old town

Old Town


old town on the left, new on the right

old town

new town








tron kirk



cannongate tollbooth



Old Town consists of the Castle, Grassmarket, and the Royal Mile; and was the whole of Edinburgh until the late 18th century. The terrain in the vicinity of the Royal Mile especially made it more defensible. However, it was a fairly small area that had the natural barriers, and at times a great many people wanted the protection of the city (from the British), so the town had to built up, not out. Wooden versions of skyscrapers towered up next to each other, and an elaborate tunnel system was dug underneath the town as well.

The tunnels underneath the city have yet to be completely excavated. You can go on a couple of the city tours to see a little bit of them close to the surface, and hear tales about life in them. It was a place for the poor- there is no light, so people would live in this grand complex of tunnels in complete darkness. When one of the fires raged through the town, people retreated to the tunnels to escape the flames- only to cook inside the tunnels as they still conducted the heat, while they were trapped inside due to fallen debris over the entrances. During one of the outbreak of plague in the city, the people in the tunnels were blocked in to die. After one of these closures, the tunnels were abandoned and forgotten, and only recently re-excavated.

The buildings are so close together and warrened with passageways, so if a fire started, it was hard to get out- even with modern fire service, a fire started in one of the buildings and took out a couple of blocks. At least it didn't happen while the fire department was striking, which was not long before (signs everywhere asking people to not start fires!), but even so, it was very difficult to get to the fire, with the narrowness and maze-like aspects of the interiors of the buildings.


fire damage
to flowers