Towards a new interpretation of Gilmerton Cove – a possible Druid temple?

Abstract

Gilmerton Cove, a visitor attraction six kilometres south of Edinburgh, has long been thought to be a strange 18th Century underground pub, but Julian Spalding and Euan MacKie think it is much older and dates from the Iron Age. They make the case that it could even be a deliberately buried Druid Temple discovered by chance and dug out 300 years ago and luckily preserved since then. No pre-18th century artefacts have been found in the Cove, but the Cove itself deserves to be interpreted as an extraordinary artefact, for every centimetre of it is man-made.