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5 unusual facts about Leith


Leith-Buchanan baronets

The Leith family is of Scottish origin and descends from William Leith, Provost of Aberdeen in the 14th century.

Leith's softshell turtle

Leith's softshell turtle (Nilssonia leithii) is a species of turtle found in peninsular Indian rivers including the Bhavani, Godavari, and Moyar Rivers.

St Mary's Street

St Mary's Street, Edinburgh, formerly known as Leith Wynd, the original main route from Edinburgh to the Port of Leith

Telemaco Signorini

Among his most notable paintings are The Ward of the Madwomen at S. Bonifazio in Florence (1865, Venice, Gallery of Modern Art in Cà Pesaro); Bagno Penale a Portoferraio (ca. 1890, Florence, Gallery of Modern Art in Palazzo Pitti), which portrays the well-known brigand Carmine Crocco during his imprisonment; and Leith (1881, Florence, Gallery of Modern Art in Palazzo Pitti).

Trionyx javanicus

Leith's softshell turtle (Nilssonia leithii), which has a synonym of Trionyx javanicus.


Caroline Schytte Jensen

The newly married couple settled first in Leith in Scotland, later in London, both sites associated with the Norwegian Church Abroad.

Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham

He was born at Leith, Midlothian to Robert Middleton, a customs collector of Bo'ness, Linlithgowshire, and Helen, daughter of Captain Charles Dundas RN and granddaughter of Sir James Dundas of Arniston.

Cheong Fatt Tze

In the course of his work, he occasionally resided in Penang and owned a mansion in Leith Street, which stands to this day as protected heritage building.

Dean Village

It was known as the "Water of Leith Village" and was a successful grain milling hamlet for more than 800 years.

Donald Macgregor

Donald Robert Macgregor, (1824–1889), Scottish politician, Member of Parliament for Leith Burghs 1874–1878

Dunedin-Waitati Highway

From there it follows the northeastern side of the Leith Valley, then crosses the headwaters of the Leith before traversing the Leith Saddle and taking a roller-coaster-like course to the valley of the Waitati River, then to Waitati.

Edinburgh Corporation Tramways

The Leith system was electrified, whereas the Edinburgh system used cable haulage (as still used by the San Francisco cable car system and the Great Orme Tramway in Wales).

Edinburgh Suburban and Southside Junction Railway

"Six miles 1507 yards, approximately, from a junction with the N.B.R. (E & G Section) at…the bridge carrying the Caledonian Railway Granton and Leith branches over the N.B. at Haymarket, and terminating at a junction with the N.B.R. some 200 yards south east of... Portobello Station".

Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway

This was one of only two connections between the rival networks in Edinburgh (the other being at Haymarket) until the Caledonian's 1 August 1903 opening of the Leith New Lines from Newhaven to the east end of Leith docks.

Emmett Leith

Emmett Norman Leith (March 12, 1927 in Detroit, Michigan – December 23, 2005 in Ann Arbor, Michigan) was a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Michigan and, with Juris Upatnieks of the University of Michigan, the co-inventor of three-dimensional holography.

Fanie Eloff

Eloff along with other influential South African Artists like Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef, Gerard Moerdijk and Gordon Leith attended the Staats Model School in Pretoria until the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War (1899-1902).

Frederick Leith-Ross

Leith-Ross was born in Mauritius, but grew up with his grandfather at the family estate, Arnage Castle in Scotland.

George Welsh Currie

Currie stood in the new Leith seat as a supporter of David Lloyd George's coalition government, but lost fairly narrowly to the Liberal candidate, William Wedgwood Benn.

Heidelberg Town Hall

Opened in April 1937, the building was designed by architectural firm Peck & Kemter in association with A.C. Leith & Bartlett for the Heidelberg City Council (now Banyule City Council) and was influenced by the Hilversum Town Hall in the Netherlands.

Husvik

As with Leith, Stromness, and Prince Olav Harbour, the whaling station has been declared by the South Georgia Government as being too dangerous to visit, due to the danger from collapsing buildings and asbestos.

Inchcolm

In the days when people were compelled to cross the Firth of Forth by boat as opposed to bridge, the island was a great deal less isolated, and on the ferry routes between Leith/Lothian and Fife.

Ivens Buffett

Due to the inadequacy of jail cells and hospice facilities on the island, Leith Buffett was transferred to Sydney, first to Long Bay Prison's hospital, a matter which required an amendment to the Crimes Act 1999 in New South Wales.

