Castlehill from the Lawnmarket

Category

Library Item

Item no

2214

Title

Castlehill from the Lawnmarket

Description

A photograph of Castlehill from the Lawnmarket in Edinburgh from a stereographic negative. Part of the Tolbooth Church can be seen. On the cobblestone road is a wheelbarrow. Street lamps line the pavement.

Artist / maker

Burns, Archibald

Date

1868

Size

11.5 x 19 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Despite living in the New Town, Stevenson was well acquainted with the shabby charm of Edinburgh's Old Town. The author was known to frequent some of the less respectable establishments in this area, especially during his bohemian university days. This image depicts the tenements, dark closes and narrow wynds characteristic of the Old Town at this time.

Lawnmarket is the section of Edinburgh's Royal Mile running from its junction with Johnston Terrace to where it meets George IV Bridge. Regular markets were held in this area until the late eighteenth century.

Castlehill is the section of the Royal Mile running from Castle Esplanade to the Lawnmarket in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Castle is perhaps the city's most famous landmark. It stands on top of the remaining core of an extinct volcano. Excavations suggest the site was inhabited by Bronze Age man as early as 900 BC, and was fortified by Iron Age man roughly 2000 years ago. The oldest part of the present day Castle is St Margaret's Chapel, built in the early 12th century. The Castle holds the Honours of Scotland and more recently has welcomed back the Stone of Scone otherwise known as the Stone of Destiny.

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Related subjects

Places > Edinburgh areas > Old Town

Places > Edinburgh areas > Royal Mile

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

(55°56′56″N, 3°11′41″W)

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