The Story of Edinburgh

by John Peacock

Overview

This richly illustrated history explores every aspect of life in Edinburgh. This book covers the history of the city of Edinburgh from the first Mesolithic explorers who camped on the shores of the Forth some 10,000 years ago to the controversies of modern times. Taking a wider perspective it explores the ever-changing world resulting from industrialisation, which brought immigrants, wealth and poverty. Following that, new methods of transport opened up Edinburgh to the wider world. Now, with its historic architecture the city can become a battleground between developers and motorists who want more space in the central areas and conservationists who wish to protect the city's landscape.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780750984683
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	07/06/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

John Peacock has studied British and European history for over fifty years and in this comprehensive study shares his knowledge of the growth and development of this great Scottish capital city.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

EDINBURGH DURING THE PREHISTORIC ERA

The Palaeolithic Period

Palaeolithic man lived during the Ice Age. There is no evidence of people inhabiting Scotland at this time, but they may have moved north during the warmer interglacial periods. Subsequent ice sheets would have removed any fragile evidence of their presence, but the most northerly remains of Palaeolithic man are the skull and bones of a woman found in Upper Teasdale. The last major ice sheets began their retreat before 8,000 BC and temperatures rose. The land around Edinburgh would have resembled the tundra; freezing cold with permafrost restricting any settlement, few trees and a short growing season.

The Mesolithic Age

From about 8,000 BC temperatures began to rise and Britain entered the period called the Mesolithic (or Old Stone Age). The people inhabiting the country at this time were hunter-gatherers with no permanent homes, although work done at Star Carr in East Yorkshire suggests that this area might have contained a settlement occupied over a long period of time.

Edinburgh contained large bodies of fresh water as well as easy access to the sea, so fish, shellfish and wildfowl offered a varied diet. Hunters used small stone tools called microliths which would be attached to wood to make spears and arrows. Elk and aurochs (large wild cattle) shared the land with red deer, while bears and wolves were not just dangers to these animals but also to the Mesolithic hunters.

Mesolithic Visitors to Edinburgh

A group of Mesolithic people began to work their way north along the edge of the northern sea until their progress was halted by a wide saltwater estuary. They worked their way along its southern shore until they found a stream of fresh water at what is today Cramond. This is the earliest encampment known from this era in Scotland. Burnt hazelnuts and a few microliths indicated that a settlement, however brief, had existed by the shore at the mouth of the Almond as long ago as 8,000 BC. At this time, sea levels were much lower and the wide Firth of Forth may have been little more than a large river.

Trees were slowly beginning to colonise Scotland, but the melted ice may have provided large areas of marsh. A land bridge still stretched from south-east England to the Continent. This disappeared around 5,800 BC and the North Sea was a gulf open only to the north and sheltered from the prevailing west winds by northern Britain. Early man would have used this coastal highway to enter the north and exploit the resources they found here.

A few clipped microliths have been found in excavations at Kaimes Hill near Balerno, but such stone tools can only be dated to the period by their shape. Most of the tools used by Mesolithic man would have been made of more perishable materials, leaving no evidence of their presence.

Tsunami

About 8,000 years ago, an undersea landslip off the Norwegian coast triggered a tsunami. A huge wave (or waves) spread south, striking the east coast of northern Britain. At this time, the sea only extended south as far as Lincolnshire. The land bridge to Europe, which we call Doggerland, still linked Britain with the continental mainland. Those living by the coast faced losing everything as no warning could have alerted them to the coming disaster. However, those on the high ground, now at the heart of modern Edinburgh, would have been beyond the reach of the tsunami.

The Neolithic Revolution

During the Neolithic period man began to take control of his environment. Trees were cut down and the land turned over to the growing of crops such as wheat and barley, and animals – cattle, sheep and pigs – were starting to be domesticated. Wood, bone and antlers provided tools for these early farmers, and stone axes, some of which have survived, were probably their most prized possessions.

