# Timeline of Edinburgh history

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Further information: [History of Edinburgh](/source/History_of_Edinburgh)

View of [Arthur's Seat](/source/Arthur's_Seat) from [Edinburgh Castle](/source/Edinburgh_Castle)

This article is a **timeline of the history of [Edinburgh](/source/Edinburgh)**, Scotland, up to the present day. It traces its rise from an early hill fort and later royal residence to the bustling city and capital of Scotland that it is today.

## 1st millennium

Part of a series on the History of Scotland Eras Prehistoric (timeline) 12,000 BC–700 BC Iron Age During the Roman Empire 69–384 Middle Ages Early High Late Early Modern Modern History (timeline) Rule House of Alpin (843–878; 889–1040) House of Moray (1040–1058) House of Dunkeld (1058–1286) House of Balliol (1292–1296) House of Bruce (1306–1371) House of Stuart (1371–1652) (1660–1707) Commonwealth (1652–1660) Acts of Union 1707 Topics Scandinavian Scotland 793–1468 Wars of independence Renaissance Reformation Restoration Glorious Revolution Colonization of the Americas Enlightenment Romanticism Clans The Scots language Economics Education Military Maritime Historiography Demography Natural history Culture Architecture Art The Kilt Literature Philosophy Politics Scottish Government First Minister of Scotland International relations Scottish Parliament Devolution Local government Scottish National Party Scottish Socialist Party Sport Football Rugby union National football team Golf Religion Church of Scotland Christianity Scottish Reformation Scottish Episcopal Church Great Disruption Jews and Judaism Islam and Muslims By region Edinburgh timeline Glasgow timeline Scotland portal v t e

Pre-1st century AD: Late [Bronze Age](/source/Bronze_Age) (c.600 BC) weapons were found in [Duddingston Loch](/source/Duddingston_Loch) in 1778. Traces of four [Iron Age](/source/Iron_Age) forts have been identified at [Arthur's Seat](/source/Arthur's_Seat), Dunsapie Crag, [Salisbury Crags](/source/Holyrood_Park#Salisbury_Crags) and [Samson's Ribs](/source/Holyrood_Park#Samson's_Ribs).[1]

2nd century AD: [Roman](/source/Roman_Empire) forts were built and manned at [Cramond](/source/Cramond) and [Inveresk](/source/Inveresk) on the western and eastern margins of the present-day city.

c.600: The traditional date of the military campaign, starting out from Edinburgh ("Din Eydin"), commemorated in the [Old Welsh](/source/Old_Welsh) poem *[Y Gododdin](/source/Y_Gododdin)* by the poet [Aneirin](/source/Aneirin). At this time the inhabitants of the region spoke predominantly Old Welsh (the ancestor of modern Welsh). The name of the king or chief whom the poem names as the leader of the [Gododdin](/source/Gododdin) was [Mynyddawc Mwynvawr](/source/Mynyddog_Mwynfawr).

c.638: Edinburgh is besieged by unknown forces, according to a chronicle kept at [Iona](/source/Iona) in the [Hebrides](/source/Hebrides). Many scholars have supposed that this siege marks the passing of control of the fort of Din Eydin from the Gododdin to the Northumbrian Angles, led by [Oswald of Northumbria](/source/Oswald_of_Northumbria)

731: Edinburgh is the most northerly outpost of the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria at the time of [Bede](/source/Bede), who completed his *[History](/source/Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_English_People)* in this year

840s–50s: [Cinaed mac Ailpin](/source/Cinaed_mac_Ailpin) (Kenneth MacAlpin) raids Northumbrian [Lothian](/source/Lothian#Lothian_under_the_control_of_the_Angles), burning [Dunbar](/source/Dunbar) and possibly Edinburgh, from his kingdom of the Scots north of the [Firth of Forth](/source/Firth_of_Forth)

854: The 12thC chronicler [Symeon of Durham](/source/Symeon_of_Durham) mentions a church at Edwinesburch in 854 AD

934: [Æthelstan](/source/%C3%86thelstan) attacks Lothian – according to the [Annals of Clonmacnoise](/source/Annals_of_Clonmacnoise), "Adalstan king of the Saxons preyed & spoyled the kingdom of Scotland to Edenburrogh, & yet the Scottishmen compelled him to return without any great victory"

c.960: Edinburgh comes under Scottish rule during the reign of [Indulf](/source/Indulf) (954–62)

## 11th century

c.1018: [Malcolm II](/source/Malcolm_II_of_Scotland) secures Lothian for his kingdom after the [Battle of Carham](/source/Battle_of_Carham)[2]

1074: Refortification of the [castle](/source/Edinburgh_Castle) begins under [Malcolm III](/source/Malcolm_III_of_Scotland) who uses it increasingly as a royal residence

1093: [Queen Margaret](/source/Saint_Margaret_of_Scotland) dies in the castle and is taken to [Dunfermline](/source/Dunfermline_Abbey) for burial

## 12th century

1124 to 1127: Royal Charter by [David I](/source/David_I_of_Scotland) granting a toft in "burgo meo de Edenesburg" to the Priory of Dunfermline, perhaps implying [Royal burgh](/source/Royal_burgh) status for Edinburgh

1128: King David I founds [Holyrood Abbey](/source/Holyrood_Abbey)[3]

c.1130: Probable date of [St Margaret's Chapel](/source/St_Margaret's_Chapel%2C_Edinburgh) erected inside Edinburgh Castle,[4] now recognised as Edinburgh's oldest building

c.1143: David I grants the [Augustinian canons](/source/Augustinians) of Holyrood leave "to establish a burgh between that church and my burgh", thus founding the burgh of [Canongate](/source/Canongate)

1162: Edinburgh is the caput of the [Lothian](/source/Lothian) [sheriffdom](/source/Sheriff)

## 13th century

1230: [Alexander II](/source/Alexander_II_of_Scotland) founds large [Dominican](/source/Dominican_Order) [friary](/source/Friary) (Blackfriars);[5] a hospital is also open

1243: Edinburgh's parish church dedicated to [St Giles](/source/Saint_Giles)

1274: Lothian is an archdeaconry of [St. Andrews](/source/Archdiocese_of_St_Andrews)

1296: Edward I captures and garrisons Edinburgh Castle after a three-day-long siege employing catapults

## 14th century

1314: [Edinburgh Castle](/source/Edinburgh_Castle) captured by [Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray](/source/Thomas_Randolph%2C_1st_Earl_of_Moray); the castle is [slighted](/source/Slighting) on the orders of [Robert the Bruce](/source/Robert_the_Bruce) to deny English occupiers a stronghold in the future[6]

1326–1331: Edinburgh's contribution to Scottish burgh taxes is 15%, half that of [Aberdeen](/source/Aberdeen)

1328: The [Treaty of Edinburgh](/source/Treaty_of_Edinburgh%E2%80%93Northampton) is signed guaranteeing Scottish independence[7]

1329: [Robert I](/source/Robert_the_Bruce)'s charter confirms the town royal burgh status with powers over the port of [Leith](/source/Leith) and its mills

1330: Wall between High Street and [Cowgate](/source/Cowgate) is first mentioned

1334: Scotland loses [Berwick](/source/Berwick-upon-Tweed) and Edinburgh Castle to the English (the loss of her main port increases the importance of Edinburgh and Leith)

1335: The castle is refortified by [Edward III of England](/source/Edward_III_of_England)

1341: Scots regain castle from English

1349: An outbreak of the [Black Death](/source/Black_Death) occurs[8]

1356: [Burnt Candlemas](/source/Burnt_Candlemas): Edward III burns the town but then retreats from lack of provisions

1357: [David II](/source/David_II_of_Scotland) returns after 11 years of captivity in England

1360: The castle is the usual royal residence, being strengthened in stone

1363: First reference to [Grassmarket](/source/Grassmarket) as "the street called Newbygging under the castle"

1364: David II grants ground for building of new [tron](/source/Tron_(Scotland)) (weigh beam)

1365: [Jean Froissart](/source/Jean_Froissart) visits Edinburgh. In his [Chronicles](/source/Froissart's_Chronicles) he calls Edinburgh the "capital of Scotland" and the "Paris of Scotland"

1367: David II begins work on major fortifications at castle

1371: David II dies unexpectedly at the castle[9]

1384: [Duke of Lancaster](/source/John_of_Gaunt%2C_1st_Duke_of_Lancaster) extorts ransom following end of truce

1385: [Richard II of England](/source/Richard_II_of_England) burns the town

1386: [Robert II](/source/Robert_II_of_Scotland) grants ground for building of a [tolbooth](/source/Tolbooth)

1387: Five new [chapels](/source/Chapel) are added to the Church of St Giles following English damage in 1385

1398: Edinburgh buys the east bank of the Water of Leith at South Leith from Sir Robert Logan with the right to erect wharves and quays and to make roads through the lands of Restalrig (the later [Easter Road](/source/Easter_Road%2C_Edinburgh)) for the transport of goods and merchandise to and from the town

1400: [Henry IV](/source/Henry_IV_of_England) attempts to storm castle when [Robert III](/source/Robert_III_of_Scotland) refuses homage.

