Scan of Edinburgh map showing the University of Scotland.
Last week I was driving by the King’s Buildings, the science campus of the University of Edinburgh, en route for the mighty Ikea, to deliver something to my Mum who was visiting there.
Sitting in a traffic queue — they were digging up the roads; it’s nearly April, you see — I spotted something odd on my Edinburgh A-Z map. Nestled in between the Kirk Brae Recreation Gound and the Cameron Toll Shopping Centre was something marked “Univ. of Scotland”.
Shurely, theresh shome mishtake! But everyone knows that the University of Scotland is located in the East Neuk of Fife. It is also known as The University of St Andrews. Or Kilrymont College of Further Education, if you’re rude and currently attend another Scottish tertiary education establishment (you know who you are!).
When I got home I did a search on Google for University of Scotland:
Turns out that I was right, all along!
Your map is truly weird.
[insert sarcastic comment here]
My friend Peter, who works in aerial archaeology in Aberdeenshire, wonders if it is a deliberate mistake inserted by the map makers to prevent other cartographers simply stealing their maps.
The AA Street by Street map marks that building as “University of Edinburgh”, while the Collins Street Map of Edinburgh marks it “College”.
I guess I’ll just have to visit it to find out. I’ve already corrected the Edinburgh A-Z once — they moved St Salvador’s church by a few streets, and placed it where the pub is!
There’s a university in St Andrews? I only know of East Fife Technical College…
Hehe … I love this on-going friendly rivalry.
I’d just like to remind readers that I’m also a graduate of the University of Edinburgh.
And I once visited Heriot-Watt University (remember the hyphen!) for a conference. Oh, and Stirling University … where Colin Bowers got hot tea spilled in him. And I once stayed at Aberdeen University for a church conference too. I didn’t get any degrees from those fine academic institutions, though.
I found it really funny coming to work at Glasgow, supposedly an ancient founded in 1451, only to find that it actually moved in the 1870s and none of the buildings here are even 150 years old! Their chapel is even 1960s! That makes Glasgow a redbrick in my book.
How I laughed – as an Aberdeen graduate, I am proud of the fact that at least some of our stuff is actually 500 years old…