet " in Scottish and Irish Gaelic , subsequently borrowed into English. In Irish contexts, it often appears in
1824-486: The previous Cumbric language areas of Northumbria and Cumbria . Earlier forms of English included the sound /x/ as ⟨gh⟩ (compare Scots bricht with English bright ). However, by the time Scotland and England joined under a single parliament, English had lost the /x/ sound. This form was therefore used when the English settled Ireland . The Scots convention of using ⟨ch⟩ remained, hence
1872-557: The proprietors. The North Bridge station was opened on 22 June 1846 by the North British Railway as the terminus for its line from Berwick-upon-Tweed . The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway's General station opened on 17 May 1847, on the same day as the Canal Street station of the Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway , serving Leith and Granton via a long rope-hauled tunnel under the New Town. The collective name "Waverley", after
1920-496: The railway sought another Act of Parliament allowing access along the gardens, and at the same time two other railways proposed terminus stations at the North Bridge site. By then several of the Princes Street properties were shops or hotels with an interest in development, and agreement was reached in 1844 on walls and embankments to conceal the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway line in a cutting , with compensation of almost £2,000 for
1968-554: The site of the Nor Loch , is the public parkland of Princes Street Gardens . Directly east of the station are St Andrew's House , which accommodates part of the Scottish Government and Governor's House . Edinburgh's Old Town, perched on a steep-sided sloping ridge, was bounded on the north by a valley in which the Nor Loch had been formed. In the 1750s overcrowding led to proposals to link across this valley to allow development to
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2016-463: The stations of its rivals, demolished all three and closed the Scotland Street tunnel to Canal Street. The present Victorian station was built on the site. Along the tracks of this first station, Hanna, Donald & Wilson built some very impressive roofs. The station was extended in the late 19th century. In 1897, the impressive glass dome was added. Waverley has been in continual use since, under
2064-501: The street, and had spent large sums turning the "filthy and offensive bog" of the Nor Loch into quiet gardens, strongly opposed the railway and in late 1836 put forward their case against the Act of Parliament for the railway. The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway opened in 1842 with its terminus at Haymarket railway station , stopping short of Princes Street. In the Railway Mania of the 1840s,
2112-461: The valuable city-centre spaces available within, there being a legal covenant preventing any upwards extension, which would obstruct the view of Arthur's Seat from Princes Street . The elevated walkway linking the Waverley Steps (from Princes Street to Market Street) has been upgraded with the recommissioning of the suburban platforms (at the south) and provision of additional through platforms to
2160-438: Was drained as work on the bridge proceeded. In 1770 a coachbuilder began work on properties feued at the corner between the bridge and Princes Street, and feuers on the other side of the street strongly objected to this construction blocking their views to the south. A series of court cases ended with the decision that the buildings nearing completion could stay, immediately to the west of that some workshops would be allowed below
2208-490: Was never as important as Waverley. British Rail brought railway electrification in 1991 with electric trains on the East Coast Main Line to Glasgow Central and via York to London King's Cross . The station's large size and the unusual topography of its surroundings mean that it contains a large amount of valuable, centrally located land. The station's successive owners, British Rail , Railtrack and its current owner Network Rail have been criticised for underusing
2256-413: Was probably highly polluted, being largely stagnant and used as a dumping ground for rubbish over and above being the termination point of many of the Old Town's open sewers. However, there was a drinking water source at its edge. The wellhouse tower was built in 1362 and had two functions: bridging the small gap in the city fortifications between Edinburgh Castle and the Nor Loch; and protecting and covering
2304-715: Was reclaimed for a park, housing and to build the railway to the Forth Bridge . The Meadows , a large open park immediately to the south of the city centre, was once the Burgh Loch, occasionally referred to as the South Loch. Its name is remembered in the street called Boroughloch. Canonmills Loch once stretched from today's Dundas Street to Rodney Street. Lochend Loch in Lochend Park and Duddingston Loch in Holyrood Park are
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