## 15th century

1403: The earliest burgh record mentions the "Pretorio burgi" – the [Old Tolbooth](/source/Old_Tolbooth%2C_Edinburgh)

1414: Edinburgh is granted further lands at Leith by Sir Robert Logan

1427: [King's Wall](/source/Edinburgh_town_walls#King's_Wall) first recorded

1437: The murder of [James I](/source/James_I_of_Scotland) at [Perth](/source/Perth%2C_Scotland) leads to Edinburgh becoming the main royal residence and site of Parliaments, hence seen increasingly as the capital of Scotland

1438: The Old Tolbooth is used by the [Estates of Parliament](/source/Parliament_of_Scotland) for the first time

1440: The [Earl of Douglas](/source/William_Douglas%2C_6th_Earl_of_Douglas) and his brother are murdered at the castle by [Chancellor Crichton](/source/William_Crichton%2C_1st_Lord_Crichton)

1440s: Edinburgh has 47% of Scottish [wool](/source/Wool) trade

1450: [James II](/source/James_II_of_Scotland) grants charter permitting the building of a defensive town wall

1451: First record of Incorporation of [Skinners](/source/Skinner_(profession))

1455–1458: Greyfriars ([Franciscan](/source/Franciscans)) [friary](/source/Friary) is founded

1457: The 20in (508mm) siege gun "[Mons Meg](/source/Mons_Meg)" is received at the castle; Deacon of [goldsmiths](/source/Goldsmith) begins assaying and marking of works

1458: Edinburgh has one of three supreme courts in the country

1460: [Trinity College Kirk](/source/Trinity_College_Kirk) and Hospital founded by [Mary of Guelders](/source/Mary_of_Guelders)

1467–1469: St Giles' gains collegiate status, a [provost](/source/Provost_(religion)) and 14 [prebendaries](/source/Prebendary) are established

1474: Furriers and [Tailors](/source/Tailor) crafts become incorporations

1475: [Websters](/source/Weaving), [Wrights](/source/Wright) and [Masons](/source/Stonemasonry) crafts incorporated

1477: Charter of [James III](/source/James_III_of_Scotland) ratifying and confirming the location of markets within the burgh;[10] The Hammermen ([smiths](/source/Metalsmith)) are incorporated

1479: A hospital is set up in Leith Wynd; [Cordiners](/source/Shoemaking) second Seal of Cause (a charter of privileges) granted

1482: [James III](/source/James_III_of_Scotland) awards the Crafts of Edinburgh the flag known as the 'Blue Blanket'

1485: Oppressive rules against dealings with inhabitants of Leith; stone [tenements](/source/Tenement) appear in the town

1488: Seal of Cause granted to the Incorporation of [Fleshers](/source/Butcher)

1490: The Franciscan friary closes

1492: Goldsmiths, originally part of Incorporation of Hammermen, form their own incorporation; [Baxters](/source/Baker) incorporated

1497: Outbreak of the "grandgore" ([syphilis](/source/Syphilis)); infected persons are quarantined at the King's command on the island of [Inchkeith](/source/Inchkeith) in the Firth of Forth

1500: Edinburgh pays 60% of Scotland's customs revenue; [Waulkers](/source/Fulling) craft granted Seal of Cause; c.1500 [Candlemakers](/source/History_of_candle_making#Profession_of_candle_making) receive Seal of Cause

## 16th century

1501-5: [James IV](/source/James_IV_of_Scotland) builds [Holyrood Palace](/source/Holyrood_Palace)[3]

1503: James IV marries [Margaret Tudor](/source/Margaret_Tudor)[11]

1505: [Barber surgeons](/source/Barber_surgeon) form incorporation – later becomes [Royal College of Surgeons](/source/Royal_College_of_Surgeons_of_Edinburgh)[12]

1507: James IV grants a patent for the first printing press in Scotland to [Walter Chepman](/source/Walter_Chepman) and [Androw Myllar](/source/Androw_Myllar)[13]

1508: James IV charter allows first [feuing](/source/Feu_(land_tenure)) of the [burgh muir](/source/Burgh_Muir)

1510: Edinburgh purchases [Newhaven](/source/Newhaven%2C_Edinburgh) from the Crown

1512: Launching of the "[Great Michael](/source/Great_Michael)" at Newhaven

1513: Defeat at [Flodden](/source/Battle_of_Flodden) leads to a new southern [wall](/source/Edinburgh_town_walls#Flodden_Wall) being begun[5]

1520: "[Cleanse the Causeway](/source/Cleanse_the_Causeway)" (30 April); pitched battle on the [High Street](/source/Royal_Mile) between the [Douglas](/source/Clan_Douglas) and [Hamilton](/source/Clan_Hamilton) clans leads to the [Earl of Angus](/source/Archibald_Douglas%2C_6th_Earl_of_Angus) (Douglas) seizing control of the town; Edinburgh is the "seat of courts of justice"

1523: The town has 14 [craft guilds](/source/Craft_guilds)

1528: [James V](/source/James_V) enters the town with an army, to assert his right to rule; Holyrood Palace is extended

c.1528–c.1542: printing in Edinburgh re-established under royal licence granted to [Thomas Davidson](/source/Thomas_Davidson_(printer))

1530: There are 288 [brewers](/source/Brewing), mostly "alewives", in the town, one for every 40 people; Bonnetmakers craft receives Seal of Cause

1532: The [Court of Session](/source/Court_of_Session) is established

1534: Norman Gourlay and David Stratton are burnt as [heretics](/source/Heresy)

1535–1556: Edinburgh contributes over 40% of Scotland's burgh taxation

1537: [Janet Douglas, Lady Glamis](/source/Janet_Douglas%2C_Lady_Glamis) is [burnt at the stake](/source/Death_by_burning)

c.1540: [Magdalen Chapel](/source/Magdalen_Chapel%2C_Edinburgh) built in the Cowgate[14][15]

1544: [Earl of Hertford](/source/Edward_Seymour%2C_1st_Duke_of_Somerset) [burns the town](/source/Burning_of_Edinburgh), including Holyrood Palace and Abbey

1547: Scottish army defeated by an English army at the [battle of Pinkie](/source/Battle_of_Pinkie) six miles east of Edinburgh; the routed Scots are pursued as far as Holyrood outside the town walls

1550: [John Napier](/source/John_Napier) of Merchiston, discoverer of [logarithms](/source/Logarithm), born

1558: Reformers destroy Blackfriars Monastery and Church;[5] the Flodden Wall is completed; Edinburgh's population is about 12,000; there are 367 merchants, and 400 craftsmen

1559: Town council appoints [John Knox](/source/John_Knox) minister at [St. Giles](/source/St_Giles'_Cathedral)

1560: English and French troops at the [Siege of Leith](/source/Siege_of_Leith) withdraw under [Treaty of Edinburgh](/source/Treaty_of_Edinburgh); [Scottish Reformation Parliament](/source/Scottish_Reformation_Parliament) abolishes papal authority in Scotland

1561: Town council quells apprentice riot against banning (by 1555 Act of Parliament) of traditional May Day "Robin Hood" pageant; [Mary, Queen of Scots](/source/Mary%2C_Queen_of_Scots) returns to Scotland

1562: St. Giles' churchyard having reached capacity, Queen Mary grants town the use of the grounds of the Greyfriars as a new burial ground; Convenery of the Trades of Edinburgh established

1565: Mary, Queen of Scots, marries [Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley](/source/Henry_Stuart%2C_Lord_Darnley); the beheading machine known as "[The Maiden](/source/Maiden_(guillotine))" is introduced for executions

1566: [David Rizzio](/source/David_Rizzio) is stabbed to death and Queen Mary is held captive in Holyrood Palace by Scottish nobles. She escapes to [Dunbar Castle](/source/Dunbar_Castle) and returns to Edinburgh with an army 9 days after Rizzio's murder.[16]

1567: [Darnley is assassinated](/source/Murder_of_Lord_Darnley) at the [Kirk o' Field](/source/Kirk_o'_Field); the prime suspect [James Hepburn](/source/James_Hepburn%2C_4th_Earl_of_Bothwell) is cleared of the murder; Edinburgh acquires South Leith

1569: The town is hit by an outbreak of the plague

1571: [Netherbow Port](/source/Edinburgh_town_walls#Flodden_Wall) rebuilt[17]

1573: The [Marian civil war](/source/Marian_civil_war) is concluded when "the Queen's Men" are ousted from the castle by the [Regent Morton](/source/Regent_Morton)

1574: The castle's Half-Moon [Battery](/source/Artillery_battery) is built; there are seven mills in Edinburgh

