The Development of Candlemaker Row, Edinburgh, from the 11th to the 20th Centuries
Contributor(s): Morag Cross, Timothy Mighall, Sarah-Jane Haston, Catherine Smith, Stuart Morrison, Timothy Holden
Summary: Archaeological excavations and historic-building recording at the site of Greyfriars Kirkhouse, Candlemaker Row, Edinburgh, provided a rare opportunity to investigate the history of an area within Edinburgh's Old Town. Evidence was found for unexpectedly early activity on the site from the 11th or 12th century onwards. The nature of early activity is enigmatic but the area appears to have been largely rural, at the confluence of two major cattle-droving routes into the town. Urban development came in the late 15th century, with the division of the land into burgage-plots and construction of a tenement, at which point the area seems to have been occupied by merchants and burgesses. The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw the redevelopment of the site and evidence for the use of the area as a brass foundry.
Keyword(s): tenement, pit, unidentified pottery, glass vessel, burgage-plots, brass foundary
Period(s): Medieval, Medieval, Late Medieval, Post Medieval, Early Modern
Location(s): Greyfriars Kirkhouse, Candlemaker Row, Grassmarket, Old Town, Edinburgh, Scotland. NGR: 325556,673371
Permissions: Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence.