Date: Tuesday 21st February 2017
Forty five Strollers met up in Leith, under
the shadow of the statue of Queen Victoria, for
a wander round South Leith. Starting off by
learning about the story of the Kirkgate and the Gaiety Theatre where some
Strollers admitted to going to shows, which given it closed in 1956 shows that
the memory is still working! At the Trafalgar Masonic Hall built on the site of
the Preceptory and Hospital of the Blessed Confessor St Anthony founded by Sir
Robert Logan of Restalrig in 1430, we stopped to look at the many mason’s marks
on the walls. On to Trinity House to hear about starting classes at 6.a.m. and
finishing at 6.p.m., then learning about the local hostelry which stood next
door before entering the grounds of South Leith Parish Church which was badly
damaged in 1544 and 1547 as part or the ‘rough wooing’ by Henry VIII’s armies
and then in 1560 by the Lords of the Congregation besieging Leith. Moving from
there to the Links to hear more about the 1560 conflict, the plague pits and
the birth of the game of golf. Mary Queen of Scots and John Knox among others
are reputed to have played golf here. Passing the Leith Police station which
used to be the Leith Town Hall and Council Chamber, we heard about the
vote in 1920 not to join Edinburgh,
a result which was ignored by the councils. Nothing new then.
Then it was time for a look at the sites of the old wine, brandy and whisky warehouses, mostly now converted to housing, and then on to Lamb’s House where its alleged Mary Queen of Scots stayed when she first arrived back in Scotland, although her mother Mary of Guise had a house in nearby Rotten Row so it may have been there she stayed. Part of Lamb’s House is now the Icelandic Consul. We finished off at the Kings Wark beside the Water of Leith, where Mary and many other important figures in history landed on their way to Edinburgh.
Our thanks again to our guides Karen and Helen for all the work done for the walks and we’ll see them again next year!
Then it was time for a look at the sites of the old wine, brandy and whisky warehouses, mostly now converted to housing, and then on to Lamb’s House where its alleged Mary Queen of Scots stayed when she first arrived back in Scotland, although her mother Mary of Guise had a house in nearby Rotten Row so it may have been there she stayed. Part of Lamb’s House is now the Icelandic Consul. We finished off at the Kings Wark beside the Water of Leith, where Mary and many other important figures in history landed on their way to Edinburgh.
Our thanks again to our guides Karen and Helen for all the work done for the walks and we’ll see them again next year!
