Shoe Tree on the A70 at Balerno, about

'Shoe Tree'

on the A70 near

Balerno

about 8 miles SW of the centre of Edinburgh

This is not an official exhibition

but I have included it in the 'Exhibition'

section of the EdinPhoto web site.

Balerno

About 20 shoes, walking boots, highland boots and trainers can be seen hanging from the branches of a tree beside the A70, near Balerno. Balerno is about 8 miles SW of the centre of Edinburgh.

The tree is on the north side of the A70, about 300 yards east of the B7031 junction.

Shoes first appeared in the tree a few weeks ago, but their number has been increasing in recent weeks.

Apparently similar 'shoe trees' have been reported beside roads in the USA, in California, Nevada, Michigan and Arkansas.

Edinburgh Evening News: February 18, 2006, pp.1,3

USA

The Roadside America web site has a section devoted to shoe trees. It reports sightings of 'shoe trees' in Atlanta, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New York and elsewhere.

The site has photos of a lone cottonwood 'shoe tree' in Nevada and the 'Great Beaver Shoe Tree' in Arkansas. The site explains:

"A shoe tree starts with one dreamer, tossing his or her footwear-of-old high into the sky, to catch on an out-of-reach branch. It usually end there, unseen and neglected by others. But on rare occasions, that first pair of shoes triggers a shoe tossing cascade"