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 Sculpture by Leslie Frank Chorley: with Arthur's Seat in the Distance |
Prestonpans lies on the south coast of the Firth of Forth and looks across a broad bay formed by this bank of the river towards Leith and Edinburgh, both eight miles to the west. More locally it lies two and a half miles north east of Musselburgh, and a mile south west of Cockenzie.
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Prestonpans once formed one of three local villages, the others being Preston, half a mile inland, and Prestongrange, to the south west. Today, Prestonpans has effectively taken over its neighbours, though the parish remains called Prestongrange, and much of the history of the area relates to Preston.
 Prestonpans High Street |
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 Railway Station |
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 Prestongrange Parish Church |
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 The Shore, Looking East |
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 The Shore, Looking West |
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And it is a history that goes back a long way. The name "Preston" means Priest-town and reflects the presence here of estates belonging to the monks of both Newbattle and Holyrood Abbeys.
Prestonpans had three things going for it from an early date. Its access to the sea made it an attractive place for a harbour; the seemingly endless supply of locally mined coal gave it all the power it could ever want; and the salt water of the River Forth was a valuable commodity when the water was evaporated away in salt pans. Hence the name Prestonpans. As early as the 1100s salt was being produced here using locally mined coal to fuel the fires under the pans. It took eight tons of coal to produce one ton of salt: one of the reasons why salt was such a valuable commodity through much of history.
From the mid 1700s onwards Prestonpans' industrial base expanded. The world's first factory designed to produce sulphuric acid was set up here in 1749. And by the end of the 1700s several potteries were established in Prestonpans. These used clay imported from Cornwall, a seemingly strange idea until you realise that each ton of clay needed 12 tons of coal to fire it: so it was far cheaper to transport the clay than the coal.
On 25th July 1745, Prestonpans entered the history books as the site of a battle between Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobites and Government troops (see our Historical Timeline). The site is now marked by a cairn besides the B1316 and (sadly) directly under the power cables running south from Cockenzie Power Station.
Other aspects of Prestonpans' history have also had mixed fortunes since. The endless supply of coal eventually ended, or at least stopped being mined. Prestongrange Museum, on the site of Prestongrange Colliery, between Prestonpans and Musselburgh preserves many memories of this aspect of the areas' past. The last salt pan in use at Prestonpans (and in Scotland) closed in 1959. And Prestonpans' once busy harbour fell out of use from the 1930s and has since disappeared.
But Prestonpans still rewards exploration. Preston Cross is generally recognised as Scotland's finest mercat cross, it dates back to 1617 and still stands in its original location. It is now oddly surrounded by 1900s bungalows but the cross itself remains magnificent. Less well known is the nearby Preston Tower (and doocot). This tower house was the home of the Hamilton family, who very unusually extended it upwards by the addition of, in effect, a two storey Jacobean house on top of the existing tower. When the tower accidentally caught fire in 1663 the family moved to nearby Preston House and Hamilton House. The latter still occupies a prominent corner position near the tower and is in the care of the National Trust for Scotland.
Back in the heart of Prestonpans is Prestongrange Parish Church. Built in 1596, it was one of the first churches to be built in Scotland after the Reformation.
 Preston Cross |
