History of Leith, Edinburgh

Despite many writers on the history of Leith insisting that Mary de Guise had a palace. They are wrong because her palace was in Edinburgh under Edinburgh Castle on the site of the Free Church College beside New College. The Palace itself was demolished in 1846 (more…)

The Churchyard at South Leith was already ancient at the time of the Reformation and had already become the resting place for generations of Leithers who had been buried there with the solemn words and ritual of the Roman Catholic Church. (more…)

A former feature of the Churchyard at South was the King James Hospital in the South West portion. The Hospital proper was a plan erection resembling a tenement which according to Kincaid measured fifty feet by thirty feet. (more…)

The Presbyterians returned from the Meeting House in 1692 and the communion that year was no ordinary affair as the Kirk Records testify. The Church was cleared and all the seats removed as in former times so that the tables could be se up as in former times.
(more…)

George Wishart so well known as the author of the elegant “Latin memoirs of Montrose” a copy which was suspended at the neck of the great Cavalier and soldier at his execution in 1650.was appointed minister of North Leith in 1638 when the signing of the covenant as a protection against England, the King and became a test of Faith and allegiance to Scotland. Deposed for refusal to subscribe to it, (more…)

This history of the American Consulate in Leith is excellent and I would like to share it with my readers. (more…)

I came across this website today on the history of Theatre in Edinburgh and I thought it was excellent which included the following piece on the “Gaity Theatre” which stood in the old Kirkgate Leith. A photograph of the theatre can be found below and at http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Edinburgh/Gaiety2.htm and is well worth a visit
(more…)

These monumental stones were originally within South Leith Church however they were removed when the Church was restored in 1847/48 as the floor within the Church was lowered by eighteen inches. (more…)

On the west side of Shore Place (formally Queen Street) once stood an early Episcopalian Chapel. Referring to the period of Culloden, Chalmers says-“Throughout these troublesome days a little Episcopalian congregation was kept together in Leith, their place of worship being the first floor of an old dull looking house in Queen Street (dated 1516) the lower floor of which was in my recollection a police office” (more…)

Mr Daniel Wilson in his “Memorials of Edinburgh vol 1 page 94” remarks-“The fine old mansion of this family (Balmerino) still stands at the corner of Coatfield lane, in the Kirkgate. (more…)