
The Old Town () is the oldest part of
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
's capital city of
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
. The area has preserved much of its
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
street plan and many
Reformation
The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...
-era buildings. Together with the 18th/19th-century
New Town
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz
* New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013
* New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...
, and
West End, it forms part of a protected
UNESCO World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
.
Royal Mile
The "
Royal Mile
The Royal Mile () is the nickname of a series of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town, Edinburgh, Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. The term originated in the early 20th century and has since entered popular usage.
The Royal ...
" is a name coined in the early 20th century for the main street of the Old Town which runs on a downwards slope from
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age. There has been a royal castle on the rock since the reign of Malcol ...
to
Holyrood Palace
The Palace of Holyroodhouse ( or ), commonly known as Holyrood Palace, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood has s ...
and the ruined
Holyrood Abbey
Holyrood Abbey is a ruined abbey of the Canons Regular in Edinburgh, Scotland. The abbey was founded in 1128 by David I of Scotland. During the 15th century, the abbey guesthouse was developed into a List of British royal residences,
royal r ...
. Narrow ''
closes'' (alleyways), often no more than a few feet wide, lead steeply downhill to both north and south of the main spine which runs west to east.
Significant buildings in the Old Town include
St. Giles' Cathedral, the
General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland
The Assembly Hall is located between Castlehill and Mound Place in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the meeting place of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
History
Following the Disruption in the Church of Scotland in 1843, the emer ...
, the
National Museum of Scotland
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture.
It was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, ...
, the
Old College of the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
,
Parliament House and the
Scottish Parliament Building
The Scottish Parliament Building (; ) is the home of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood, within the World Heritage Site, UNESCO World Heritage Site in central Edinburgh. Construction of the building commenced in June 1999 ...
. The area contains underground vaults and hidden passages that are relics of previous phases of construction.
No part of the street is officially called The Royal Mile in terms of legal addresses. The actual street names (running west to east) are Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street, Canongate and Abbey Strand.
Street layout
The street layout, typical of the old quarters of many northern European cities, is made especially picturesque in Edinburgh, where the castle perches on top of a
rocky crag, the remnants of an
extinct volcano
A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the Crust (geology), crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and volcanic gas, gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth ...
, and the main street runs down the crest of a ridge from it. This "
crag and tail
A crag (sometimes spelled cragg, or in Scotland craig) is a rocky hill or mountain, generally isolated from other high ground.
Origin
Crags are formed when a glacier or ice sheet passes over an area that contains a particularly resistant r ...
" landform was created during the
last ice age when receding
glacier
A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...
s scoured across the land pushing soft soil aside but being split by harder crags of volcanic rock. The hilltop crag was the earliest part of the city to develop, becoming fortified and eventually developing into the current Edinburgh Castle. The rest of the city grew slowly down the tail of land from the Castle Rock. This was an easily defended spot with marshland on the south and a man-made
loch
''Loch'' ( ) is a word meaning "lake" or "inlet, sea inlet" in Scottish Gaelic, Scottish and Irish Gaelic, subsequently borrowed into English. In Irish contexts, it often appears in the anglicized form "lough". A small loch is sometimes calle ...
, the
Nor Loch
The Nor Loch, also known as the Nor' Loch and the North Loch, was a man-made loch formerly in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the area now occupied by Princes Street Gardens and Edinburgh Waverley railway station, Waverley station which lie between t ...
, on the north. Access to the town was restricted by means of various gates (called ports) in the
city walls
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain walls with to ...
, of which only fragmentary sections remain.
The original strong linear spine of the Royal Mile only had narrow closes and wynds leading off its sides. These began to be supplemented from the late 18th century with wide new north–south routes, beginning with the
North Bridge/
South Bridge route, and then
George IV Bridge
George IV Bridge is an Viaduct, elevated street in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is home to a number of the city's important public buildings.
History
A bridge connecting the High Street to the south was first suggested in 1817, but was origina ...
. These rectilinear forms were complemented from the mid-19th century with more serpentine forms, starting with Cockburn Street, laid out by Peddie and Kinnear in 1856, which specifically improved access between the Royal Mile and the newly built
Waverley Station.
The
Edinburgh Improvement Act 1867 (
30 & 31 Vict. c. xliv) further added to the north south routes. This was devised by the architects
David Cousin and
John Lessels. It had quite radical effects:
*St Mary's Wynd was demolished and replaced by the much wider St Mary's Street with all new buildings.