This cultivation led to the development of small permanent settlements. However, it appears that Neolithic people did not live in isolated pockets of the country. The monumental circles built during this era would have required more manpower than could be provided by a few small villages, and axes mined from rock in various parts of the land have been found far from their points of origin. In Scotland, Neolithic people built the tomb chamber of Maes Howe and raised the Ring of Brodger and the Stones of Callainish. Stonehenge, the Avebury Ring and Sudbury Hill all date from this era, suggesting that Neolithic communities had some kind of central authority who could organise large work parties.

Edinburgh in the Neolithic Age

The low land in the west of Edinburgh was covered by two large freshwater lochs, known later as Corstorphine and Gogar Lochs. John Laurie's map of 1766 still shows the remains of one of these lochs to the west of Corstorphine. Fish and waterfowl would have supplemented the diet of our early ancestors.

To the east of the city lie Duddingston and Dunsapie Lochs, which may have covered a greater area than they do today. Close by, terraces designed to cultivate the higher (drier) ground can still be seen on the slopes of Arthur's Seat. However, a date cannot be placed on their origins. They may have been constructed by later Iron Age farmers who built settlements on the high ground in the area.

Neolithic people had few personal possessions and most of the remains of their settlements are found in the more remote parts of the country. The distribution of these artefacts may relate more to later disturbances by ploughing and construction than the density of their population. Orkney possesses many fine archaeological sites dating from this period of history.

The Bronze Age

Bronze, an alloy consisting of approximately 90 per cent copper and 10 per cent tin, proved superior to stone and during the second millennium BC, bronze technology was used to produce axes, swords and spearheads. Although both copper and tin were found in Britain and Ireland, the sources of these metal ores were considerable distances apart, and this must have stimulated trade. The Great Orme in Llandudno, North Wales, has the largest known prehistoric copper mine and the tin resources of Cornwall have been exploited from these times right up to the twentieth century.

Stone, bones and antlers still provided Bronze Age man with many of his tools, and the extraction of copper from the Great Orme was carried out using stone tools. Bronze, judging from the remains of artefacts found all over Britain, was chiefly used to make weapons and objects of high status. Often the remains of these bronze objects are found in close proximity, leading them to be designated as 'hoards'.

The Duddingston Hoard

In 1778 a large hoard of Bronze Age metal objects was discovered in the bed of Duddingston Loch. The bulk of this consisted of the remains of thirty-two swords and fourteen spearheads. Other objects removed from the site were a rapier (a narrow sword), a dagger and a ring from a cauldron. J. Graham Callander, director of the National Museum of Antiquities, wrote in his article in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquarians of Scotland 1921–22, 'I think the hoard is rather a founder's stock of weapons collected and broken up for the purposes of recasting'. A later theory suggests that these deposits were religious offerings deliberately placed by their owners as gifts to the gods. Some of this hoard can be seen in the National Museum of Scotland.

Other Bronze Age Remains

Another hoard was discovered in 1869, during the excavation of a house in Grosvenor Crescent. Although not as large as the Duddingston discovery, it consisted of fourteen swords, a socket axe and part of a bronze pin. Five socket axes were also found at Bells Mills in the Dean Village, by the Water of Leith. The remains of Bronze Age swords, socket axes and spearheads have also been found on Arthur's Seat, in Murrayfield, at Gogar House and in other parts of the city.

Evidence of settlement is harder to find. Excavations in Edinburgh Castle from 1988–91 revealed the remains of hearths and the charcoal from these was radiocarbon dated to between 972 and 830 BC. This would place the settlement at the very end of the Bronze Age in Scotland.

The Iron Age

The development of iron tools began in Britain towards the end of the second millennium BC, although dates can never be precise at such distance times. Iron had major advantages over bronze; it was a harder substance and was plentiful in Britain. Unlike bronze, which was a mixture of copper and tin, iron could be sourced from a single site.

The people of the Iron Age continued to farm the land using the same methods as their predecessors. They lived in large roundhouses which could accommodate extended families and possibly even some livestock.

