Architecture Notes

Event ID 769129

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Architecture Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/769129

Lady Stair's Close is listed on Edgar 1742. It was earlier called Lady Gray's Close, from Egidia, Lady Gray, widow of Sir William Gray of Pittendrum, who lived on in the close for some years after her husband's death in 1648, in the house he had built in 1622. The later name came from her granddaughter Elizabeth Dundas, Countess Dowager of Stair and widow of John 1st Earl of Stair, who acquired the house in 1719 and lived here until her death in 1731.

(from Stuart Harris, "Place Names of Edinburgh", 1996, page 381).