The Waggonway Project

15/06/2026

🚨SOLD OUT🚨
Thanks to all those who have booked for this highly anticipated lecture - we’re now full to capacity!

08/06/2026

“Gin-dustrial heritage” 😁👌

Nice to have Pajh’s review of the evening and the amazing gins - worth a read ⬇️
https://dramb.org/2026/06/08/on-scotlands-rich-gin-dustrial-heritage/

Isle Of Skye Distillers
Edinburgh Gin
Lindores Abbey Distillery
The Botanist Gin
Caorunn Gin

That was fun. In something of a departure from our usual fare, this weekend featured our inaugural gin tasting session, in collaboration with our good friends at the 1722 Waggonway Heritage Centre. Five carefully selected Scottish gins, each served with a recommended mixer and some of yr. corresp......

08/06/2026

OUR NEXT EVENT! 18th June 7.30pm
Book your ticket now ⬇️ for this fantastic lecture about Women and Brewing in 16th Century Scotland 🍺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Tickets £5
https://www.1722waggonway.co.uk/product-page/talk-elizabeth-ewan-for-whatever-ales-ye

For Whatever Ales Ye: Women and Brewing in Sixteenth-Century Scotland Thursday 18th June - 7.30pm (doors open at 7pm) VENUE: 1722 Waggonway Heritage Centre, West Harbour Rd, Cockenzie, EH32 0HX Upon purchase, your name will be added to the guest list - then you can just turn up on the nightAle was a...

07/06/2026

Snaps of our excellent gin tasting last night at the Waggonway Heritage Centre 👌

Thanks to all our guests for making this such an enjoyable evening, and to Pajh for his excellent guidance.

We started with Lindores Abbey Distillery Aqua Vitae, followed by The Botanist Gin, Caorunn Gin and Edinburgh Gin Seaside Edition, before finishing up with the splendid Isle Of Skye Distillers Misty Isle Salty and Sweet.

It was great to learn about all the amazing botanicals which go into creating this versatile spirit!

Next up will a pop up Wine Bar night later in the summer 🍷🍾🥂

30/05/2026

VISIT THE 1722 WAGGONWAY HERITAGE CENTRE
Open Sunday 31st May - 11am-3pm
* Discover the unique story of Scotland's first railway
* Explore the harbour and see in situ remains of the waggonway and the salt industry it served

This is an incredible piece of the nation's history - find out more here: www.1722waggonway.co.uk

27/05/2026

GIN TASTING NIGHT IN COCKENZIE 6th JUNE - BOOK NOW!!
Sneak peek time - we have a real treat for you - the award winning Misty Isle Salty and Sweet from Isle Of Skye Distillers!
We'll have this and several other great Scottish gins coming your way - you just need to snap up a ticket - book here👇
https://www.1722waggonway.co.uk/produ.../gin-tasting-evening

Join us for this gin tasting event, as we explore some of the best new and local gins that Scotland has to offer! Sat 6th June 7.30pm Tickets £30 18+ Licensed event Venue is the 1722 Waggonway Heritage Centre - West Harbour Rd, Cockenzie, EH32 0HX

25/05/2026

☀️😎The warm weather is here - just in time for our gin tasting evening at the Waggonway on 6th June! Book your tickets here ⬇️
https://www.1722waggonway.co.uk/product-page/gin-tasting-evening

22/05/2026

OPENING HOURS FOR THE NEXT 3 WEEKENDS
Saturday 23rd May 11-3
Sunday 31st May 11-3
Saturday 6th June 11-3 (also salt making at Cockenzie House & Gardens)

Find us at West Harbour Rd, Cockenzie, EH32 0HX 👇
https://www.1722waggonway.co.uk/visit-the-museum

18/05/2026

The 1722 Lectures are back, with a brilliant talk by Elizabeth Ewen, who adds her name to the list of eminent speakers in our lecture series!

