It is bounded by Belford Road to the south and west, Belgrave Crescent Gardens to the north and below the Dean Bridge to the east.

In 1609, the twice later Provost of Edinburgh, Sir William Nisbet, bought the barony of Dean from John, 8th Lord Lindsay of the Byres.

A bridge was needed to access from one side of the high valley to the other (the low-lying village was more or less an irrelevance) to expand the New Town northward.

The bridge transformed access westwards from the city and opened up the potential to develop the Dean estate and expand the New Town northward.

[6] The side parapet of the bridge was raised in height in 1912 as a deterrent to suicides, which were very common here in the 19th century, being more or less guaranteed success.

It was demolished in 1845 to create the cemetery but some sculptured stones are incorporated in the southern retaining wall (visible only from lower level).

[7] The cemetery, which is one of the few in Scotland run as a non-profit making charity trust (to avoid being asset-stripped), is the resting place of many well-known people, including the railway engineer Sir Thomas Bouch and David Octavius Hill.

[3] As the West End and Wester Coates developments expanded north, their buildings began to engulf and surround the old Dean Village.

From the mid-1970s onwards it became recognised as a tranquil oasis, very close to the city centre, and redevelopment and restoration began, converting workers' cottages, warehouses and mill buildings.