*Leith Wynd which descended from the High Street to the Low Calton was demolished. Jeffrey Street started from Leith Wynd's junction with the High Street, opposite St Mary's Street, but bent west on arches to join Market Street.
*East Market Street was built to connect Market Street and New Street.
*Blackfriars Street was created by the widening of Blackfriars Wynd, removing all the buildings on the east side.
*
Chambers Street was created, replacing N College Street and removing Brown Square (west) and Adam Square (east). It was named after the then
Lord Provost of Edinburgh
The Right Honourable Lord Provost of Edinburgh is elected by and is the convener of the City of Edinburgh Council and serves not only as the chair of that body, but as a figurehead for the entire city, ex officio the Lord-Lieutenant of ...
,
Sir William Chambers
__NOTOC__
Sir William Chambers (23 February 1723 – 10 March 1796) was a Swedish-British architect. Among his best-known works are Somerset House, the Gold State Coach and the pagoda at Kew. Chambers was a founder member of the Royal Academy.
...
, and his statue placed at its centre.
*Guthrie Street was created, linking the new Chambers Street to the
Cowgate
The Cowgate (Scots language, Scots: The Cougait) is a street in Edinburgh, Scotland, located about southeast of Edinburgh Castle, within the city's World Heritage Site. The street is part of the lower level of Edinburgh's Old Town, Edinburgh, ...
.
Sections
In addition to the Royal Mile, the Old Town may be divided into various areas, namely from west to east:
*
West Port, the old route out of Edinburgh to the west
*
Grassmarket
The Grassmarket is a historic market square, market place, street and event space in the Old Town, Edinburgh, Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. In relation to the rest of the city it lies in a hollow, well below surrounding ground levels.
Locati ...
, the area to the south-west
*
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age. There has been a royal castle on the rock since the reign of Malcol ...
* The Cowgate, the lower southern section of the town
*
Canongate
The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town.
David ...
, a name correctly applied to the whole eastern district
* Holyrood, the area containing
Holyrood Palace
The Palace of Holyroodhouse ( or ), commonly known as Holyrood Palace, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood has s ...
and
Holyrood Abbey
Holyrood Abbey is a ruined abbey of the Canons Regular in Edinburgh, Scotland. The abbey was founded in 1128 by David I of Scotland. During the 15th century, the abbey guesthouse was developed into a List of British royal residences,
royal r ...
* Croft-An-Righ, a group of buildings north-east of Holyrood
Residential buildings
Due to the space restrictions imposed by the narrowness of the "tail", and the advantages of living within the defensive wall, the Old Town became home to some of the world's earliest "high rise" residential buildings. Multi-storey dwellings became the norm from the 16th century onwards. Many of these buildings were destroyed in the
Great Fire of Edinburgh in 1824; the rebuilding of these on the original foundations led to changes in the ground level and the creation of numerous passages and vaults under the Old Town. The construction of new streets including
North Bridge and
South Bridge in the 18th century also created underground spaces, such as the
Edinburgh Vaults below the latter.
Traditionally buildings were less dense in the eastern, Canongate, section. This area underwent major
slum clearance
Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low-income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...
and reconstruction in the 1950s, thereafter becoming an area largely of Council housing. From 1990 to 2010, major new housing schemes appeared throughout the Canongate. These were built to a much higher scale than the older buildings and have greatly increased the population of the area.
Archaeology
Archaeological work is usually required to be undertaken in advance of development work in the Old Town and this work has shed light on aspects of the Old Town's past. Some recent excavations have been:
* In 2012, AOC Archaeology's excavations in
Advocates Close found the remains of a 16th-century tenement and rare 12th/13th century deposits (which were usually removed by later building construction). The artefacts found showed the expansion of the area in 16th and 17th centuries, as well as the decline during the later 17th and early 18th centuries.
*In 2008,
Headland Archaeology
Headland Archaeology Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of the RSK Group. Headland provides archaeological services and heritage advice to the construction industry.
Company history
Headland Archaeology Ltd was established in 1996. Headquartered ...
conducted excavations between the High Street and Jeffrey Street and found evidence of the medieval
burgage
Burgage is a medieval land term used in Great Britain and Ireland, well established by the 13th century.
A burgage was a town ("borough" or "burgh") rental property (to use modern terms), owned by a king or lord. The property ("burgage tenement ...
plots; the construction of multi-storey tenement buildings that characterise much of the Old Town 16th century and their later demolition; as well as a tannery that was established on part of the site by the 1830s and expanded to cover much of the site by the 1880s.