1579: [James VI](/source/James_VI_and_I) makes his [State Entry to Edinburgh](/source/Entry_of_James_VI_into_Edinburgh)

1580s: There are some 400 merchants in Edinburgh

1581: [James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton](/source/James_Douglas%2C_4th_Earl_of_Morton) is executed for complicity in the murder of Lord Darnley

1582: The [University of Edinburgh](/source/University_of_Edinburgh) is founded and given a [royal charter](/source/Royal_charter) – it is Scotland's fourth university

1583: Edinburgh, previously a single parish, divided into four parishes, each with its own minister; There are an estimated 500 merchants and 500 craftsmen in the town, of which 250 are [tailors](/source/Tailor)

1585: [Plague comes to Edinburgh](/source/Edinburgh_plague_of_1585), the sick are quarantined at the [Burgh Muir](/source/Burgh_Muir).[18]

1588: 736 merchants and 717 craftsmen enlisted for defence of the town against the [Spanish Armada](/source/Spanish_Armada) threat

1590: First paper mill in Scotland opens at [Mungo Russell's Dalry Mills](/source/Mungo_Russell_(merchant)) (near [Roseburn](/source/Roseburn)).[19]

1590: [Entry and coronation of Anne of Denmark](/source/Entry_and_coronation_of_Anne_of_Denmark).[20]

c.1590: Riddle's Court, off the [Lawnmarket](/source/Royal_Mile#Lawnmarket), built by Bailie [John MacMorran](/source/John_MacMorran), reputedly Edinburgh's richest merchant

1591: [Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell](/source/Francis_Stewart%2C_5th_Earl_of_Bothwell) escapes from imprisonment in Edinburgh castle.[21]

1592: The [kirk session](/source/Presbyterian_polity#Session) of St. Giles conducts the first Edinburgh census: there are 2,239 households with 8,003 adults (over 12 years of age), split evenly between north and south of the High Street; 45 per cent of the employed (4,360) are domestic servants in households of the legal and merchant professions and town houses of the landed class

1593: Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, [raids Holyrood Palace](/source/Raid_of_Holyrood).[22]

1594: Earl of Bothwell fails to seize the town

1595: Bailie John McMorran shot dead during an occupation by scholars of the Grammar School in High School Yards

1596: Clergy demand arms to defend King and Church against "papists"; Society of Brewers formed

1599: The [Convention of Estates](/source/Convention_of_Estates) meeting in Edinburgh ordains that the new year should begin on 1 January instead of 25 March

1600: Roads out of Edinburgh number twelve; the town council orders a gun salute, church bells rung and bonfires lit in thanks for King James's escape from the [Gowrie conspiracy](/source/Gowrie_conspiracy); royal printers active in the period included [Robert Waldegrave](/source/Robert_Waldegrave) and Robert Charteris

## 17th century

1602–c.1620: Construction of [Greyfriars Kirk](/source/Greyfriars_Kirk)

1603: King [James VI](/source/James_VI_and_I) of Scotland succeeds to the English throne and leaves Edinburgh; [golf clubs](/source/Golf_club) manufactured for the King by William Mayne

1604: Execution by hanging of a chief of the MacGregors and eleven of his clansmen for the [Colquhoun massacre](/source/Colquhoun_massacre)

1606: Netherbow Port rebuilt, replacing ruinous 1571 Port

1607: Town council employs Englishman [John Orley](/source/John_Norlie) and four "expert musicianes" playing [shawms](/source/Shawm) and [hautbois](/source/Oboe) as a town band

1608: Town council orders bonfires lit on 5 November in remembrance of the treasonable [Gunpowder Plot](/source/Gunpowder_Plot)

1610–1621: Printer [Andro Hart](/source/Andro_Hart) active

1611: Town council appoints three postmasters with responsibility for the hiring of post horses.

1613: [John Maxwell, 9th Lord Maxwell](/source/John_Maxwell%2C_9th_Lord_Maxwell) hanged for the murder of the Laird of [Johnstone](/source/Johnstone)

1614: [Napier](/source/John_Napier)'s book of [logarithms](/source/Logarithm) published[23]

1615: Execution of [Patrick Stewart, 2nd Earl of Orkney](/source/Patrick_Stewart%2C_2nd_Earl_of_Orkney) after rebellion to overthrow [the king](/source/James_VI_and_I)

1617: James VI visits Edinburgh for the only time after the [Union of the Crowns](/source/Union_of_the_Crowns); 1550s building extended to form 5-storey and attic tenement in Lawnmarket later known as [Gladstone's Land](/source/Gladstone's_Land)

1618: Some tenement buildings reach seven storeys; population c. 25,000, of which approx. 475 are merchants

1619: The [privy council](/source/Privy_council) orders the town to clean up its streets; a hospital of 1479 converted into a [workhouse](/source/Workhouse)

1620: Construction of [Tailor's Hall](/source/Tailor's_Hall) in the Cowgate[24]

1621: Edinburgh and [Leith](/source/Leith) pays 44% of Scottish non-wine customs duty, and 66% of wine duty

1622: "Lady Gray's House", later "Lady Stair's House" (now the [Writers' Museum](/source/Writers'_Museum)), built; fleshers required to move slaughterhouses to banks of the North Loch

1624: Plague epidemic; [George Heriot](/source/George_Heriot) dies after bequeathing a hospital for the maintenance and education of the "puir, faitherless bairns" of deceased Edinburgh [burgesses](/source/Burgess_(title))

1628–1659: Construction of [Heriot's Hospital](/source/George_Heriot's_School)

c.1628–1636: Telfer Wall, named after its builder, is built to enclose Greyfriars Kirk and Heriot's Hospital within the town's defences

1632: Construction begins on the new [Parliament House](/source/Parliament_House%2C_Edinburgh) for the [Parliament of Scotland](/source/Parliament_of_Scotland)

1633: Edinburgh designated a [bishopric](/source/Diocese); Scottish coronation of [Charles I](/source/Charles_I_of_England) at Holyrood Abbey offends [Presbyterian](/source/Presbyterian) sentiments

1635: First public Post established between Edinburgh and London by royal authority

1636: Edinburgh buys Regality of Canongate together with North Leith, parts of South Leith, and [Pleasance](/source/Pleasance_(street)); construction of the [Tron Kirk](/source/Tron_Kirk) begun; population of the town c.30,000

1637: Riots in protest at the introduction of a new [Prayer Book](/source/Scottish_Prayer_Book_(1637));[25] [supplication](/source/Supplication) to remove [bishops](/source/Bishop) from the [privy council](/source/Privy_council)

1638: [National Covenant](/source/Covenanter) signed in [Greyfriars Kirkyard](/source/Greyfriars_Kirkyard)[26]

1639: Decisions of Glasgow [Church of Scotland assembly](/source/Church_of_Scotland_assembly) ratified

1640: Completion of Parliament House

1641: Birth of Sir [Robert Sibbald](/source/Robert_Sibbald), Geographer Royal[27]

1642 or 1645: [Mary King's Close](/source/Mary_King's_Close) abandoned

1645-46: Outbreak of plague in Edinburgh and Leith[28]

1647: James Gordon of Rothiemay's map of Edinburgh; completion of the Tron Kirk

1649: [Scottish Estates](/source/Parliament_of_Scotland) proclaim succession of [Charles II](/source/Charles_II_of_England) on 5 February; execution of [George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Huntly](/source/George_Gordon%2C_2nd_Marquess_of_Huntly) by [Covenanters](/source/Covenanters); the suburbs of [West Port](/source/West_Port%2C_Edinburgh) and Potterrow purchased by the town council and erected into the barony of [Portsburgh](/source/Portsburgh)

1650: Execution of [James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose](/source/James_Graham%2C_1st_Marquess_of_Montrose), by hanging; surrender of Edinburgh Castle to invading forces of [Oliver Cromwell](/source/Oliver_Cromwell); early fire engine in Edinburgh; much of the Palace of Holyrood destroyed by fire;

1652: Introduction of a stagecoach to London with a journey time of a fortnight

1653: General Assembly broken up by English forces

1655: Council of state established; ministers yielded to the English

1657: The Guild of Apothecaries and Surgeons is established by the town council[8]

1659: Camel seen for the first time in the city ("Ane great beast calit ane drummondary, cleven futted like unto a kow.")

