Edinburgh, Leith, Town Wall

223. Leith: its Port and Streets.

The original harbour of the seaport mentioned in the 12th century Great Charter of Holyrood was simply the lower reach of the Water of Leith, and it did not extend farther down-stream than Broad Wynd. The docks and warehouses that now exist between this former limit and the foreshore have all come into being in the last two centuries, and the street on the E. bank of the stream is still known as "The Shore." Previous to the time of its destruction at the hands of the English in 1547 Leith, like other Scottish seaports, was a very small place. This is clearly shown by the extent of the fortifications thrown up in the following year by Monsieur D'Esse, commander of the French troops supporting the Regent, Queen Marie de Guise-Lorraine, which actually enclosed the whole area of the town. This system, which was octagonal in shape, straddled the mouth of the river, a timber bridge placing the two banks in communication. The works consisted of a rampart and ditch, strengthened at the corners by eight projecting bastions, two of which, built of stone and situated respectively at the Sandport in North Leith and at the W. end of the present Bernard Street* in South Leith, guarded the approach to the harbour. From the second of these, which was known as Ramsay's Mount, the rampart trended eastwards, parallel with Bernard Street, to a bastion situated where the Corn Exchange Buildings now stand. It then turned S.S.W. and followed the line of Constitution Street as far as a fourth bastion, placed at the junction with Coatfield Lane. From this point it ran towards a fifth bastion at the top of the Kirkgate. The position of the sixth bastion is uncertain. The seventh stood on the W. bank of the river. The eighth appears to have stood where the Citadel (No. 230) rose a century later. In the rampart were seven gates or" ports," that of St. Anthony, situated at the S. end of the Kirkgate, being the principal entry on the landward side. The scanty remains of two counterworks are noted under No. 247.

Notwithstanding the facts that the Queen-Regent interested herself in Leith and occupied a house there and that several members of the Court followed her example, the port still appears as very small in comparison with Edinburgh in a contemporary drawing of the siege of the capital in1573 (Fig. 61). North Leith, for instance, on the left bank of the stream, is merely a village on the water-front, while South Leith, on the opposite bank, is shown as a little town built round two main cross-streets. The two communities had been united by a bridge as early as 1439, the name Old Bridgend, which attaches to the junction of Coalhill and Sheriffbrae, indicating the position of one end. The same drawing shows the fortifications of 1548 and 1581 still enclosing the town, as they continued to do for the better part of two centuries after the date at which it was made.

In 1650 Sir David Leslie, commander of the Scottish forces that were opposing Cromwell, threw up a strong earthen breastwork between the capital and its port. This became the path known as the Walk, and ultimately developed into the principal means of communication between the two towns. It is now a street, Leith Walk, which traverses a densely built-up area.

For one reason and another** the growth of Leith was long retarded, and at the end of the reign of George I. the seaport covered less ground than the S. part of the burgh of Edinburgh. Within a century, however, it expanded greatly as a result of improvements made to the harbour; and the rate of expansion increased further after 1832, when the passing of the Reform Bill removed many of the disabilities under which the port had previously laboured.

RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941

*The position now occupied by Numbers 32-5, The Shore

**E.g., the ravages of the plague of 1645-6,which carried off two-thirds of the population