* In 1999 and 2000, archaeologists found part of the medieval boundary ditch under St Mary's Street. Work in the Canongate has also found parts of the boundary ditch, as well as in the Cowgate. In 2015, excavations by AOC Archaeology at East Market Street found the north/ north-east portion of the boundary ditch.
* The excavations at the new Parliament building found over a thousand years of development and changes to the southern tip of the Old Town.
* Excavations, also for the Parliament Building, at
Queensberry House found evidence that
Charles Maitland, Lord Hatton may have converted the kitchen of Queensberry House into a workshop to illegally skim money from the Royal mint.
* Various excavations since the 1980s have helped to understand
St Giles Cathedral
St Giles' Cathedral (), or the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in the Old Town of Edinburgh. The current building was begun in the 14th century and extended until the early 16th century; significant alteratio ...
and the
City Walls
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain walls with to ...
.
* Excavations from the 1970s through till the 2000s has shed light on the tenements that existed before the
Tron Kirk
The Tron Kirk is a former principal parish church in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is a well-known landmark on the Royal Mile. It was built in the 17th century and closed as a church in 1952. Having stood empty for over fifty years, it was used ...
.
Major events

In 1824 a major fire, the
Great Fire of Edinburgh, destroyed most of the buildings on the south side of the High Street section between St. Giles Cathedral and the Tron Kirk.
During the
Edinburgh International Festival
The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially european classical music, classical music) and ...
the High Street and Hunter Square become gathering points where performers in the
Fringe
Fringe may refer to:
Arts and music
* "The Fringe", or Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival
* Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival
* Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre
* Purple fri ...
advertise their shows, often through street performances.
On 7 December 2002, the
Cowgate fire destroyed a small but dense group of old buildings on the Cowgate and South Bridge. It destroyed the famous comedy club,
The Gilded Balloon, and much of the
Informatics Department of the University of Edinburgh, including the comprehensive
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
library. The site was redeveloped 2013-2014 with a single new building, largely in hotel use.
Old Town Renewal Trust
In the 1990s the Old Town Renewal Trust in conjunction with the City of Edinburgh developed an action plan for renewal
Redevelopment

An area directly to the north of the Canongate has seen a large redevelopment project originally named Caltongate, but since rebranded as New Waverley. The scheme involved building of a mix of residential, hotel, retail and office buildings on the site of the former
SMT bus depot in New Street, developing the arches under Jeffrey Street, redeveloping other surrounding sites and creating a pedestrian link from the Royal Mile to Calton Hill.
The proposals were criticised by commentators including the author
Alexander McCall Smith
Sir Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith (born 24 August 1948) is a Scottish legal scholar and author of fiction. He was raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and was formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an ...
and
Sheila Gilmore MP who regard the modern design as incompatible with the existing older architectural styles of the Old Town and inappropriate for a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The Caltongate development was also opposed by the
Cockburn Association
The Cockburn Association, often subtitled Edinburgh Civic Trust, is an architectural, conservation, and urban planning monitoring organisation in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom.
The Cockburn Association, founded in 1875, is one o ...
and the
Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland
The Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland (AHSS) is a society dedicated to the protection and study of the built heritage of Scotland. It has around 1000 members and five regional groups responsible for commenting on planning applications in ...
. The site developers
Artisan Real Estate Investors have stated that the completed development will be a "vibrant, exciting" place. The plans were approved by the City of Edinburgh Council in January 2014
with construction taking place in the late 2010s.
See also
*
Banknotes of Scotland (featured on design)
*
History of Edinburgh
While the area around modern-day Edinburgh has been inhabited for thousands of years, the history of Edinburgh as a definite settlement can be traced to the Scotland in the Early Middle Ages, early Middle Ages when a hillfort was established in ...
*
List of Category A listed buildings in the Old Town, Edinburgh
*
Scotland in the High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages of Scotland encompass Scotland in the era between the death of Donald II of Scotland, Domnall II in 900 AD and the death of King Alexander III of Scotland, Alexander III in 1286, which was an indirect cause of the Wars of S ...
*
Timeline of Edinburgh history
*
World Heritage Sites in Scotland
References
External links
UNESCO World Heritage Site InscriptionKincaid map showing the Old Town in 1784Edinburgh Old Town Association
{{Authority control
Areas of Edinburgh
Tourist attractions in Edinburgh
Historic districts in the United Kingdom
World Heritage Sites in Scotland