Royal Mile
55°57′02″N 3°11′08″W / 55.95056°N 3.18556°W
The Royal Mile (
The Royal Mile runs between two significant locations in the royal
The Royal Mile contains a variety of shops, restaurants, public houses, and visitor attractions. During the annual
Geography
Retreating ice sheets, many millennia ago, deposited their
Castle Esplanade and Castlehill
The Castle Esplanade was laid out as a parade ground, in 1753, using spoil from the building of the Royal Exchange (now the
From the Castle Esplanade, the short section of road entitled 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
Lawnmarket
The Lawnmarket is a separately named part of the High Street. Addresses are a continuation of the High Street numbers. It runs from the West 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, replacing the former Lothian Regional Council offices. This building is of controversial design, winning a Scottish Civic Trust award and a 2010 RIBA award,[12] but also being nominated for (but not winning) the Carbuncle Cup in 2009.[13]
Between Bank Street and St Giles Street, marking the end of the Lawnmarket, the High Court of Justiciary, Scotland's supreme criminal court, is housed in the Justiciary Building.[14]
High Street
On the south side, about one-third of the way down from the Castle toward the Palace is
By the West Door of St Giles' is the
The whole south side of buildings from St Giles to the
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 (which appears at street level to be simply a road with shops on either side—only one arch is visible from below) spans the Cowgate to the south, a street in a hollow below, and continues as Nicolson Street past the Old College building of the University of Edinburgh.
At
Entertainment for the wedding of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1558
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 Francis II of France, on 3 July 1558. The wedding itself took place in Paris on 24 April 1558.[17] The Edinburgh entertainment was written and produced by William Lauder and William Adamson.[18] 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.[19] The seven planets had been portrayed in a show in Paris after the wedding.[20]
Other 16th-century royal entertainments at the Tron and on the Royal Mile include the
Murders of Note
Several infamous murders have taken place on the central section of the Royal Mile:
- George Lockhart, Lord Carnwath, murdered by John Chieslie in 1689.
- James Mackcoull, murdered William Begbie in 1806 in the close leading to Tweeddale Court.
- World's End Close, double murder in 1977 by Angus Sinclair.
Canongate
Beyond the crossroads, the Royal Mile continues down the Canongate, meaning literally "the canons' way" when it was used in former times by the
Abbey Strand
This street is the short approach to the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the foot of the Canongate. One of the buildings on the north side was the house of Lucky Spence, a notorious brothel madam, remembered in
See also
- List of closes on the Royal Mile
- Moubray House
- Museum of Childhood
- Royal Mile police box
- Writers' Museum
References
- ^ "Gaeilge na hAlban – Duilleag 2". Blog Pàrlamaid na h-Alba.
- ISBN 1-904246-06-0.
- ^ "The Royal Mile". Edinburgh World Heritage. 24 November 2017. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
- ^ "Royal Mile - The heart of the Old Town, Edinburgh". www.introducingedinburgh.com. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
- ^ "The Supreme Courts". Scottish Courts and Tribunals. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
- ^ "Edinburgh Castle, Esplanade, Edinburgh". Retrieved 22 October 2012.
- ^ "Civil Engineering Heritage..." Retrieved 10 September 2012.
- ^ "City and castle of Edinburgh, William Edgar, 1765". Town Plans / Views, 1580-1919. National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
- ^ "The Derivation of Edinburgh's Street Names". Retrieved 20 June 2019.
- ^ "City of Edinburgh, John Ainslie, 1780". Town Plans / Views, 1580-1919. National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
- ^ Daniel Wilson, Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1891), pp. 218-219.
- ^ "Hotel Missoni, Edinburgh". Corran Properties. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
- ^ Welch, Adrian (10 June 2009). "Carbuncle Cup 2009 Winners News, UK". e-architect. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
- ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "High Court (Former Sheriff Court), 413-431 Lawnmarket, Edinburgh (LB27598)". Retrieved 26 December 2022.
- ^ "The Derivation of Edinburgh's Street Names". Archived from the original on 8 August 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
- ^ "Edinburgh High Street, World's End Close". Retrieved 10 September 2012.
- ^ Lucinda H. S. Dean, 'In the Absence of an Adult Monarch', Medieval and Early Modern Representations of Authority in Scotland and the British Isles (Routledge, 2016), pp. 155-158.
- ^ James David Marwick, Extracts from the records of the Burgh of Edinburgh: 1557-1571 (Edinburgh, 1875), p. 26.
- ^ Robert Adam, Edinburgh Records: The Burgh Accounts, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1899), pp. 269-271
- ^ Sarah Carpenter & Graham Runnalls, 'The Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots', Medieval English Theatre, 22 (2000), pp. 145-161.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "The Derivation of Edinburgh's Street Names". Archived from the original on 8 August 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
- ^ "Broadside ballad entitled 'Lucky Spence's Last Advice'". Retrieved 13 September 2012.