1660: Government of Scotland resumed by the [Committee of Estates](/source/Committee_of_Estates); the *[Mercurius Caledonius](/source/Mercurius_Caledonius)*, arguably the first Scottish newspaper, written and edited by [Thomas Sydserf](/source/Thomas_Sydserf), published on 31 December

1661: Execution of [Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll](/source/Archibald_Campbell%2C_1st_Marquess_of_Argyll)[29]

1663: Execution of [Archibald Johnston](/source/Archibald_Johnston) of Warriston, co-author of the National Covenant of 1638; Edinburgh buys the burgh of regality of Leith Citadel

1671: [John Law](/source/John_Law_(economist)), founder of the [Banque Générale](/source/Banque_G%C3%A9n%C3%A9rale), born[30]

1673: City's first [coffeehouse](/source/Coffeehouse) opens at the head of [Parliament Close](/source/Parliament_Square%2C_Edinburgh); 20 licensed hackney coaches are available for hire

1674: German engineer, Peter Brauss or Brusche, creates a piped water supply, drawn gravitationally from Comiston Springs, three and a half miles from the city, to a cistern on Castle Hill; after a major fire in the High Street the town council orders all ruinous and burned tenements henceforth to be rebuilt in stone

1675: Physic garden planted at Holyrood founded by [Robert Sibbald](/source/Robert_Sibbald)[31]

1678: First regular stagecoach to Glasgow

1679: Some 1200 [Covenanters](/source/Covenanters) are imprisoned at [Greyfriars](/source/Greyfriars_Kirk) after the [battle of Bothwell Bridge](/source/Battle_of_Bothwell_Bridge); some are executed in the [Grassmarket](/source/Grassmarket); town council organises a Town Guard (or [City Guard](/source/City_guard)) for prevention of crime and disorder (disbanded 1817)

1681: [Royal College of Physicians](/source/Royal_College_of_Physicians) founded by Robert Sibbald[32] under patronage of the Duke of Albany and York (later [King James VII and II](/source/James_II_of_England)); [Merchant Company of Edinburgh](/source/Merchant_Company_of_Edinburgh) receives Royal Charter; [Viscount Stair](/source/James_Dalrymple%2C_1st_Viscount_of_Stair)'s *Institutions of the Laws of Scotland* published

1682: [Advocates Library](/source/Advocates_Library), forerunner of the [National Library of Scotland](/source/National_Library_of_Scotland), founded by Sir [George Mackenzie](/source/George_Mackenzie_of_Rosehaugh) with the Duke of Albany as patron; [Mons Meg](/source/Mons_Meg) bursts during salute to the [Duke of Albany and York](/source/James_II_of_England) on his entry to the town

1687: Goldsmiths granted Royal Charter

1688: Collapse of royal government in Scotland after Lord Chancellor [James Drummond, 4th Earl of Perth](/source/James_Drummond%2C_4th_Earl_of_Perth) flees; mob riot wrecks [James VII](/source/James_II_of_England)'s royal chapel in [Holyrood Abbey](/source/Holyrood_Abbey)

1689: The [Convention of Estates](/source/Convention_of_Estates_(1689)) accepts the rule of [William of Orange](/source/William_III_of_England) by right of conquest; [Leven's Regiment](/source/Leven's_Regiment) (later [K.O.S.B.](/source/King's_Own_Scottish_Borderers)) raised for defence of the city against [Jacobites](/source/Jacobite_rising_of_1689); John Chiesley of Dalry hanged for the murder of the [Lord Advocate](/source/Lord_Advocate), [Sir George Lockhart](/source/George_Lockhart%2C_Lord_Carnwath)

1690s: Legal profession calculated to be more wealthy than merchant class; over 20% of the population employed in manufacture

1691: New [Canongate Kirk](/source/Canongate_Kirk) completed;[33] tax records reveal the city has 18 schoolmasters, 7 schoolmistresses, 40 booksellers, printers and stationers, and 65 wigmakers

1694: Professional classes outnumber merchants; 200 legals (advocates to lawyers), 24 surgeons, and 33 physicians; other occupations included aleseller, executioner, royal trumpeter, and keeper of the [signet](/source/Seal_(emblem)); ratio of sexes, 70 males:100 females; domestic servants number over 5000

1695: [Bank of Scotland](/source/Bank_of_Scotland) established by Act of Parliament;[34] the Company of Scotland devises the [Darien scheme](/source/Darien_scheme)[35]

1697: Execution of [Thomas Aikenhead](/source/Thomas_Aikenhead) for blasphemy[36]

1698: Five ships set sail from Leith on 14 July to found a Scottish colony on the [Isthmus of Darien](/source/Isthmus_of_Panama)

1700: Fire destroys Edinburgh's, some say Europe's, highest buildings behind St. Giles; [Darien scheme](/source/Darien_scheme) fails when colony is abandoned

## 18th century

1702: Advocates Library moved to the Laigh Hall in Parliament House

1706: Framework knitters from [Haddington](/source/Haddington%2C_East_Lothian) are working in Edinburgh

1707: [Act of Union](/source/Acts_of_Union_1707) passed by the [Parliament of Scotland](/source/Parliament_of_Scotland)[37]

1711: [David Hume](/source/David_Hume), philosopher, is born[38]

1713: The main radial roads into Edinburgh are [turnpiked](/source/Turnpike_trust)

1715: [Jacobites](/source/Jacobitism) occupy [Leith Citadel](/source/Leith#History), but make no attempt to enter Edinburgh

1718: *Edinburgh Evening Courant* newspaper is launched; [damasks](/source/Damask) are woven at Drumsheugh

1720s: [Daniel Defoe](/source/Daniel_Defoe) praises the [High Street](/source/High_Street%2C_Edinburgh), decries [Old Tolbooth](/source/Old_Tolbooth%2C_Edinburgh), notes sales of woollens, linens, drapery and *[mercery](/source/Mercery)*

1722: [Signet Library](/source/Society_of_Writers_to_His_Majesty's_Signet) is founded[39]

1725: Barony of Calton (including [Calton Hill](/source/Calton_Hill)) purchased by the city

1726: The poet [Allan Ramsay](/source/Allan_Ramsay_(poet)) establishes Britain's first circulating library;[40] [Edinburgh Medical School](/source/Edinburgh_Medical_School) founded at the town's college;[8] [James Hutton](/source/James_Hutton), geologist, is born

1727: [Royal Bank of Scotland](/source/Royal_Bank_of_Scotland) established[41]

1729: The city's first [infirmary](/source/Hospital) is opened

1733: [Alexander Monro Secundus](/source/Alexander_Monro_Secundus), discoverer of [lymphatic](/source/Lymphatic_system) and [nervous systems](/source/Nervous_system), is born

1735: Golf is played on [Bruntsfield Links](/source/Bruntsfield_Links); also the traditional date for the founding of the Royal Burgess Golfing Society

1736: The [Royal Infirmary](/source/Royal_Infirmary_of_Edinburgh) is given a [Royal charter](/source/Royal_charter);[42] [Porteous Riots](/source/Porteous_Riots) shake the city

1737: The [Lord provost](/source/Lord_provost) is debarred from office following the riots

1738: Edinburgh is described as the "world's leading medical centre"; [George Watson's College](/source/George_Watson's_College) is founded[43]

1739: *[The Scots Magazine](/source/The_Scots_Magazine)* is first published in the city

1740: There are four printing firms in Edinburgh; the biographer [James Boswell](/source/James_Boswell) is born

1741: Royal Infirmary designed by [William Adam](/source/William_Adam_(architect)) opens in, what became, Infirmary Street

1744: The first premises at Fountainbridge are built, with more than five looms; first known rules of golf drawn up in Edinburgh for the Gentlemen Golfers of Edinburgh for a competition at [Leith Links](/source/Leith_Links)

1745: [Charles Edward Stuart](/source/Charles_Edward_Stuart) enters the city and proclaims his father [James VIII and III](/source/James_Francis_Edward_Stuart); in the "Canter of Coltbrigg", dragoons flee Jacobites

1746: The [British Linen Company](/source/British_Linen_Bank) is formed

1747: A theatre is established at Playhouse Close in the Canongate

1748: Moral philosopher and political economist [Adam Smith](/source/Adam_Smith) delivers his first series of public lectures at the [University of Edinburgh](/source/University_of_Edinburgh)

1749: A stagecoach service opens between Edinburgh and Glasgow

1750: Birth of the poet [Robert Fergusson](/source/Robert_Fergusson)[44]

1751: A survey shows a severe state of [dilapidation](/source/Dilapidation) in the [Old Town](/source/Old_Town%2C_Edinburgh)

1752: [Convention of Royal Burghs](/source/Convention_of_Royal_Burghs) publishes proposals for new public buildings, the draining of the [Nor Loch](/source/Nor_Loch) and the city's expansion, which are accepted and implemented by the town council

1753: Stagecoach services are introduced to London (taking two weeks)

1754: Building of the Royal Exchange (later [Edinburgh City Chambers](/source/Edinburgh_City_Chambers)) in the High Street begins; the Select Society is founded; [Mons Meg](/source/Mons_Meg) removed from the castle to the [Tower of London](/source/Tower_of_London)

1755: Dr. Webster's census puts the population of Edinburgh, Canongate, St Cuthbert's and Leith at 57,220

1757–1770: Linen weaving works in Canongate

1758: Stagecoach services are introduced to [Newcastle](/source/Newcastle_upon_Tyne) (taking one week)

1760: [Thomas Braidwood](/source/Thomas_Braidwood) establishes first school in Britain for deaf children; the main linen stamping office is in the city

1760s: Woollen cloth is *beetled* in a *lapping house* in Edinburgh

1761: The Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society is formed

1763: Draining of the eastern end of the [Nor Loch](/source/Nor_Loch) and construction of the [North Bridge](/source/North_Bridge%2C_Edinburgh), designed by [William Mylne](/source/William_Mylne), begins; [St Cecilia's Hall](/source/St_Cecilia's_Hall), by [Robert Mylne](/source/Robert_Mylne_(mason)), Scotland's first purpose-built concert hall, erected; a four-horse coach runs to Glasgow three times a week

1764: [Netherbow Port](/source/Edinburgh_town_walls#Flodden_Wall) demolished to facilitate traffic flow

1765: The Glasgow coach now runs daily

1766: The competition to design the [New Town](/source/New_Town%2C_Edinburgh) is won by [James Craig](/source/James_Craig_(architect))

1767: Construction of the New Town begins with the first residence being built in Thistle Court.

