[1][2] Corstorphine has a high street with many independent small shops, although a number have closed in recent years since the opening of several retail parks to the west of Edinburgh, especially the Gyle Centre.

Famous residents have included pioneer scientist Chrystal Macmillan, Scottish Renaissance author Helen Cruickshank, and Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy.

Corstorphine is also featured prominently in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novel Kidnapped and mentioned in Danny Boyle's 1996 film Trainspotting.

It was next held by William More of Abercorne, who left it to his brother, Gilchrist More, who sold it to Adam Forester[citation needed].

The first firm link with Corstorphine comes with Adam Forrester, a wealthy burgess of Edinburgh in the 1360s when he began to acquire land in the vicinity.

Between 1374 and 1377 King Robert II confirmed Adam Forrester in the lands of the Lordship of Corstorphine,[5] which had previously been owned by William More of Abercorn.

Sir John Forrester, who succeeded his father upon his death, was granted various lands, mostly in West Lothian, in 1426 which were united into the barony of Liberton.

Sir John is thought to have died in 1448 and was buried in Corstorphine Kirk, where recumbent effigies of him and one of his wives survive.

[3] Stewart Conn, Edinburgh's first appointed Makar,[6] has celebrated Roull's memory in his volume Ghosts at Cockcrow.

Oliver Cromwell had granted Laurence Scott of Bavelaw and his wife Katherine Binning, the lands, Lordship and Barony of Corstorphine, tower, manor-place, mills, mill-lands, parsonage etc., in lieu of the money due by James, Lord Forrester, to Beatrix Ramsay in Corstorphine who had assigned the debt to the said Laurence Scott in 1654.

This latest Lord Forrester was a man of dubious morals and seduced his niece, the wife of an Edinburgh burgess James Nimmo.

Sir James Dick (1643–1728) was a merchant and baillie of Edinburgh and also served as Dean of Guild and later as Lord Provost.

[8] The Register of the Great Seal of Scotland records the transfer of the lands and Barony of Corstorphine to Sir James Dick on 2 June 1713.

In 1961, Queen Margaret College (now QMU) obtained land up on the edge of Corstorphine next to Clermiston, and set up a campus there.

Because of its proximity to Murrayfield Stadium, Corstorphine picks up much of the passing trade from rugby internationals and this helps support the local hotels and pubs.

The local football club is Beechwood FC who play at Gyle Park pitches and at Tall Oaks.

RH Corstorphine Cricket Club play home games at the Royal High School in Davidson's Mains.

Corstorphine contains one of the busiest routes out to the west and Glasgow Road's name reflects its former connection to Scotland’s largest city.

The Corstorphine and Pinkhill railway stations were closed to passenger service in 1968, but some of the track bed remains and is used as a footpath and part of the cycle network.

The nearest extant railway stations are at Edinburgh Gateway and South Gyle, and slightly further away, Haymarket.