Protesters are hill at ease over site row

Published on Thursday 9 September 2010 16:11

IT'S the famous vantage point chosen by Robert Louis Stevenson for one of the final scenes of his famous novel Kidnapped.

• The view the zoo claims Robert Louis Stevenson, right, imagined for his farewell scene in Kidnapped

But now doubts have been raised about the real location of Corstorphine Hill's Rest and Be Thankful following a row between local campaigners and Edinburgh Zoo.

The area, used by Stevenson for the farewell between characters Alan Breck and David Balfour, is part of a major land swap deal put forward by Edinburgh Zoo to secure the future of the famous attraction.

Bosses of the attraction insist the original site of Rest and Be Thankful, as Stevenson imagined it, was actually on another part of the hill, within the current boundary of the zoo.

They now hope that gifting the area, along with a new viewing platform, will see local campaigners agree to a deal which will see green belt land handed over to the zoo for a planned 72 million expansion.

The move seems unlikely to placate the protesters, however, with local group the Friends of Corstorphine Hill branding the offer "totally unacceptable".

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which runs the zoo, wants to take over a council-owned plot to the east of its current site, exchanging it for a strip of land to the north-east of the zoo.

It says the land swap is the only way the zoo can push ahead with its modernising master plan for the next 20 years.

The zoo would use the new piece of land to create an entrance for disabled visitors and build a new road to keep vehicles away from pedestrians, meeting health and safety requirements. Several small buildings could also be built.

David Windmill, chief executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said: "We were interested to hear that the original site of Rest and Be Thankful was actually located near the top of the zoo.

"If it is possible to determine the site, and if the site is on our land, we believe that it could be possible to recreate the original site and establish a viewing point once more."

He added: "Obviously, with the number of trees that have grown, the viewing is much more limited than it was when Robert Louis Stevenson described it. In order to overcome that, the society is more than happy to offer to design and create a revised walkway and viewing area that can give visitors to Corstorphine Hill the full glory of the original view, or more accurately, a slightly better view from a higher point."

Donald Gorrie, a former MSP and secretary of the Friends of Corstorphine Hill, said: "What the zoo are offering would in no way make up for the very significant piece of land they want to pinch from us.

"The whole thing about Rest and Be Thankful is a smokescreen. It's a fictional place which was in Robert Louis Stevenson's imagination."

Earlier this year the city council gave permission for up to 80 homes to be built on land at the west of the zoo, raising funds for the zoo's master plan.

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