1768-71: First edition of [Encyclopædia Britannica](/source/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica) produced in Anchor Close

1769: Opening of the first [Theatre Royal](/source/Theatre_Royal%2C_Edinburgh) at the north end of the North Bridge; 5 people killed by the collapse of the bridge's southern abutment; Society of Bowlers founded and draws up rules of the game

1770s: There are 27 competing printing firms in the city

1771: Sir [Walter Scott](/source/Walter_Scott) is born in College Wynd

1772: Reconstruction of the North Bridge completed; building of [Dundas House](/source/Dundas_House), on [St Andrew Square](/source/St_Andrew_Square%2C_Edinburgh), designed by [Sir William Chambers](/source/William_Chambers_(architect)) begins

1773: [Dr Johnson](/source/Samuel_Johnson) visits Edinburgh; [Penny Post](/source/Penny_Post) begun by [Peter Williamson](/source/Peter_Williamson_(memoirist))

1774: Construction of [Robert Adam](/source/Robert_Adam)'s [Register House](/source/National_Archives_of_Scotland#General_Register_House) at east end of Princes Street begins

Mid 1770s: The [British Linen Company](/source/British_Linen_Bank) completely switches to banking[45]

1775: Population of Edinburgh, Canongate, St Cuthbert's and Leith is 70,430; new St Cuthbert's Church opens; a directory of brothels and prostitutes is published

1777: A new [High School](/source/Royal_High_School%2C_Edinburgh) building opens in High School Yards; 8 legal and 400 illegal [distilleries](/source/Distillery) in the city

1778: [Younger's Brewery](/source/Younger's_Brewery) established within the precincts of Holyrood Abbey[46]

1780: National Museum of Antiquities established as part of [Society of Antiquaries of Scotland](/source/Society_of_Antiquaries_of_Scotland) (later housed in the Royal Institution on The Mound in 1827 and in Queen Street in 1891)

1782: System of parliamentary representation is criticised by Thomas McGrugar in "*Letters of Zeno*"

1783: [Royal Society of Edinburgh](/source/Royal_Society_of_Edinburgh) created by Royal Charter for "the advancement of learning and useful knowledge"; [Society of Antiquaries of Scotland](/source/Society_of_Antiquaries_of_Scotland) incorporated by Royal Charter for "the study of the antiquities and history of Scotland..."; proposal for the construction of "[The Earthen Mound](/source/The_Mound)" begins[47]

1784: [James Tytler](/source/James_Tytler) makes the first hot-air balloon ascent in Britain from Comely Gardens to Restalrig village; meeting discusses corrupt electoral system

1785: Italian balloonist [Vincent Lunardi](/source/Vincenzo_Lunardi) makes his first Scottish hydrogen balloon flight from the grounds of Heriot's School, landing 46 miles away in [Ceres, Fife](/source/Ceres%2C_Fife); Old Tolbooth becomes usual place of execution[48]

1785–1786: Stone bridge at [Stockbridge](/source/Stockbridge%2C_Edinburgh)

1785–1788: The [South Bridge](/source/South_Bridge%2C_Edinburgh) is built

1786: The [Ayrshire](/source/Ayrshire) poet [Robert Burns](/source/Robert_Burns) is fêted by the city's social elite

1787: New [Assembly Rooms](/source/Assembly_Rooms_(Edinburgh)) opened in George Street[49]

1788: [William Brodie](/source/William_Brodie) is executed – leader of a gang of robbers

1789: The first stone of Edinburgh University's [Old College](/source/Old_College%2C_University_of_Edinburgh) is laid[50][51]

1791: A census puts the population of the city at 82,706 with 29,718 in the City of Edinburgh (22,512 in the Old Town and 7,206 in the New Town), 6,200 in Canongate Parish, 32,947 in St Cuthbert's Parish, 11,432 in South Leith Parish and 2,409 in North Leith Parish; [Robert Burns](/source/Robert_Burns) visits the city for the second and last time

1792: [The Friends of the People Society](/source/Society_of_the_Friends_of_the_People#Friends_of_the_People_in_Scotland) meets for the first time; Charlotte Square designed by Robert Adam; James Craig's Old Observatory completed on Calton Hill

1793: Sedition trials held: [Thomas Muir of Huntershill](/source/Thomas_Muir_of_Huntershill) and other radical reformers are sentenced to transportation

1794: Robert Watt, a former spy, is sentenced to death for "Pike Plot"

1797: Snuff manufacturer James Gillespie dies after bequeathing a hospital for the aged poor and a "free school for the education of poor boys"

1799: City has access to 3 million litres of drinking water a day

1800: Stein's Canongate brewery is built

## 19th century

1802: Demolition of the [Luckenbooths](/source/Luckenbooths) (apart from east-most) in the High Street begins; architects William Sibbald and [Robert Reid](/source/Robert_Reid_(architect)) produce a final plan for the building of a 'Second New Town' north of James Craig's New Town; the *[Edinburgh Review](/source/Edinburgh_Review)* is published[52]

1802–1806: [Bank of Scotland](/source/Bank_of_Scotland) head office is built

1803: [William](/source/William_Wordsworth) and [Dorothy Wordsworth](/source/Dorothy_Wordsworth) stay in the White Hart Inn in the Grassmarket

1805: Edinburgh Police Act 1805 ([45 Geo. 3](/source/45_Geo._3). c. xxi) establishes police commissioners with responsibility for policing the city (and also cleansing and lighting)

1807-15: [Nelson Monument](/source/Nelson_Monument%2C_Edinburgh) erected on [Calton Hill](/source/Calton_Hill)

1810: Construction of Signet Library building by [Robert Reid](/source/Robert_Reid_(architect)) begins (interior by William Stark, 1812–13)

1811–1812: [Tron riot](/source/Tron_riot), 68 youths were arrested[53]

1813: [Royal Edinburgh Hospital](/source/Royal_Edinburgh_Hospital), originally called the Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum, opens in [Morningside](/source/Morningside%2C_Edinburgh)[54][55]

1814: [Waverley](/source/Waverley_(novel)), the first of the [Waverley Novels](/source/Waverley_Novels), written by Sir Walter Scott, is published; a protest meeting against [West Indian](/source/West_Indies) slavery is held; two coaches a day run to [Stirling](/source/Stirling)

1815: [Scottish Widows](/source/Scottish_Widows) Fund and Life Assurance Society established[56]

1816–1819: [Regent Bridge](/source/Regent_Bridge) is built

1817: First copy of *[The Scotsman](/source/The_Scotsman)* newspaper is published in January; [Blackwood's Magazine](/source/Blackwood's_Magazine) first published; the [Old Tolbooth](/source/Old_Tolbooth%2C_Edinburgh) and the remaining Luckenbooth in the High Street are demolished; new County Buildings are erected on the west side of Parliament Square

1818: The [Union Canal](/source/Union_Canal_(Scotland)) is begun; new [Calton Hill](/source/City_Observatory) observatory is founded by the [Edinburgh Astronomical Institution](/source/Edinburgh_Astronomical_Institution); the [Scottish regalia](/source/Honours_of_Scotland) are found in Edinburgh Castle; Cambridge geologist and antiquarian [Edward Daniel Clarke](/source/Edward_Daniel_Clarke) likens Edinburgh topographically to Athens, a view echoed in 1820 by landscape painter Hugh William Williams who coins the terms "Modern Athens" and "Athens of the North"; gas lighting makes its first appearance[57]

1819: Five coaches a day run between Edinburgh and Glasgow, taking 12 hours for the journey of 42 miles (68 km)

1820: Remaining western end of the Nor Loch drained; [Charlotte Square](/source/Charlotte_Square) completed; there are protests at [George IV](/source/George_IV)'s treatment of Queen Caroline; the [Royal Botanic Garden](/source/Royal_Botanic_Garden_Edinburgh) begins its move from Leith Walk to Inverleith; the Radical Road built along base of Salisbury Crags

