A Victorian Railway Chamber Reborn in Kaleidoscopic Color
In the leafy, secluded outskirts of Colinton Village, where the Water of Leith curves through dense native beech woods, lies the entrance to an unexpected underground marvel. The Colinton Tunnel was once a dark, damp railway tunnel built for steam engines chugging along the 19th-century Balerno Branch line.
Between 2019 and 2020, muralist Chris Rutterford and a dedicated coalition of community volunteers transformed this subterranean cavern into Scotland’s largest mural project. Spanning 140 meters of curving brickwork, the artwork brings to life Robert Louis Stevenson's celebrated poem 'From a Railway Carriage'.
Entering the tunnel from the green woodland is breathtaking. Vibrant painted locomotives, woodland creatures, historic Colinton villagers, and celestial patterns illuminate the vaulted ceiling. Gentle acoustic echoes accompany footsteps, creating an inspiring convergence of Victorian engineering and contemporary Scottish community creativity.
"Walk through the tunnel slowly while reading the lines of Robert Louis Stevenson's poem 'From a Railway Carriage' inscribed sequentially along the curved brick vaulting overhead."
Constructed in 1874 for the Balerno Branch Line, affectionately nicknamed 'The Railway Carriage', to transport paper and grain from mills along the Water of Leith. It was closed to trains in 1967.
