Balerno
Balerno is a suburban area of Edinburgh, Scotland positioned 8 miles (13 kilometres) south-west of the city centre, next to Currie and afterwards Juniper Green. Administratively, Balerno falls within the territory of the City of Edinburgh Council. Its name stems from the Scottish Gaelic Baile Àirneach, indicating "townland/town of the hawthorns". The earliest created records of Balhernoch or Balernach are discovered in the late 13th century. The 18th Century brought considerable development to the location, with several new flax, snuff and paper mills emerging around the Water of Leith as well as its tributary, the Bavelaw Burn (proof of flax production can be seen in Harlaw Woods). The biggest of these mills, Balerno Bank Paper Mill situated near the centre of the old town closed in the very early 1980s. After the First World War residence building started in earnest in the area and ever since domestic pressures have virtually overloaded commercial and also industrial ones. There was a brief loophole railway running over what is currently the Water of Leith Walkway.