John Scougal

He was a cousin to Patrick Scougal (died 1682), Bishop of Aberdeen, John Scougal is said to have been born at Leith, where his father had a residence, and where several of his works were still in the Town Hall in the nineteenth century.

Joseph Smagorinsky

Other researchers who worked with Smagorinsky in Washington and Princeton included Isidoro Orlanski, Jerry Mahlman, Syukuro Manabe, Yoshio Kurihara, Kikuro Miyakoda, Rod Graham, Leith Holloway, Isaac Held, Garreth Williams, George Philander, and Douglas Lilly.

Juris Upatnieks

In 1964 he demonstrated, with Emmett Leith, the first three-dimensional holograms in the United States and together with Leith published a series of technical papers from 1962 to 1964.

Leith Corporation Tramways

Passengers going from Leith to Edinburgh had to change trams (from electric to cable-drawn) at Pilrig on Leith Walk at the boundary between Leith and Edinburgh.

Leith Harbour

In 1912 Leith Harbour was the site of the second introduction of Reindeer to South Georgia, an attempt that failed when the entire herd was killed by an avalanche in 1918.

It is named after Leith the harbour area of Edinburgh, Christian Salvesen's home town.

Leith Walk

In 1779, Hugo Arnot the historian of Edinburgh, born in Leith, stated that 156 coaches travelled the route daily, each carrying 4 passengers at a cost of 2d or 3d per person.

Leong Fee

Built on Leith Street around the 1900s as a personal residence, it now belongs to the Christian Brothers and has been leased to an art school, Akademi Seni Equator.

MV Nyon

On 16 November 1958, Nyon was on a voyage from Leith, Midlothian to Dakar, Senegal when she ran aground at St. Abbs Head, Berwickshire.

Oi Polloi

In 2013, they collaborated with CLÀR, the Scottish Gaelic publisher, to launch Mill a h-Uile Rud singer Tim Armstrong's Gaelic science fiction novel Air Cuan Dubh Drilseach at events at Elvis Shakespeare on Leith Walk and on The Cruz Boat at the Shore in Leith.

Port Albert

Initially the area was known as Seabank or Old Port, but was changed to New Leith when the town started developing, and later changed to Alberton and Port Albert in honour of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the husband of Queen Victoria.

Prue Leith

Her brother, ex-restaurateur James Leith, is married to Penny Junor and the couple's son, Prue's nephew, is the journalist Sam Leith.

Salamander of Leith

In Leith the Salamander is commemorated by the name of Salamander Street, which runs east from Leith along the old shore line, and Salamander Place leading south to Leith Links.

Scholastic ogham

The inscription and his 'keys of poetry' ( eochraib écsi ) reveal to him that Étaín has been taken to the síd or mound of Brí Léith by Midir.

Sir John Gladstone, 1st Baronet

In 1838 he paid for several philanthropic works in his home town of Leith, all built on Mill Lane, the old western route out of the town, namely: St Thomas' Church (now a Sikh temple); an adjacent manse; a free school for boys; a separate free school for girls; and a "house for female incurables" (what at the time would normally be called a lunatic asylum); and at the end a public rose garden.

The Leith Agency

In 2010, it staged a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest on a barge in Leith.

During The Leith Festival in 2007, the agency unofficially twinned Leith with Rio de Janeiro by placing a sign on Leith Walk.

Thomas Leith

Thomas Leith was born on 23 March 1926 in Cathcart, Glasgow, Scotland, youngest son in a family with seven brothers and sisters.

Treaty of Edinburgh

The fortifications at Leith, Inchkeith and Dunbar Castle were duly removed, and the French garrisons left Scotland.

Remains of an artillery fort involved in the siege were found, in 2006, in Edinburgh's Pilrig Park, and two gun emplacements can be seen on Leith Links.

Trinity Academicals RFC

Trinity Academicals RFC, nicknamed "Trinity" or "Trinity Accies" is a rugby union based in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland, originally for the former pupils of Trinity Academy, Edinburgh.

Victoria Quay

Victoria Quay, Scotland, a Scottish Government building in Leith, Edinburgh

Wayne Easter

Born in North Wiltshire, Prince Edward Island, the son of A. Leith Easter and Hope MacLeod, he was educated at the Charlottetown Rural High School and the Nova Scotia Agricultural College.


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