1821: The official government census gives the population of Edinburgh and Leith as 138,235 with Leith as approx. 26,000; Melville Monument in honour of [Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville](/source/Henry_Dundas%2C_1st_Viscount_Melville) erected in St. Andrew Square

1822: [George IV visits Edinburgh](/source/Visit_of_George_IV_to_Scotland) and wears the [kilt](/source/Kilt); the first [Highland and Agricultural Show](/source/Royal_Highland_Show) takes place; the [Union Canal](/source/Union_Canal_(Scotland)) opens; Princes Street's 79 oil lamps are replaced by 53 gas lamps

1822–29: Building of National Monument dedicated to Napoleonic war dead and designed in style of the Parthenon begun on Calton Hill (but abandoned through lack of public subscriptions)

1823: The Bannatyne Club is founded; the Edinburgh Academy is built at a cost of £12,000

1824: The [Great Fire of Edinburgh](/source/Great_Fire_of_Edinburgh) destroys the buildings between the [Tron Kirk](/source/Tron_Kirk) (which loses its spire) and Parliament Close just months after [James Braidwood](/source/James_Braidwood) organises Britain's first municipal fire brigade; [James Hogg](/source/James_Hogg)'s novel *[Confessions of a Justified Sinner](/source/The_Private_Memoirs_and_Confessions_of_a_Justified_Sinner)*, set in Edinburgh, is published

1825: [Standard Life](/source/Standard_Life) Assurance Company established;[58] eight Royal Mail coaches and over fifty stage coaches leave Edinburgh each day; the foundation stone of the new [Royal High School](/source/Old_Royal_High_School), costing £17,000, is laid

1826: The [Royal Institution](/source/Royal_Scottish_Academy_Building) opens, designed by [William Henry Playfair](/source/William_Henry_Playfair); the Scottish Academy (later the [Royal Scottish Academy](/source/Royal_Scottish_Academy)) is founded; [John Bartholomew](/source/John_Bartholomew_Sr.) founds the mapmaking firm [John Bartholomew & Son Ltd.](/source/Collins_Bartholomew)

1827: Walter Scott reveals himself to be the author of the *[Waverley novels](/source/Waverley_novels)* at a Theatrical Fund dinner in the George Street Assembly Rooms

1828: [Burke and Hare](/source/Burke_and_Hare) are arrested for the "West Port Murders". Burke is put on trial and convicted on Hare's evidence[59]

1829: Building of [George IV Bridge](/source/George_IV_Bridge) and [Dean Bridge](/source/Dean_Bridge) begins; the murderer William Burke is hanged; the new Royal High School opens; [Walter Scott](/source/Walter_Scott) arranges the return of [Mons Meg](/source/Mons_Meg) to Edinburgh Castle

1830: [Advocates Library](/source/Advocates_Library) by William Henry Playfair constructed; The Mound is macadamised and more or less complete

1831: Major outbreak of cholera;[8] the official government census puts Edinburgh's population at 162,403; [James Clerk Maxwell](/source/James_Clerk_Maxwell) born in India Street; opening of the [Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway](/source/Edinburgh_and_Dalkeith_Railway) (known as The Innocent Railway), the first to come into the city. It uses horse-drawn carriages

1832: [Surgeons' Hall](/source/Surgeons'_Hall) by William Henry Playfair, the headquarters of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, completed; outbreak of [cholera](/source/Cholera) in the city (recurs 1848 and 1866); The Scotsman newspaper incorporates the Caledonian Mercury

1833: The city goes bankrupt; partly due to the development of [Leith](/source/Leith) docks[60]

1835: No further expansion of the New Town takes place after the incomplete building of Hopetoun Crescent off Leith Walk

1836: The Royal Institution extended

1840: Bernard's Edinburgh Brewery in North Back of Canongate (Calton Road) opens

1841: The population according to the government census is 133,692. The figure for Leith is 26,026

1841–1851: [Donaldson's Hospital](/source/Donaldson's_School#History) (school for the Deaf) is built

1842: Edinburgh-Glasgow railway line is open to the public; Queen Victoria includes the city in her first visit to Scotland

1843: [Disruption](/source/Disruption_of_1843) of the [Church of Scotland](/source/Church_of_Scotland); Queen's Drive laid through the [Queen's Park](/source/Holyrood_Park) (completed 1847; extended to [Duddingston](/source/Duddingston), 1856); [Warriston Cemetery](/source/Warriston_Cemetery) opened

1844: Tolbooth Church (now [The Hub](/source/The_Hub%2C_Edinburgh)) completed to house the [General Assembly of the Church of Scotland](/source/General_Assembly_of_the_Church_of_Scotland); [Political Martyrs' Monument](/source/Political_Martyrs'_Monument) erected on Calton Hill; [North British Railway Company](/source/North_British_Railway) established

1844–1846: The [Scott Monument](/source/Scott_Monument) is built

1846: [New College](/source/New_College%2C_Edinburgh) by [Playfair](/source/William_Henry_Playfair) built for the [Free Church of Scotland](/source/Free_Church_of_Scotland_(1843%E2%80%931900)); publication of pioneering inquiry 'Day And Night in the Wynds of Edinburgh' by Dr. George Bell draws public attention to poverty, overcrowding and slum conditions in the Old Town; North British Railway opens the North Bridge terminus of its Berwick-Edinburgh line

1847: Half of Edinburgh's population attend the funeral of [Thomas Chalmers](/source/Thomas_Chalmers);[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] [Dr. Simpson](/source/James_Young_Simpson) announces his discovery of the anaesthetic properties of [chloroform](/source/Chloroform);[8] the [Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway](/source/Edinburgh_and_Glasgow_Railway) line is extended from its [Haymarket](/source/Haymarket_railway_station) terminus to a new Edinburgh General station adjoining the new [Canal Street](/source/Edinburgh%2C_Leith_and_Newhaven_Railway) station and North British terminus (the three termini becoming known collectively as [Edinburgh Waverley](/source/Edinburgh_Waverley_railway_station), c.1854); [Alexander Graham Bell](/source/Alexander_Graham_Bell) is born in South Charlotte Street

1848: [Trinity College Kirk](/source/Trinity_College_Kirk) dismantled to make way for the expansion of North Bridge station; Edinburgh [Burns Supper Club](/source/Burns_Clubs) first established

1849: New reservoir building erected on Castlehill

1850: [Robert Louis Stevenson](/source/Robert_Louis_Stevenson) born in Howard Place;[61] the foundation stone of the [Scottish National Gallery](/source/National_Gallery_of_Scotland) is laid; [Younger's](/source/Younger's) Holyrood Brewery is enlarged for the third time

1851: According to the census, Edinburgh and Leith's population is 191,303; the British Linen Bank head office opens on St. Andrew Square

1852: [Duke of Wellington](/source/Arthur_Wellesley%2C_1st_Duke_of_Wellington) statue erected in front of Register House

1853: The [Edinburgh Trades Council](/source/Edinburgh_Trades_Council) is established; a *camera obscura* is installed in [Short's Observatory](/source/Maria_Theresa_Short) on Castle Hill (renamed the [Outlook Tower](/source/Outlook_Tower) in 1896)

1854: Several passers-by killed when part of the old town wall collapses on the west side of Leith Wynd; town council orders removal of a 150-foot long stretch of remaining wall south of the collapsed section.

1856: Edinburgh Municipal Extension Act incorporates the Canongate, Calton and Portsburgh in the city; [North British Rubber Company](/source/Hunter_Boot_Ltd) rubber mill (in former silk mill) and [McEwan's](/source/McEwan's) Fountain Brewery open in Fountainbridge

1857: Fire destroys the western half of James' Court, off the Lawnmarket; St. Margaret's Loch formed in the [Queen's Park](/source/Holyrood_Park)

1859: The National Gallery opens; Cockburn Street laid to give access to Waverley Station from the High Street; Melville Drive laid through [the Meadows](/source/The_Meadows_(park)); [Arthur Conan Doyle](/source/Arthur_Conan_Doyle) born in Picardy Place: last performance at the Theatre Royal in Shakespeare Square, the site is compulsorily purchased for the erection of a General Post Office; first [St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society](/source/St._Cuthbert's_Co-operative_Society) shop opens on corner of Fountainbridge and Ponton Street

1860: Bank of Scotland has 43 branches

1860-68: First edition of [Chambers Encyclopaedia](/source/Chambers's_Encyclopaedia) published by [Robert](/source/Robert_Chambers_(publisher%2C_born_1802)) and [William Chambers](/source/William_Chambers_(publisher))

