edinburgh old town
historical & hierachy

The first buildings in Edinburgh were hard by the Castle, for protection, but gradually they spread down the ridge to the east of the fortress. This is the Old Town.

At one time, the Old Town was surrounded by the Flodden Wall. Fragments of this protective wall may still be seen, notably in the Vennel off the Grassmarket, and on the west side of the Pleasance near its junction with the Cowgate (bordering the Department of Geography in the University of Edinburgh). While in this area it is worth noting historic buildings such as the Old Royal High School and Old Surgeon's Hall, which are located in the area known as High School Yards and Surgeon's Square. This was the locality of the infamous bodysnatchers Burke and Hare. In medieval times Edinburgh was very small. Visitors proceeding down the High Street will see, at its junction with Jeffrey Street, brass markers in the roadway denoting that this was the end of Edinburgh; beyond this point was Canongate, a separate town (or burgh), outside Edinburgh and envied for its gardens and orchards. On the south side of the Lawnmarket, near its junction with George IV Bridge, is Brodie's Close. The close is named after Francis Brodie, a respectable craftsman, but it is his son and business partner, William Brodie, whom everyone remembers. Brodie, who lived in the eighteenth century, was an outwardly respectable member of the Town Council. But he was also a gambler, a rake and, as was eventually revealed, a burglar as well. His nefarious career came to a climax in an abortive armed raid upon the Excise Office in the Royal Mile, and in 1788 William Brodie was publicly hanged just a few yards down the road from Brodie's Close. The final irony, it is said, was that the scaffold was an improved model he himself had invented.

Just off the Lawnmarket is Lady Stair's House, one of the city museums in this area; it commemorates three great literary Scots - Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson (both of whom were born in Edinburgh) and Robert Burns, the Ayrshire poet, whose reputation was established by the literary admirers whom he found in Edinburgh. Before proceeding further down the Royal Mile, it is worth making a sortie along George IV Bridge to the top of Candlemaker Row in order to pay tribute to Greyfriars Bobby.

In 1858, this faithful terrier followed the funeral procession of his master, John Gray, to nearby Greyfriars Churchyard and refused to leave afterwards. Bobby lived for a further 14 years and never wandered very far from the churchyard. The Lord Provost of Edinburgh undertook to pay for Bobby's licence, and the dog-collar, suitably engraved, is still to be seen to this day in Huntly House Museum, in the Canongate. The monument was erected not long after Bobby's death.

Candlemaker Row, by the way, is a convenient route by which to reach the Grassmarket, an interesting historic square noted today for its antique shops, boutiques, pubs and restaurants. Robert Burns and William Wordsworth were amongst those who once found lodgings in the White Hart Inn on the north side of the Grassmarket. The site of the Beehive has had hostelries upon it for at least 500 years. In the High Street is St Giles' Cathedral with its open "crown" spire, a famous landmark in the city. The present building belongs mainly to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and its interior is superior to its restored exterior. As the High Kirk of Edinburgh, it is both the local parish church and the place of worship employed on national occasions. The Thistle Chapel is used by members of the Order of the Thistle, the premier order of chivalry of Scotland, of which her Majesty the Queen is Sovereign Member and attends the installation of new members. Besides St Giles is the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh where the Royal Proclamations are made in Scotland's Capital and where today the old tradition of meeting a guide for a walking tour continues.

The most picturesque house in the High Street section of the Royal Mile is John Knox's House. Built towards the end of the fifteenth century, it is said to have been occupied by John Knox, the famous Protestant reformer, during the period 1561-72. Knox was the minister of St Giles', and delivered many a thundering sermon there in the presence of, and much to the discomfiture of, the Roman Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots. John Knox's House, which was saved from the demolition men many years ago by the Protestant Society, has hand-painted ceilings. It is entered by forestairs, a once common architectural feature in the Royal Mile, but of which there are now few surviving examples. Near the door is one of the street wells which at one time were the only source of water in the neighbourhood.

Almost directly across the street is the Museum of Childhood, a fascinating place which was the first of its kind when founded by the City of Edinburgh more than 30 years ago. It is now one of the most popular attractions in Scotland. In the Canongate, where most of Edinburgh's surviving medieval buildings are concentrated, the visitor should take particular note of Chessel's Court (which illustrates a successful restoration of the characteristic lands found throughout the Royal mile); Huntly House Museum; the Canongate Tolbooth across the street; the adjacent Canongate Church; and White Horse Close. This last named was once an arrival and departure point for the London stage, and architecturally is a unique survival of the seventeenth century. A hostelry known as the White Horse Inn was in the building which stands at the rear of the long courtyard.