Grassmarket

The Grassmarket lies in a valley below Castle Rock in Edinburgh’s Old Town, a historic market square and street that has served the city for centuries. It sits where one of the main east–west routes through the Old Town meets the lower ground at the foot of the castle. The market once stretched beyond its western end where livestock grazed in pens. The Vennel leads off from the south-west corner, where parts of the Flodden and Telfer town walls still stand. The view north to the castle has drawn painters and photographers for generations. From 1477 the Grassmarket was Edinburgh’s main market, with separate areas for horses and cattle. Daniel Defoe visited in 1706 and described two open-air markets and the busy wholesale trade in heavy goods at the West Bow. In the early 19th century the area housed many Irish immigrants in overcrowded lodging houses. The Burke and Hare murders took place nearby in 1828, adding to the district’s grim reputation. By the 1840s police regulations aimed at crowd control worsened conditions, with up to twelve people sometimes sharing one room. Today the Grassmarket is lined with old taverns and inns that once served drovers and coach travellers. The White Hart Inn once hosted Robert Burns and later William and Dorothy Wordsworth. A flagstone marks where a Zeppelin bomb fell in 1916, killing eleven people. Nearby plaques recall the Covenanters executed between 1661 and 1688 and the Porteous Riots of 1736. The area has been reshaped in recent decades, shifting from its past as a slum to a lively part of the city.