Lid off ‘ well- preserved’ old water pipes

Dating back to 250 yrs, the pipes formed part of aqueduct

Archaeologists have unearthed an underground network of rare wooden water pipes in Scotland dating back more than 250 years.

The 15 pipes formed part of an aqueduct built in 1756 to supply drinking water to Edinburgh's wealthiest residents.

Archaeologists said the surprisingly “well- preserved” find provides insight into the Scottish capital's first dedicated water supply.

Wooden pipes were used for decades to transport drinking water and sewage in Scotland, but had a tendency to rot, and were eventually replaced with iron fittings.

Edinburgh's wooden pipeline took 50 years to build thanks to bitter tax disputes.

When it was up and running, water from the pipeline was only available to the city's most affluent residents, with the general public forced to use buckets to collect their supply from stands in the town centre.

The pipes were discovered during the construction of a new state- of- theart underground heating system for the University of Edinburgh.

Lindsay Dunbar, Fieldwork Project Manager for AOC Archaeology Group, which is carrying out the excavation, said finding the pipes buried in their original place was “very rare”.

“To uncover these water pipes preserved in situ beneath the cobbles was just incredible,” she said.

“Whilst the use of such wooden pipes is well- documented and preserved examples exist within museums and collections, to find the pipes in situ is much rarer.”

The 18th Century pipes are joined together with metal bands and lead fittings, which Ms Dunbar said was ' very typical' for wooden pipes used across the UK at that time.

They were made from hollowed out elm trunks, with holes bored into them at each end to allow the passage of water.

Pipes ran from Edinburgh’s Comiston area to the Royal Mile. It is believed they were used to bring the “sweet water of the country to the centre” of the city.

Ms Dunbar said the pipes were “well preserved”, offering a unique insight into the design of the network.