The idea of a walkway the length of the Water of Leith was first raised briefly in a wartime report on city development; the Lord Provost’s Report on City Development published in 1943.

Iain Connelly said: "I was walking home along the Water of Leith around 4.20pm. I got halfway along, and I saw the rainbow colours of the chemical in the river, and I thought there was a lot of it.