1861: Building of Industrial Museum (called the Museum of Science and Art by the time it opened and later the [Royal Scottish Museum](/source/Royal_Scottish_Museum)) begins beside the [Old College](/source/Old_College%2C_University_of_Edinburgh) of the University; construction of the General Post Office on Waterloo Place (on the site of the Theatre Royal) begins; first firing of the Time Gun ("one o'clock gun") from the castle; 35 are killed in a tenement collapse between Bailie Fyfe's Close and Paisley Close in the High Street

1864: Last public hanging in the [Lawnmarket](/source/Lawnmarket); the Bank of Scotland head office re-designed and extended over the next 6 years

1865: [Dr. Littlejohn](/source/Henry_Littlejohn)'s report on the city's sanitation paints a picture of degradation and high death rates; Queen's Theatre and Opera House, built in 1855 in Broughton Street, changes name to Theatre Royal

1867: The Edinburgh City Improvement Act, conceived in the wake of Littlejohn's report, receives the Royal assent and initiates the rebuilding of the [Old Town](/source/Old_Town%2C_Edinburgh); Scottish Women's Suffrage Society holds meetings for first time

1868: Craigleith Hospital and Poorhouse opens, later develops into the [Western General Hospital](/source/Western_General_Hospital)

1869: [Lorimer & Clark's](/source/Caledonian_Brewery) brewery opens on Slateford Road, [Gorgie](/source/Gorgie); [Sophia Jex-Blake](/source/Sophia_Jex-Blake) becomes first female medical student

1870: First [Princes Street railway station](/source/Princes_Street_railway_station) opens (replaced 1893);[62] [Fettes College](/source/Fettes_College) opens; Chambers Street is laid

1870–1879: Building of the new Royal Infirmary, the biggest hospital in Europe under one roof

1871: First street tramway (between the Bridges and Haymarket);[63] [Greyfriars Bobby Fountain](/source/Greyfriars_Bobby_Fountain) is erected outside [Greyfriars Kirk](/source/Greyfriars_Kirk);[64] first [rugby](/source/History_of_rugby_union_in_Scotland) international ([Scotland v. England](/source/1871_Scotland_versus_England_rugby_union_match)) played on the [Edinburgh Academy](/source/Edinburgh_Academy) ground at [Raeburn Place](/source/Raeburn_Place)[65]

1872: [Ross Fountain](/source/Ross_Fountain) erected in Princes Street Gardens; construction of Watt Institution and School of Arts begins in Chambers Street

1872–1883: Restoration of [St. Giles'](/source/St_Giles'_Cathedral)

1874: [Heart of Midlothian F.C.](/source/Heart_of_Midlothian_F.C.#History) formed

1875: [Hibernian F.C.](/source/History_of_Hibernian_F.C.) formed; Institute of Bankers founded; [Cockburn Association](/source/Cockburn_Association) (Edinburgh Civic Trust) founded

1877: Hall of new Trinity Church in Chalmers Close completed incorporating apse from [Trinity College Kirk](/source/Trinity_College_Kirk)

1879: [St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral](/source/St_Mary's_Cathedral%2C_Edinburgh_(Episcopal)) in Palmerston Place consecrated; R. L. Stevenson's *Picturesque Notes*, describing the city and its society, is published; [William Ewart Gladstone](/source/William_Ewart_Gladstone) addresses 20,000 people in Waverley Market at start of [Midlothian campaign](/source/Midlothian_campaign);[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] the [Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh](/source/Royal_Infirmary_of_Edinburgh) moves to [Lauriston Place](/source/Lauriston_Place)[8]

1881: [Queen Victoria](/source/Queen_Victoria) hosts a parade of 39,473 Scottish Volunteers in a heavy downpour of rain at Holyrood, giving rise to the occasion being remembered as the "Wet Review"; Dean Distillery opens, converted from Dean Mills

1882: Chair of Celtic established at Edinburgh University;[66] City brought to standstill by severe winter weather

1883: [Royal Lyceum Theatre](/source/Royal_Lyceum_Theatre) built[67]

1884: [Blackford Hill](/source/Blackford_Hill) acquired by the city for use as a public park

1885: Watt Institution and School of Arts becomes [Heriot-Watt College](/source/Heriot-Watt_University); reconstructed [Mercat Cross](/source/Mercat_Cross%2C_Edinburgh) handed over to the city by benefactor William Ewart Gladstone; Caledonian Distillery opens at Haymarket, at one time the largest distillery in Europe

1886: The Edinburgh [International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art](/source/International_Exhibition_of_Industry%2C_Science_and_Art) takes place in the [Meadows](/source/The_Meadows_(park)); 'Cooke's Circus', a combined circus and variety theatre, opens in East Fountainbridge

1887: The [Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women](/source/Edinburgh_School_of_Medicine_for_Women) founded by [Sophia Jex-Blake](/source/Sophia_Jex-Blake);[8] production starts at [North British Distillery](/source/North_British_Distillery) in [Gorgie](/source/Gorgie) area

1888: Slight earthquake felt in the city at 5am on 2 February; [Flying Scotsman](/source/Flying_Scotsman_(train)) train reaches Edinburgh from London in 6 hours 19 minutes during the [Race to the North](/source/Race_to_the_North)

1889: Opening of the [Braid Hills](/source/Braid_Hills) to the public following acquisition by the city

1890: [Central Library](/source/Central_Library%2C_Edinburgh) on George IV Bridge, partly paid for by [Andrew Carnegie](/source/Andrew_Carnegie), opens to public

1891: [Scottish National Portrait Gallery](/source/Scottish_National_Portrait_Gallery) and National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland opens on Queen Street; the census gives Edinburgh's population as 269,407 (including 8,182 [Portobello](/source/Portobello%2C_Edinburgh) residents)

1892: [Jenners](/source/Jenners) department store in Princes Street burns down (rebuilt store opens 1895); [Drybrough's brewery](/source/Drybrough_%26_Co) moves to Craigmillar

1893: [Caledonian Railway](/source/Caledonian_Railway)'s [Princes Street Station](/source/Edinburgh_Princes_Street_railway_station) completed

1894: [McVitie & Price Ltd](/source/McVitie's) bakery rebuilt in Gorgie; the new [Parish Church of St Cuthbert](/source/The_Parish_Church_of_St_Cuthbert), by [Hippolyte Blanc](/source/Hippolyte_Blanc), is dedicated

1895: [Royal National Observatory](/source/Royal_Observatory%2C_Edinburgh) built on Blackford Hill; first electric street lighting installed

1896: First female doctors graduate from the [University of Edinburgh](/source/University_of_Edinburgh);[8] Portobello is incorporated into Edinburgh

1897: Opening of the rebuilt North Bridge at a cost of £90,000; cable car track laid in Princes Street

1900: Construction of new [Midlothian County Buildings](/source/Lothian_Chambers) begins, replacing old County Hall of 1817; Stockbridge gains a library and hall; character actor [Alastair Sim](/source/Alastair_Sim) is born; Robert Younger's St Ann's Brewery, Abbeyhill begins brewing

## 20th century

1901: University appoints its first [Professor of Scottish history](/source/Peter_Hume_Brown); the [Royal High School](/source/Royal_High_School%2C_Edinburgh) has 350 pupils; first use of the name '[Royal Mile](/source/Royal_Mile)' to describe the main thoroughfare of the Old Town

1902: New [Waverley Station](/source/Edinburgh_Waverley_railway_station) completed, covering 70,000 square metres; the [North British Hotel](/source/Balmoral_Hotel) is also built

1903: Caledonian Hotel opens;[67] world's first [floral clock](/source/Floral_clock) installed in West Princes Street Gardens

1905: Moray House in Canongate becomes a teacher training centre

1905–1906: [King's Theatre](/source/King's_Theatre%2C_Edinburgh) is built at Tollcross[68]

1907: Work begins on constructing the [Edinburgh College of Art](/source/Edinburgh_College_of_Art)[69]

1908: Scottish National Exhibition held in [Saughton Park](/source/Saughton_Park)[70]

1910: First electric trams run; Bank of Scotland has 169 branches

1910–1913: [Scottish National Zoological Park](/source/Scottish_National_Zoological_Park) laid out at Corstorphine

1910–1914: [Usher Hall](/source/Usher_Hall) is built[67]

1911: Empire Palace Theatre, now [Festival Theatre](/source/Edinburgh_Festival_Theatre), partially burns down during The Great Lafayette's final act. 10 people die, including The Great Lafayette, and the theatre is closed while the stage is rebuilt and reopened in 1913; 'Cooke's Circus', East Fountainbridge converted to the Palladium Cinema

1912: La Scala Electric Theatre (cinema) opens in Nicolson Street; the first purpose-built cinema in the city, the Haymarket, opens in Dalry Road

1914: Sixteen players of [Heart of Midlothian F.C.](/source/Heart_of_Midlothian_F.C.) enlist for active service in the [Great War](/source/World_War_I); seven players from the first team are subsequently killed in action; construction of [HM Prison Edinburgh](/source/HM_Prison_Edinburgh) begins

