During the year 1584, when the Earl of Arran was Provost of the city, on the 3oth September, the Council commissioned Michael Chisholm and others to inquire into the order and condition of an ancient
leper hospital which stood beside Dingwall’s Castle; but of the former no distinct trace is given in Gordon’s view.
source-Old and New Edinburgh
In the Parliament of 1455 we find Acts passed for watching the fords of the Tweed, and the erection of bale-fires to give alarm, by day and night, of inroads from England, to warn Hume, Haddington, Dunbar, Dalkeith, Eggerhope, and Edinburgh Castle, thence to Stirling and the north—arrangements which would bring all Scotland under arms in two hours, as the same system did at the time of the False Alarm in 1803. One bale-fire was a signal that the English were in motion; two that they were advancing; four in a row signified that they were in great strength. All men in arms westward of Edinburgh were to muster there; all eastward at Haddington; and every Englishman caught in Scotland was lawfully the prisoner of whoever took him (Acts, I2th Parl. James II.). But the engendered hate and jealousy of England would seem to have nearly reached its culminating point when the nth Parliament of James VI., chap. 104, enacted, ungallantly, “that no Scotsman marrie an Englishwoman without the king’s license under the Great Seal, under pain death and escheat of moveables.”
Source-Old and New Edinburgh
There have been several town walls around Edinburgh, Scotland, since the 12th century. Some form of wall probably existed from the foundation of the royal burgh in around 1125, though the first building is recorded in the mid-15th century, when the King’s Wall was constructed. In the 16th century the more extensive Flodden Wall was erected, following the Scots’ defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513. This was extended by the Telfer Wall in the early 17th century. The walls had a number of gates, known as ports, the most important being the Netherbow Port, which stood halfway down the Royal Mile. This gave access from the Canongate which was, at that time, a separate burgh. for more click here
The story of a great whisky centre where the stills have gone silent.
There must be members of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society who have idly wondered why Leith was chosen as a base for this hedonistic operation. Those who know Leith at all probably regard it simply as a place where you fall into the sea to the north of Edinburgh, but in fact, the famous port has a long and enduring connection with the whisky industry, one which persists, albeit on a somewhat reduced scale, down to the present day. for more click here
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(c) John Arthur
The Black Death swept across Europe killing millions in its path and desimating entire communities…how did the town of Leith cope through the dark times it was faced with? (more…)
The plague of Leith started in April 1645 with a brief mention in the records of the Kirk Records of South Leith Parish Church. All it says is Desyn Jon Kellas to furnish James Thomsone and Jon Dinlop till this day 8 dayes being inclosit for fear of ye plague” it also mentions Desyrs Jon Aldinstone to furnish (ie give provisions to) ye women at ye Yarde heads who is steeket up for feare of ye plague”. This is the 3rd April 1645 and by the time the plague ended in November 1645 2736 people would have died an agonising death. (more…)
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