Calton Hill is an elevated southern residential suburb of the City of Dunedin in New Zealand's South Island. The suburb is named after Calton Hill in Edinburgh, Scotland, and some of its street names carry similar etymological roots.
The suburb was established in the 1900s, as part of the second wave of suburban development in Dunedin. The parent suburb is Caversham, one of Dunedin's (and New Zealand's) oldest suburbs, established two generations prior as part of the first wave of settlement of the area. During the first wave of settlement before Calton Hill was established, it is unclear what modern day Calton Hill was called; possibilities include Caversham Hills or, more informally, John Sidey's farm.
Calton Hill is the geographical area bounded by the Dunedin Southern Motorway to the north and the Caversham Valley Forest Reserve beyond; farmland in the south and west that borders Concord and the Burnside industrial area; and an arbitrary eastern border of Corstorphine Road, Sidey Street, Cole Street and South Road (where it terminates near the Dunedin Southern Motorway). The South Island Main Trunk railway and the motorway (part of State Highway 1) further distinguish its northern border.
For many of those on the northern and eastern slopes, Calton Hill has views to Mt Cargill (Kapukataumahaka) and Flagstaff (Te Whanaupaki) in the north and the Pacific Ocean in the south-east. To the east, Calton Hill looks over the central plains of Dunedin city with Signal Hill (Te Pahuri o te Rangipohika), the Otago Harbour and Otago Peninsula in the distance. For those on the western slopes, the Kaikorai Valley and Green Island are in immediate view with Saddle Hill and the Taieri Plains beyond.
Geography
The heart of Dunedin City is a central plain surrounded by hills, the remnants of a long-extinct volcano. Calton Hill lies around to the southwest of the city centre (The Octagon); line of sight with Calton Hill from the Octagon is obscured by a large hill spur heading east from the main ridge line that forms the western edge of central Dunedin. Looking up and to the west from the southern end of Dunedin's central plain, Calton Hill is the most northern prominence.
Calton Hill has a crowning northerly ridge with two high points, bookended by the upper section of Corstorphine Valley in the south and Lookout Point saddle in the north. Two north-northeast running spurs and slopes drop down from this ridge into the upper reaches of the Caversham Valley. Between these two spurs lies a north-facing bowl,. To the southwest, the hill's slopes meet farmland bordering Burnside and Concord. The majority of the suburb is between 60 and 130 m above sea level.
Surrounding areas
Calton Hill shares its immediate borders with suburbs of Corstorphine, Concord and Burnside (separated by farmland), and Caversham and Maryhill (separated by partially forested, partially populated south facing hill slopes of the Caversham Valley). Calton Hill also shares borders with the small suburb of Lookout Point to the north. The Caversham Forest Reserve is located as part of this area. Purchased by the Dunedin City Council in 1994 with the assistance of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, it is home to various native bird and invertebrate species, including one species of velvet worm believed to be endemic to the Dunedin area.
Residential areas in New Zealand are often not clearly defined, and suburban boundaries often overlap and change depending on subjective understandings. It is unclear whether residents within the geographical area of Calton Hill identify with Calton Hill as the community they belong to, or Lookout Point, Caversham, or Corstophine.
History
Prior to the arrival of humans to New Zealand, the area of Calton Hill was likely clothed in a dense and highly diverse mixed podocarp/broadleaf forest. Soil consisted largely of windblown loess over a weathered bedrock of sandstone covered by the Dunedin Volcanic Complex metamorphic processes.