Royal Mile Escapade

Though I have visited a lot of the tourist destinations at the top of the Royal Mile near Edinburgh Castle and St Gilles Cathedral, I had never been to the lower half of the Royal Mile below the John Knox house. As I mentioned in my last post, there is a long sloping hill that runs from Castle Rock and down towards Holyrood Palace, where the Scottish monarchs usually lived before James VI united England and Scotland under one crown. Now this palace is the Queen's residence whenever she visits Edinburgh. Along this hill's ridge is the 'Royal Mile.' In medieval Edinburgh, this road was the main thoroughfare, and several alleys and side streets ran along the side of the hill from this road.

In order to attract successful merchants to Edinburgh in the 1100s, the Town Council granted these merchants a 'toft,' or a strip of land off of the modern-day Royal Mile. Within a year the merchants had to build a house on this toft. Therefore, the merchants not only lived on their strips of land but operated their businesses with shops along the street. They may have also grown vegetables here and kept animals, like chickens and pigs. The medieval Royal Mile would have thus smelled like a farmyard. By 1500, these tofts were divided into two parts. 'Forelands' fronted onto the street with the 'backlands' behind. The street was noisy and dirty, so grander houses were built on the backlands. Passages or closes connected these houses and backlands to the street. In the 1700s, the Town Council bought and linked together some old dilapidated tofts. In these old tofts they built courtyards with large tenements. Many of these buildings were much higher than the modern buildings that replaced them. They were often fourteen stories tall. Because so many people lived in these tall buildings within the city walls, medieval Edinburgh was cramped city with one of the highest population densities in Europe. When walking from one place to another during this period, the vertical distance was just as important as the horizontal distance.

Near the top of the Royal Mile.

On the right is the Tolbooth Tavern in Canongate.

Built in 1591, this building served as a tolbooth, or a

toll-collecting gate for those entering Edinburgh from the

lower end of the Royal Mile near Holyrood Palace.

This building also served as a police headquarters and a jail.

Between 1661 and 1688, the Covenanters were imprisoned here.

Many of the prisoners sent here were deported to Caribbean plantations

for seven years of hard labor. After their exile there they

could return to Scotland, but they were all marked as captives

before they left. For instance, women had their faces branded

with an iron while men had an ear chopped off.

The Scottish Parliament at the bottom of the Royal Mile.

I'm not a very big fan of the architecture.

The Holyrood Palace at the opposite end of the

Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile.

This building is the official residence of the monarch

of Scotland. King David I founded the Holyrood Abbey

in 1128, and this palace has served as an official residence

since the 15th century. The residence is open to tourists

all year except for when the Royal Family lives here.

Queen Elizabeth II spends one week here each summer.

Walking back up the Royal Mile during twilight.