The tourist invasion of Edinburgh leaves no cobblestone unturned, like a talent agent scouring the crowd for a fresh face.
Away from the city’s most coveted destinations, Dean Village is making its own name. Classified as a UNESCO heritage site in 1995, the former milling village, once outside the city walls, is now fully absorbed into the tourism frenzy taking over Scotland’s capital.
The location is a prime target for Instagram influencers like John Murray (@johnmurrayjnr), showcasing the village to his 286 thousand followers, or @discovermyscotland, whose reel reached 2.5 million views.
Dean Village’s rise to stardom came from humble beginnings.
By the 19th century, the village was run down, until the height of its woes in 1960, when poverty, abandoned buildings and disparaged faces were rampant in Dean Village.
The once-prominent milling industry had left, leaving its residents with a destitute neighbourhood. Edinburgh eventually grew, taking the village under its wing. With renovations beginning in the 1970s, Dean Village became a poster child for gentrification.
Just a short walk from Stockbridge along the water, it became a highly desired residential neighbourhood, mainly for its peaceful water and nature, far from the cacophony of the city.
Landing just the day before from Canada, Leilani Henry said she’d heard of it through TikTok. Along with her Austrian friend Nadine Hegad, she thought the village was a nice break from the busier parts of Edinburgh and their droves of crowds.
They weren’t bothered by the twenty different posers on the bridge, taking their shots and recording their vlogs. “The rubbish” in the water was the most disappointing part.
Dean Village could be suffering from its success, from the glamour of the influencers flocking for the perfect snap of their faces in golden hour, over the water and the red bricks of the Well Court, originally built as housing in 1886, as a backdrop.
A life in the spotlight takes its toll.
Marisa Gu, an exchange student at the University of Edinburgh, said it was the locals who pushed her to visit.
“A lot of people were saying that this was like a very picturesque, must-see destination,” Marisa said. “I’ve been in Edinburgh for two months now, and they said, ‘It’s insane that you haven’t gone here…’”
So when her friend Alisa Lu landed in Edinburgh to visit her, Marisa took her to Dean Village that same afternoon.
“I’m kind of taken away; it’s just so scenic,” Alisa commented.
On the ground, small plaques locate the perfect locations for the pictures everyone seemingly wants on their camera roll. They call it the ‘photorail’. Someone got smart about this site’s growing popularity. You won’t find a board or a plaque explaining Dean Village’s history unless you look for it; you will, however, be told exactly where to take your picture.
“When you’re searching on the internet, like which places to visit in Edinburgh, they always say Dean Village,” said Jone Revuelta, a visitor from Spain. “It’s, like, very common on social media.”
Forget the history, significance and allure of places like Dean Village; get your picture and move on along the water
The idea of tourism is changing in this new age. Forget the history, significance and allure of places like Dean Village; get your picture and move on along Leith’s water.
There are guides who take the groups of internationals on talks, but their voice is but muffled by the focus most of their clients put into their perfect angles and zooms.
Andrea Arzenton, from Ferrara, Italy, said he expected this coming here.
“It’s like this everywhere,” Andrea admitted. His home country is also flooded by ‘TikTok tourism’.
The history of Dean Village lies in the working-class millers who once contributed so dearly to the local economy. By the Old Millstones, a small board says, “The sound of the weir in front of you is like a ghost from a time when the rumble of the mills filled this valley.”
In the 17th century, the industrial village once housed eleven water mills. Barely any vestige of them is left.
Jone and her friend Naeara Gallego felt something was missing.
The hard days of work in the mills, churning wheat into flour, have been replaced with the satisfaction of visitors trudging along the Walk to see it for themselves. While the site has been a victim of gentrification and its own success, it still labours for the rest of the city.
The significance of Dean Village is now in the numbers it makes for hotels, restaurants and pubs all over Edinburgh: a different kind of bread altogether.
