Blackford, a hill on the S border of St Cuthbert's parish, Edinburghshire, in the southern vicinity of Morningside, and 2 miles S by E of Edinburgh Castle. Exceeding 400 feet above sea-level, it commands a magnificent view; southward, of the Braid and Pentland Hills; northward, of Edinburgh city, the Firth of Forth, and the coast of Fife, backed by the Lomond and the Ochil hills, and by the frontier Grampians-a prospect Scott described in some of the noblest lines of Marmion.

(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)