The Signal Tower: A Windmill That Talked to Ships
Why is it significant?
At the end of the Shore stands a stubby round tower crowned with toy-fort battlements, looking slightly too small for its armour. It is one of the oldest buildings on the whole waterfront, and almost nothing about it is what it seems.
Key Facts
| Place | The Signal Tower: A Windmill That Talked to Ships |
|---|---|
| Address | Tower Street, Leith, Edinburgh EH6, UK |
| Geo Coordinates | 55.97770, -3.16890 |
| Part of Walk | Leith Uncovered: The Shore, the Docks and the Birthplace of Golf's Rules in Edinburgh |
| Generated | Generated |
At the end of the Shore stands a stubby round tower crowned with toy-fort battlements, looking slightly too small for its armour. It is one of the oldest buildings on the whole waterfront, and almost nothing about it is what it seems.
It was built in 1686 by Robert Mylne, the King's Master Mason, the same man who worked on the rebuilding of the Palace of Holyroodhouse. But it was never meant for defence. It was a windmill, with sails turning on top, built to crush rapeseed into oil, and oil meant lamplight for houses, workshops and ships. A small industrial machine, in other words, perched on the edge of the harbour.
In the early nineteenth century the sails came off and the battlements went on. The tower became a signal station: flags hoisted on top told captains waiting out in the Firth of Forth how much water lay over the sandbar at the harbour mouth. Before the great docks were dug, getting into Leith meant waiting for the tide, and a ship that tried too early could run aground on the bar and sit there, helpless, until the water returned. This little tower was the harbour's voice, calling the ships in.
Leith's ships went much further than the Forth. The Leith firm of Christian Salvesen became one of the biggest whaling companies in the world, and a whaling station on the island of South Georgia, deep in the South Atlantic, was named Leith Harbour after this port. It processed whales from 1909 until 1965. It built fortunes here... and it helped drive several species of great whale to the edge of extinction.
Look around and notice that the tower no longer stands at the edge of open water: docks, quays and new streets have crept far out beyond it over the past two centuries. Walk north along Tower Place towards the long iron bridge that spans the mouth of the river.