Dean Village is a beautiful part of Edinburgh which we love exploring.

Even though we walk through the tranquil village on a weekly basis, we always seem to spot something new, or take a photo from a different angle.

It’s walkable from the West End of town / Princes Street a screen shot of Dean Village is below. Use postcode EH4 3BE for google maps.

You can also walk to it from any section of the Water of Leith. We love the section from Stockbridge to Dean Village (10-15 minutes) and onto the Galleries of Modern Art.

We’ve also written about the walk along the Water of Leith to Dean Village from Roseburn.

History

Dean Village (from dene, meaning ‘deep valley’) can be traced back to 1128 and was once a busy industrial area will eleven mills using the Water of Leith.

Dean Bridge was opened in 1831 and was designed by Thomas Telford.

Well Court is one of the striking buildings in Dean Village and was built in the 1880s as model housing for local workers. The clock tower was useful for workers and the attached building was used as their community hall.

From Wikipedia:

Due to the development of much larger and more modern flour mills at Leith, Dean Village’s trade diminished. For many years, the village became associated with decay and poverty, and it reached a low point by around 1960.

From the mid-1970s onwards it became recognised as a tranquil oasis, very close to the city centre, and redevelopment and restoration began, converting workers’ cottages, warehouses and mill buildings.

There are even balanced stones in the water (summer 2015).