Royal Mile

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The Royal Mile, looking east

The Royal Mile forms the heart and axis of Edinburgh's Old Town, in the heart of Midlothian, running for almost exactly a mile between the Palace of Holyrrodhouse up to Edinburgh Castle.[1] It is a series of streets which forming the Old Town's main thoroughfare. The term originated in the early 20th century and has since entered popular usage.[2]

From west to east, and running downhill, it comprises the Castle Esplanade, Castlehill, the Lawnmarket, the High Street, the Canongate and Abbey Strand. It is the busiest tourist street in the Old Town. The Royal Mile contains shops, restaurants, public houses, and visitor attractions. During the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the High Street becomes crowded with tourists, entertainers, and buskers. Parliament Square is at the heart of Scotland's legal system: Parliament House here is the home of both the High Court of Justiciary and the Court of Session.[3]

Geography

File:The Royal Mile, Edinburgh.webm Edinburgh's geography is commanded by a 'crag and tail' formation left by the Ice Age glaciers on the hard volcanic plug on which stands the castle; Castle Rock. Running eastwards from the crag, the Royal Mile sits upon the ridge of the tail which slopes gently down to Holyrood Palace. Steep closes (or alleyways) run between the many tall lands (or tenement buildings) off the main thoroughfare. The route runs from an elevation of 140 feet above sea level at the palace to 360 feet at the castle, giving an average gradient of 4.1%.

Castle Esplanade

Originally part of the Castle Hill (the hill leading to the castle sitting on the Castle Rock) the Castle Esplanade was laid out as a parade ground in 1753, using spoil from the building of the Royal Exchange (now the City Chambers). It was formalised in 1816 when it was widened and provided with decorative railings and walls. The Esplanade with its several monuments has been Category A-listed by Historic Scotland.[4] It is the venue of the annual Edinburgh Military Tattoo, when temporary grandstands are erected.

Castlehill

Castlehill forming part of the Royal Mile. The former Victorian church houses The Hub, an information service for the Edinburgh International Festival. On the right is The Scotch Whisky Experience and on the left the Camera Obscura tower and shops.

Due to its location immediately east of the castle, the street known as Castlehill was probably the earliest developed part of the Old Town of Edinburgh. Travelling east from the Castle Esplanade, the first building on the right is Cannonball House which has a cannonball lodged in the wall facing the Esplanade, often said to have been accidentally fired from the Castle but which actually marks the elevation of Comiston Springs, three miles to the south of the Castle, which fed a cistern on Castlehill, one of the first piped water supplies in the land.[5]

Castlehill is dominated by the former Tolbooth-Highland-St John's Church (on the south side at the foot of this section), now the headquarters of the Edinburgh International Festival society –the Hub. Other notable buildings are the former Castlehill School building, now the Scotch Whisky Experience, and on the north side the Outlook Tower and Camera Obscura. TheAssembly Hall of the Church of Scotland and New College are further down on the same side.

Lawnmarket

The Lawnmarket is a separately named part of the High Street.[6] Addresses are a continuation of the High Street numbers.[7] It runs from the Upper Bow to St Giles Street.

A charter of 1477 designated this part of the High Street as the market-place for what was called "inland merchandise" – items such as yarn, stockings, coarse cloth and other similar articles. In later years, linen was the main product sold. As a result, it became known as the Land Market[8] which was later corrupted to Lawn Market.[9][10] Located in a close on the south side, Riddle's Court is the well-preserved 16th-century house of a merchant John MacMorran, who was shot by rioting schoolboys in 1595.[11]

Today, the majority of shops in the street are aimed at tourists. On the north side is the preserved 17th century merchant's townhouse Gladstone's Land owned by the National Trust for Scotland. The lower end of the Lawnmarket is intersected by George IV Bridge on the right (south) and Bank Street on the left (north), leading to The Mound and the New Town. The view down Bank Street is closed by the baroque headquarters of the Bank of Scotland.

On the south-west corner of this intersection, with its entrance on George IV Bridge, is the Hotel Missoni: a building is of controversial design, winning a Scottish Civic Trust award, a 2010 RIBA award,[12] but also being nominated for the Carbuncle Cup in 2009.[13]

Between Bank Street and St Giles Street, marking the end of the Lawnmarket, the High Court of Justiciary is housed in the Justiciary Building.[14]

High Street

Looking down the High Street towards the Tron Kirk

On the south side, about one-third of the way down from the Castle toward the Palace is Parliament Square, named after the old Parliament House which housed both the law courts and the old Parliament of Scotland between the 1630s and 1707. Parliament House now houses the Court of Session.

St Giles' Cathedral, the High Kirk of Edinburgh, also stands in Parliament Square.