The Hill Fort

These high fortified sites are common in the north and west of Britain. This should not be surprising, since this part of Britain contains most of the upland areas on the island. The presence of such fortifications has led some historians to conclude that the Iron Age was a time of increased warfare; others have argued that the forts offered more than a protected site and may have been symbolic – 'Look at us, we are here!' Could they have been centres of trade or religious worship?

Despite two millennia of destruction, there are still plenty of Iron Age sites in and around Edinburgh. A chain of hill forts from the late Iron Age stretched across the Lothians. The chief of these was Traprain Law. Excavations here during the early 1920s unearthed many pieces of Roman silver which are now displayed in the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street.

One of the largest forts in the Lothians stood on Kaimes Hill, just to the west of Balerno, with an outlying fort on neighbouring Dalmahoy Hill. Excavations on these two sites have discovered hut circles (the remains of prehistoric roundhouses) and ramparts dating from the last millennium BC. Kaimes had a well-defended entrance which included chevaux de frise – stones placed close to the entrance to obstruct an attack made by chariots or cavalry.

Work at Edinburgh Castle has uncovered evidence of settlement there during the Iron Age, but the limited area available for excavation and the succession of later buildings has restricted our knowledge of the inhabitants of the rock. Across the valley, on Arthur's Seat, the remains of four forts or defended farmsteads have been found. Much of the low land in central Edinburgh may have suffered from flooding and thus Iron Age farmers would have preferred to live on the higher, drier ground.

The hill forts suggest that the people here were ruled by an elite, possibly based on military power. They spoke a form of Old Welsh rather than the Gaelic of the inhabitants of Ireland.

Homes

The roundhouses, with their low walls which were constructed from various materials, and their high conical roofs, provided homes large enough for extended families. Some of them could be 8–12m in diameter. These homes can be found within the hill forts, or as independent settlements probably guarded by a ditch and a fence.

Local cattle rustlers were not the only problem facing these early farmers. Wolves and bears still shared the land with Iron Age people, although little is known of their numbers or the threat they might have presented to the inhabitants living in the first millennium BC.

Dry summers and aerial photography have enabled archaeologists to locate many more Iron Age homesteads (roundhouses) in Britain. Over thirty such sites have been found close to Traprain Law. However, this cannot be taken as showing a high density of settlement as not all of them would have been occupied at the same time.

The Scottish Iron Age stretched from around 900 BC until the fifth century AD.

CHAPTER 2

THE FIRST MILLENNIUM

The First Century

The Roman occupation of southern Britain began in AD 43 with the arrival of a large invasion force. When Vespasian became emperor, he appointed one of his supporters, Julius Agricola, to the post of governor. Agricola had served in Britain before, so the problems facing the Romans were not new to him.

Agricola launched an attack into Scotland. The Votadini, the Roman name for the people who lived around Edinburgh and in the Lothians, appear to have offered no resistance as Agricola led his troops through central Scotland to the Tay around AD 81.

The army, we are told by Tacitus, was supported by a fleet which searched for suitable harbours to land marines in support of the army. So, Roman ships might have been operating in the Firth of Forth at this time. However, there is no evidence in either Edinburgh or the surrounding territory of any military settlement.

Eventually, problems on the Danube forced the Romans to reduce their military commitment in Britain.

The Fort at Cramond

In AD 142 the Roman Army, under the orders of the Emperor Antonius Pius, established a new frontier between the Forth and the Clyde. To support this new project, the Romans built forts close to the mouths of the Almond and the Esk. However, no fort was built at the mouth of the larger Water of Leith; sandbanks may have made the estuary difficult to navigate even for the small vessels of the time.

The fort at Cramond stood on the high ground near the mouth of the river. Today, most of its foundations lie beneath the church and its cemetery. Much of the fort has been destroyed by later developments over many centuries. Cramond was garrisoned by auxiliary soldiers who would have been responsible for the route along the south of the Forth, linking the fort with Carriden at the eastern end of the Antoine Wall. Cramond appears to have been a supply depot for troops based on the wall.

