James Gillespie, the snuff maker of Colinton
A few Edinburgh streets (Gillespie Crescent, Place, Road and Street) and ‘James Gillespie’s High School’ bear the name of a well-off and kindly figure known as the 'laird of Colinton' - James Gillespie (1726-97). He built Spylaw House in 1773 in the valley of Spylaw Park, off Spylaw Street in Colinton, and made his fortune as a snuff-maker. In the Royal Mile the wall-plaque at No.231 High Street commemorates him and marks the site of his young brother's snuff shop at Geddes C