By the West Door of St Giles' is the 'Heart of Midlothian', a heart-shaped pattern built into the "setted" road, marking the site of the Old Tolbooth, formerly the centre of administration, taxation and justice in the burgh. The prison was described by Sir Walter Scott as the "Heart of Midlothian", and soon after demolition the city fathers marked the site with a heart mosaic. On the north side, opposite St Giles', stand Edinburgh City Chambers, where the City of Edinburgh Council meets. On the south side, just past the High Kirk, is the Mercat Cross from which royal proclamations are read and the summoning of Parliament announced.

The Heart of Midlothian

The whole south side of buildings from St Giles to the Tron Kirk had to be rebuilt or refaced in the 1820s following the Great Edinburgh Fire of 1824. This was done in a Georgian style, stepping down the hill.

The central focus of the Royal Mile is a major intersection with the Bridges. North Bridge runs north over Waverley station to the New Town's Princes Street. South Bridge spans the Cowgate to the south.

At John Knox's House the High Street narrows to a section of the street formerly known as the Netherbow, which, at its crossroads with Jeffrey Street (north) and St Mary's Street (south), marked the former city boundary. At this point stood the Netherbow Port, a fortified gateway between Edinburgh and the Canongate (until 1856 a separate burgh), which was removed in 1764 to improve traffic flow. The Scottish Storytelling Centre is a modern extension to John Knox House, owned by the Church of Scotland. It opened in 2006, replacing the former Netherbow Arts Centre, which itself replaced the Moray-Knox Church in the 1960s. Following Henry VIII's victory over the Scots at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, a city wall was built around Edinburgh known as the Flodden Wall, some parts of which survive. The Netherbow Port was a gateway in this wall and brass studs in the road mark its former position. On the corner of St Mary's Street is the World's End Pub which takes its name from the adjacent World's End Close, whimsically so named because this was in former times the last close in Edinburgh before entering the Canongate.[15]

Royal entertainments

Edinburgh goldsmiths organised a "Pageant of the Passion" for James IV and Margaret Tudor in 1507.[16]

There was a triumph or show at the Salt Tron and other locations on the Royal Mile to celebrate the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Dauphin of France (the future Francis II) on 3 July 1558.[17] The wedding itself took place in Paris on 24 April 1558.[18] The Edinburgh entertainment was written and produced by William Lauder and William Adamson.[19] Walter Binning painted the "play cart" for actors portraying the signs of the seven planets and Cupid. Artificial "summer trees" decorated with fruit made from tennis balls covered with gold foil or leaf were placed on four stages.[20] The seven planets had been portrayed in a show in Paris after the wedding.[21]

Other 16th-century royal entertainments at the Tron and on the Royal Mile include the Entry of Mary, Queen of Scots (1561), the Entry of James VI (1579), and the Entry of Anne of Denmark (1590).[22] In July 1598, scholars from Edinburgh High School put on a satirical play at the Tolbooth. Costumes were made for the characters of a Pope, two Cardinals, and several friars. After the performance the costumes were donated to the poor.[23]

Canongate

Anchor Close at twilight
Canongate Tollbooth Clock

Beyond the crossroads, the Royal Mile continues down the Canongate, meaning literally "the canons' way" when it was used in former times by the Augustinian canons of Holyrood Abbey.[24] The street continues downhill past Moray House (now the main academic offices of Moray House School of Education of the University of Edinburgh), the Canongate Tolbooth (now a museum of social history called The People's Story), the Kirk of the Canongate (the Canongate's parish church and a thriving congregation of the Church of Scotland) and the new Scottish Parliament Building to Holyrood Palace and the ruined abbey. Until 1856 the Canongate was not merely a street, but the name of the surrounding burgh, separate from Edinburgh and outside the Flodden Wall.

Abbey Strand

This street is the short approach to the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the foot of the Canongate. On the north side, the building to the east was the house of Lucky Spence, a notorious madam, remembered in Allan Ramsay's poem, Lucky Spence's Last Advice.[25] The building to the west was described as a new "Great Mansion" in 1570.[26][27] Renaissance painted ceilings]] were salvaged from the building in 1967. Some of the timbers were felled in the 1560s. During 20th century restorations by the Ministry of Works, other painted beams found at Midhope Castle and Caroline Park were inserted into the buildings.[28]

On the south side is the King's Gallery, used to exhibit items in the Royal collection, in the shell of the former Holyrood Free Church and Duchess of Gordon's School. There are also the remains of the gatehouse of Holyrood Palace built by Walter Merlioun for James IV, with a carving of the royal coat-of-arms of James V set in the wall.[29]