Ale was a staple of the diet in medieval and early modern Scotland. Women dominated the brewing trade. Because the local authorities regulated brewing more than other industries, greater evidence survives than for many other crafts of the period. In this talk, she will examine how brewing was organised, the central role played by women, and the ways in which records about brewing can shed light on the ups and downs of everyday life in sixteenth-century Scottish towns.

Elizabeth Ewan is Professor Emerita of Scottish Studies and History, University of Guelph, Canada. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on life in medieval and early modern Scottish towns and on women in Scottish history. She is co-editor of The New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women (2018) and several other collections on the family, children, and gender in Scotland.



Thursday 18th June - 7.30pm (doors open at 7pm)
VENUE: 1722 Waggonway Heritage Centre, West Harbour Rd, Cockenzie, EH32 0HX

TICKETS £5 - BOOKING ESSENTIAL👇
https://www.1722waggonway.co.uk/product-page/talk-elizabeth-ewan-for-whatever-ales-ye

17/05/2026

It’s the birthday of another early Scottish railway :)

Happy Birthday to Scotland's first 'Modern Railway'.

Opened this day in 1826, the Monkland & Kirkintilloch Railway was built to carry coal from the Monklands to the Forth & Clyde Canal at Kirkintilloch.

It wasn't Scotland's first railway - that was the Tranent-Cockenzie Waggonway; it wasn't Scotland's first public railway as the Kilmarnock & Troon Railway takes that honour. But it was the first 'modern' railway in Scotland from its concept and technology.

An Act of Parliament was granted on 17 May 1824. Share capital was £32,000 and the company had powers to raise a further £10,000 by additional shares or by borrowing. The engineer for the railway was Thomas Grainger and work got underway by the end of the year.

It was laid to a gauge of 4ft 6in using wrought-iron rails and Grainger placed adverts in English newspapers seeking to recruit:

"A person, who has considerable experience, and thoroughly understands the most improved method of laying Rail-road Bars, practised in the neighbourhood of Newcastle to act as FOREMAN in laying rails on the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Rail-way."

This was a great technological leap in the dark: whilst wrought-iron rails had been known and used in Scotland since 1808, and indeed Birkenshaw rails were in use before 1825, this was the first railway in Britain to be laid entirely with wrought-iron: the Stockton & Darlington was laid half cast-iron and half wrought-iron.

It cost £32,000 to build and was opened on 17 May 1826 when a horse dragged a load of 16 tons from Craghill Colliery to Kirkintilloch.

A timetabled passenger service began in 1828 - not the first in Scotland, however, as the Kilmarnock & Troon Railway of 1812 had a timetabled passenger service from the opening. In fact, the use of the term 'station' to refer to a place on a railway where one could board a train or load/unload wagons was in connection with the K&TR.

For the first four years of its existence the line was worked by horses, but with the resounding success of the Liverpool & Manchester line, the M&KR adopted locomotives, although of a curiously archaic design with vertical cylinders, but fitted with a multi-tubular boiler. Eventually five such machines were built - but they were not quite the first locomotives built in Scotland. The plucky little 'Perseverance' built by Timothy Burstall of Leith for the Rainhill Trials (1829) was the first locomotive to be built in the country. Whilst 'Perseverance' was built in Scotland by a Scotsman, the M&KR locos were designed by a sasnach named Dodds.

The first proposal for a locomotive-worked railway was as early as 1813 when the use of Blenkinsop-type locomotives on the K&TR was seriously considered: Scotland was in no way a backwater compared to south of the border.

The success of the M&KR inspired a mini-railway mania in Scotland. But this mean that it was, however, rapidly left behind technologically with the opening of the Glasgow & Garnkirk Railway as Scotland's first 'Mainline' Railway in September 1831, replete with Stephenson Planet locomotives.

Still the M&KR has an importance place in railway history as Scotland's first 'modern railway.'🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

You can find out more about the M&KR in 'Early Railways of Scotland' by Ed Bethune and Anthony Dawson.