Grange Prestonfield Community Council (GPCC) comprises elected local residents and appointed representatives of constituted local interest groups. Together, they work to represent your local community and its neighbourhoods to put forward your views on your 'place', 'space', amenity and wellbeing to the City Council and to other public agencies.
Local Ward Councillors, MPs and MSPs are ex-officio members of the community council. Local organization representatives and individuals with a particular interest or focus can be co-opted to help with the work undertaken.
Following the March 2025 elections, community councils are established in 40 out of 47 boundary areas within the City of Edinburgh. Take a look at the Council’s ownwebsiteexplaining the scheme.
The community council has the statutory right to be consulted by the city council on local matters (such as certain types of planning applications and licensing issues). But the consultative and working relationship goes much wider than that.
We look to meet monthly and meetings are open to all local residents. Details of forthcoming meetings are posted on this site.
The boundary area covered by Grange Prestonfield Community Council is roughly the south-east half of the Southside/Newington ward. For a map of the ward boundaries have a lookhere.
(12 May 2025)
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Our History
The Grange (originally St Giles' Grange) is aconservation areacharacterised by large lateVictorianstone-built villas, often with large gardens. Many have now been sub-divided into flats, with further flats often being built on the grounds.
There are mentions of 'Sanct-Geill-Grange' in charters of KingDavidand KingEdgar, as church lands attached toSt. Gilesparish church in Edinburgh, the king retaining the superiority.
The word grange is common across Britain and normally links to an extensive farm with a central mansionhouse. On 16 June 1376, KingRobert IIgranted the superiority of the barony and lands of St Giles to his eldest son,John, Earl of Carrick, Steward of Scotland. In 1391 the estate was conferred upon the Wardlaw family.
On 29 October 1506, St Giles Grange passed to John Cant, a Burgess of Edinburgh, and his spouse Agnes Carkettle, and in 1517 they granted the use of 18 acres (73,000 m2) of land to the nuns ofSt. Catherine of Siena. On 19 March 1691 a John Cant sold St Giles Grange in its entirety to William Dick.
At that time, the 18 acres (73,000 m2) previously feued to the nuns was now in the possession of SirJohn Napier, the famous inventor of logarithms. When Isabel Dick, the heiress, marriedSir Andrew Lauder, 5th Baronetof Fountainhall, in 1731, The Grange passed to him.
The originaltower houseappears to be of a very early date possibly the 13th century, ornamented with two turrets and a battlemented roof; its position was isolated at the eastern end of theBurgh Muir, which at that time consisted of waste tracts of moorland and morass, stretching out southward as far as theBraid Hillsand eastward to St. Leonard's Crags.
Themansion, The Grange House, was enlarged over the centuries, a major restoration being carried out by SirThomas Dick Lauder, Bt.
The house survived until 1936 when it was demolished to make way for flats. Stonewyvernsfrom its gateposts, known locally as the 'Lauder griffins', were re-erected in Grange Loan. One was placed at the entrance to a stretch of Lover's Loan, a centuries-old path which was preserved in a late 19th-century redevelopment and is marked out with high stone walls separating it from the gardens on either side.
Prestonfield is a primarily residential suburb in the south ofEdinburgh.
The area was known as Priestfield until the late seventeenth century, a name retained by the parish church, other institutions and several street names.
It lies west ofDuddingstonand is bounded on its west side byNewington Cemetery.Cameron Tolllies to the south and theCommonwealth Poollie to the north.
It is best known as being home toPrestonfield House, a renowned hotel, and Prestonfield Golf Club. The golf course is the nearest to the city centre.
The area is visually dominated byArthur's SeatandSalisbury Cragsto the east, which tower above the area.
Source: Wikipedia
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