The name tells us that it was the ‘gate’, or road, that runs along the ‘how’ or shallow valley of the West Burn which once flowed down past the infirmary and along Cockburn Street.

Eric Wightman's life is intertwined with Scotland's canals. Growing up in Polmont, near Falkirk, the banks of the Union Canal were his childhood playground. In adulthood he saw the Union and the ...