Geograph - photograph every grid square

"The Physic Well.

"Much Prized in the eighteenth century for its medicinal water. This well was on the southside of the Stank Burn & some 40 yards east of this spot where its well head was rebuilt in 1972 when the burn was culverted."

This is one of Corstorphine's two lost wells, the other being the Lady Well, which gives its name to some of the streets nearby. The two are frequently confused. Corstorphine may in fact derive its name from these wells - see the book "Literary Corstorphine".

This site is at the back of Dunsmuir Court, and is well hidden. Dunsmuir Court is social housing, but there used to be a mansion house near here. The well is not signposted from the main road.

"Stank" is an old Scots word for a ditch (Gaelic: staing), and was applied to the burn which formerly flowed across here, and connected the Gogar Loch to Corstorphine Loch.