The Romans abandoned both the fort at Cramond and the wall around AD 164, but Emperor Septimus Severus reoccupied it at the beginning of the third century. His expedition against the tribes of the north ended with his death. The Romans then withdrew behind Hadrian's Wall.

The Independent British Kingdoms

The lands between the two walls were inhabited by Britons who were linguistically (speaking a type of Welsh) and culturally related to those tribes living in Roman Britain. The western lands formed the Kingdom of Strathclyde, with its capital on Dumbarton Rock. In the east, the land was ruled by the Gododdin (known to the Romans as the Votadini) whose first capital stood on Traprain Law. Later they established their centre of power at the fortress of Din Edin which is generally interpreted as Castle Rock in Edinburgh.

The poet Aneirin, mourning the last days of the Gododdin, proclaims:

O woe to us from grief, from unending sadness,
The Gododdin occupied a series of hill forts on the high ground looking across the Forth. Kaimes Hill (near Balerno) was a large Iron Age fort which was still occupied during these years.

Nothing is known about life in Edinburgh during the third and fourth centuries. Across the broad estuary of the Forth lay the Pictish kingdoms, while to the south was the military power of Rome. It is likely that traders from both north and south would visit the settlements around Edinburgh.

Piracy in the Fourth Century

However, times were changing. Internal battles for control and pressures from the tribes along the Danube were sucking dry the resources of the Roman Empire. Lacking an adequate navy to retaliate against raiders the Romans were reduced to building a series of coastal forts. The Scots from Ireland, the Picts from the north and various tribes from Europe took the opportunity to loot the rich coastal lands of southern Britain. What part the Gododdin played in these ventures we do not know.

Religious Beliefs in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries

Celtic religious beliefs lingered on in Roman Britain. The Romans generally tolerated the religious beliefs of conquered people, providing they did not oppose their control of the province. North of Hadrian's Wall, Roman gods had no influence. Little is known about the religious practices of the Britons, but much of it was based on the earth, sky and seasons. Some of their festivals, like Beltane (1 May), Samhain (Halloween) and Yule are still remembered today. Plants such as oak, yew and mistletoe were sacred to their worshippers. The religious elite of the Britons during the conquest had represented a real threat to the Romans.

The fourth century saw massive changes in the Roman Empire. The wife of Constantius, the new governor, was a Christian convert who would have encouraged her fellow Christians. Her son, Constantine, became Roman Emperor and made Christianity the official religion of the Empire. A cemetery, discovered at Edinburgh's airport, contained some fifty burials. The report, in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquarians of Scotland 1977, on the excavations pointed out:

The cemetery consisted of long stone cists assumed to have contained skeletons laid on their backs and, with only a few exceptions, oriented east to west with the heads at the west end.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Story of Edinburgh"
by .
Copyright © 2017 John Peacock.
Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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Table of Contents

one Edinburgh During the Prehistoric Era,
two The First Millennium,
three The House of Canmore,
four Edinburgh in the Years 1296–1399,
five Edinburgh During the Fifteenth Century,
six The Early Sixteenth Century,
seven The Reformation,
eight The Reign of James VI,
nine Charles I and the Commonwealth,
ten Restoration and Revolution,
eleven The Early Eighteenth Century,
twelve The Late Eighteenth Century,
thirteen The Growing City, 1800–40,
fourteen Early Victorian Edinburgh,
fifteen Late Victorian Edinburgh, 1870–1901,
sixteen The Old Town,
seventeen The New Town,
eighteen Edwardian Edinburgh and the First World War,
nineteen The Inter-War Years, 1918–39,
twenty The Second World War,
twenty-one Post-War Edinburgh, 1945–59,
twenty-two The Last Decades of the Twentieth Century and Beyond,
References,
About the Author,