Dean Village Landslip to be rectified at last

Four years after the failed renovation of the car parking area adjoining the modern house next to the Dean Cemetery there is hope that the landslip will be finally stabilised allowing the path along the river between the Dean village and Belford bridge to be safely reopened. However it could take 6 months for work to be carried out. This image taken on the 15^th April 2016 shows how pile drilling and concrete works to rectify the landslip from the top level next to the house was unsuccessful days after the job was completed for the second time.

It is believed that the instability to this bank may have originally been as a result of earth and rubbish being dumped from the cemetery grounds down the bank when it was being built in 1846. Rainfall in Edinburgh has increased considerably in the last 40 years and though the bank below the cemetery has many mature trees growing on it there has been little or no maintenance over the years with the area being allowed to become unkempt. The original Dean house, residence at one time to the ‘Miss Nisbets of the Dean’ was demolished in 1845 with stone from the house and grounds used to form many of the cemetery compartments.

This early 19th c painting, showing the topography and the cliff edge of the Dean Valley upstream from the Dean village, illustrates just how unstable this bank could become over the years.