Location

References

  1. ↑ "The Royal Mile: How long is Edinburgh's High Street?". Edinburgh Evening News (National World). 2018-12-07. https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/whats-on/the-royal-mile-how-long-is-edinburghs-high-street-193042. Retrieved 2024-06-14. 
  2. ↑ Harris, Stuart (2002). The Place Names of Edinburgh. London: Steve Savage. p. 497. ISBN 1-904246-06-0. 
  3. ↑ "The Supreme Courts". https://scotcourts.gov.uk/the-courts/supreme-courts. 
  4. ↑ "Edinburgh Castle, Esplanade, Edinburgh". http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/sc-28011-edinburgh-castle-esplanade-. 
  5. ↑ Castlehill, Reservoir - Listing detail (Historic Environment Scotland)
  6. ↑ Harris, Stuart (2002). The Place Names of Edinburgh. London: Steve Savage. p. 358. ISBN 1-904246-06-0. 
  7. ↑ Arthur, Andy (2023-07-10). "The thread about Edinburgh first Penny Postal service, house numbers and street directories". Threadinburgh. https://threadinburgh.scot/2023/07/10/the-thread-about-the-early-penny-postal-service-and-street-directories-of-edinburgh-and-the-numbering-and-naming-re-numbering-and-re-naming-of-some-streets/. "The High Street, Lawnmarket and Castle Hill were numbered into one continuous uphill sequence from the Netherbow" 
  8. ↑ "City and castle of Edinburgh, William Edgar, 1765". Town Plans / Views, 1580-1919. National Library of Scotland. http://maps.nls.uk/view/74400010#zoom=5&lat=3462&lon=3252&layers=BT. 
  9. ↑ "The Derivation of Edinburgh's Street Names". https://www.scribd.com/document/57398403/Edinburgh-Street-Names. 
  10. ↑ "City of Edinburgh, John Ainslie, 1780". Town Plans / Views, 1580-1919. National Library of Scotland. http://maps.nls.uk/view/74400070#zoom=5&lat=4745&lon=4785&layers=BT. 
  11. ↑ Daniel Wilson, Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1891), pp. 218-219.
  12. ↑ "Hotel Missoni, Edinburgh". https://www.corranproperties.co.uk/projects/hotel-missoni/. 
  13. ↑ Welch, Adrian (10 June 2009). "Carbuncle Cup 2009 Winners News, UK" (in en-gb). https://www.e-architect.com/awards/carbuncle-cup-2009. 
  14. ↑ High Court (Former Sheriff Court), 413-431 Lawnmarket, Edinburgh - Listing detail (Historic Environment Scotland)
  15. ↑ Edinburgh High Street, World's End Close (Category @) - Listing detail (Historic Environment Scotland)
  16. ↑ David Robertson and Marguerite Wood, Castle and Town (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1928), pp. 208–209.
  17. ↑ Giovanna Giudicini, Triumphal Entries and Festivals in Early Modern Scotland: Performing Spaces (Brepols, 2020), pp. 176–258.
  18. ↑ Lucinda H. S. Dean, 'In the Absence of an Adult Monarch', Mediæval and Early Modern Representations of Authority in Scotland and the British Isles (Routledge, 2016), pp. 155-158.
  19. ↑ James David Marwick, Extracts from the records of the Burgh of Edinburgh: 1557-1571 (Edinburgh, 1875), p. 26.
  20. ↑ Robert Adam, Edinburgh Records: The Burgh Accounts, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1899), pp. 269-271
  21. ↑ Sarah Carpenter & Graham Runnalls, 'The Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots', Mediæval English Theatre, 22 (2000), pp. 145-161.
  22. ↑ Giovanna Guidicini, Triumphal Entries and Festivals in Early Modern Scotland (Brepols, 2020): Douglas Grey, 'The Royal Entry in Sixteenth-Century Scotland', S. Mapstone & J. Wood, The Rose and the Thistle (Tuckwell, 1998), pp. 10–37: Clare McManus, Women on the Renaissance Stage: Anna of Denmark and Female Masquing in the Stuart Court, 1590–1618 (Manchester, 2002), p. 72.
  23. ↑ T. H. Vail Motter, The school drama in England (Port Washington, 1968), pp. 296–7: Anna S. Mill, Mediæval Plays in Scotland, pp. 205–206.
  24. ↑ "The Derivation of Edinburgh's Street Names". http://www.edinburgh.org.uk/STREETS/part1/c.htm. 
  25. ↑ "Broadside ballad entitled 'Lucky Spence's Last Advice'". http://digital.nls.uk/broadsides/broadside.cfm/id/15904. 
  26. ↑ Dennis B. Gallagher, "Holyrood Abbey: the disappearance of a monastery", PSAS, 128 (1998), p. 1095.
  27. ↑ Inventory of Monuments in Edinburgh (Edinburgh: HMS0, 1951), pp. 156–157.
  28. ↑ Michael Bath, Anne Crone, Michael Pearce, The Dendrochronology and Art History of 16th and 17th century Painted Ceilings (Historic Environment Scotland, 2017), pp. 7, 13, 16.
  29. ↑ John G. Dunbar, Scottish Royal Palaces (Tuckwell: East Linton, 1999), pp. 57-9.
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