1915: Funeral and burial of victims of the [Quintinshill rail disaster](/source/Quintinshill_rail_disaster) at [Rosebank Cemetery](/source/Rosebank_Cemetery)

1916: [Zeppelin](/source/Zeppelin) raid causes 11 fatalities; Bank of Scotland has first female employee

1916–1918: Tanks are built by Brown Brothers in the city

1920: Edinburgh Extension Act: [Leith](/source/Leith), [Colinton](/source/Colinton), [Corstorphine](/source/Corstorphine), [Cramond](/source/Cramond), [Gilmerton](/source/Gilmerton), [Liberton](/source/Liberton%2C_Edinburgh) and [Longstone](/source/Longstone%2C_Edinburgh) incorporated into city

1921: Garrick Theatre in Grove Street burns down[71]

1923: [Edinburgh Corporation Tramways](/source/Edinburgh_Corporation_Tramways) operates its last cable-hauled tram; last hanging takes place at the Calton Prison (executions continue at HM Prison Edinburgh)

1925: The [National Library of Scotland](/source/National_Library_of_Scotland) is formed from the non-legal collections of the [Advocates Library](/source/Advocates_Library);[72] [Murrayfield Stadium](/source/Murrayfield_Stadium) opens[65]

1926: [Calton Prison](/source/Calton_Prison) closes[73] and later demolish in the 1930s

1928: The inaugural non-stop Flying Scotsman train hauled by the [Flying Scotsman](/source/LNER_Class_A3_4472_Flying_Scotsman) locomotive – regular journey time between Edinburgh and London cut to 7 hours 30 minutes; the city's first traffic lights are at Broughton Street

1928–1939: Edinburgh's first [Speedway](/source/Motorcycle_speedway) track operates at Marine Gardens, [Portobello](/source/Portobello%2C_Edinburgh)

1929: Statues of [Wallace](/source/William_Wallace) and [Bruce](/source/Robert_the_Bruce) unveiled at the castle as part of sexcentenary celebrations to mark the granting of Robert the Bruce's burgh charter; [Playhouse](/source/Edinburgh_Playhouse) cinema opens; [crematorium](/source/Crematorium) opens at [Warriston Cemetery](/source/Warriston_Cemetery)

1930: BBC moves its Scottish headquarters from Glasgow to Edinburgh [Queen Street](/source/Queen_Street%2C_Edinburgh) (until 1935); actor [Sean Connery](/source/Sean_Connery) born in [Fountainbridge](/source/Fountainbridge)

1932: George Watson's College moves to Morningside

1934: Royal visit of King [George V](/source/George_V) and [Queen Mary](/source/Mary_of_Teck); several people injured in disturbances when Sir [Oswald Mosley](/source/Oswald_Mosley) addresses a [Fascist](/source/British_Union_of_Fascists) rally at the Usher Hall

1934–1937: Construction of Sheriff Courthouse (now the [High Court of Justiciary](/source/High_Court_of_Justiciary)) in the Lawnmarket

1935: Ross Bandstand replaces the Victorian bandstand in Princes Street Gardens

1935–1939: [St. Andrew's House](/source/St._Andrew's_House) built on site of recently demolished Calton Prison to house the [Scottish Office](/source/Scottish_Office) and offices of the [Secretary of State for Scotland](/source/Secretary_of_State_for_Scotland)

1936: 17 per cent of Edinburgh's houses are overcrowded; Portobello Open Air Bathing Pool opens

1939: The Bank of Scotland has 266 branches; the headquarters of Edinburgh Savings Bank is built

1943: The [North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board](/source/North_of_Scotland_Hydro-Electric_Board) is created, with its headquarters in Edinburgh

1946: A telephone upgrade takes place, allowing all-city dialling; major fire closes down the Theatre Royal, Broughton Street, the last of four Theatres Royal to be burnt out on this site

1946–1947: Electric trams in the city carry 16 million passengers a month

1947: [Edinburgh International Festival](/source/Edinburgh_International_Festival) is launched; Turnhouse aerodrome becomes Edinburgh's civil airport; restoration of the [Canongate](/source/The_Canongate) begins

1948: First [Military Tattoo](/source/Royal_Edinburgh_Military_Tattoo) performed at the castle (becomes an official part of the Festival in 1950)

1948–1954: [Speedway](/source/Motorcycle_speedway) racing revived at [Old Meadowbank](/source/Old_Meadowbank) stadium, home of [Leith Athletic F.C.](/source/Leith_Athletic_F.C.) (and again between 1960 and 1967)

1949: The Abercrombie Plan proposes major road developments in Edinburgh which remain unimplemented

1950: [Tram system](/source/Edinburgh_Corporation_Tramways) begins to be run down; the first [Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo](/source/Royal_Edinburgh_Military_Tattoo) on the Castle Esplanade attracts around 6000 spectators

1951: March of the Thousand Pipers on Princes Street and Gathering of the Clans at Murrayfield Stadium; two central (manual) phone exchanges handle over 9,500 lines

1952: Bank of Scotland takes over Union Bank of Scotland, giving 453 combined branches; [Murrayfield Ice Arena](/source/Murrayfield_Ice_Rink) (built 1938–39) opens after use as army depot since outbreak of war; Cold War bunker at [Barnton Quarry](/source/Barnton_Quarry) established at site of wartime operations room[74]

1953: First royal visit of [Queen Elizabeth](/source/Elizabeth_II) to Edinburgh following her coronation. She attended a National Service at St Giles' Cathedral on 24 June[75]

1954: Last judicial execution (by hanging) takes place at [Saughton Prison](/source/HM_Prison_Edinburgh)

1955: [Museum of Childhood](/source/Museum_of_Childhood_(Edinburgh)), the world's first museum dedicated to childhood, opens; [C&A](/source/C%26A) Modes department store on Princes Street destroyed by fire

1956: [Edinburgh Corporation Tramways](/source/Edinburgh_Corporation_Tramways) operates for the last time on 16 November; [National Library of Scotland](/source/National_Library_of_Scotland) opens; USSR premier Nikolai Bulganin and Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev visit Holyrood Palace and [Scottish National War Memorial](/source/Scottish_National_War_Memorial)

1958: Queen receives last [debutantes](/source/Debutante) at Holyrood Palace[76]

1959: Old Town population declines to 2,000

1961: [Muriel Spark](/source/Muriel_Spark)'s novel [*The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie*](/source/The_Prime_of_Miss_Jean_Brodie_(novel)) is published

1962: State visit of [King Olav](/source/Olav_V) of Norway;[77] the [Union Canal](/source/Union_Canal_(Scotland)), having fallen into disuse, officially closes

1963: *Evening Despatch* and *Edinburgh Evening News* merge;[78] Gaumont Cinema fire leads to closure (demolished three years later); Empire Theatre becomes [bingo](/source/Housie) hall; [Traverse Theatre](/source/Traverse_Theatre) opens in Lawnmarket

1964: Rock group [The Beatles](/source/The_Beatles) perform at the ABC Cinema, Lothian Road;[79] [The Rolling Stones](/source/The_Rolling_Stones) perform at the Usher Hall and return the following year[80]

1965: Princes Street railway station closes;[62] the City Planning Committee announces the building of an inner ring road in the form of a partly elevated six-lane highway encircling central Edinburgh, but the plan is abandoned after public opposition and the negative findings of a public inquiry held at the end of 1967

1966: [Heriot-Watt](/source/Heriot-Watt_University) gains university status[81]

1967: [Mortonhall Crematorium](/source/Mortonhall_Crematorium) is dedicated[82]

1968: Palladium Theatre fails, and becomes a disco

1968–1969: The [Royal Bank of Scotland](/source/Royal_Bank_of_Scotland) takes over [National Commercial Bank of Scotland](/source/National_Commercial_Bank_of_Scotland)

1969: Bank of Scotland absorbs [British Linen Bank](/source/British_Linen_Bank); Tollcross Bus Depot closes

1970: City hosts the 9th [Commonwealth Games](/source/Commonwealth_Games);[83] the St James' Centre, including New St. Andrews House, is completed

1971: [Tom Farmer](/source/Tom_Farmer) starts [Kwik Fit](/source/Kwik_Fit)[84]

1972: A youth hostel opens at Eglinton Crescent; Bell's Mills are destroyed by an explosion; [Eurovision Song Contest](/source/Eurovision_Song_Contest) held in Usher Hall[85]

1975: Local government reorganisation replaces Edinburgh Corporation with [Lothian Regional Council](/source/Lothian_Regional_Council) and the City of Edinburgh District Council; [Balerno](/source/Balerno), [Currie](/source/Currie%2C_Edinburgh), [Ratho](/source/Ratho), [Newbridge](/source/Newbridge%2C_Edinburgh), [Kirkliston](/source/Kirkliston) and [South Queensferry](/source/South_Queensferry) are included within the city boundary

1976: A new Fountain Brewery is built by [Scottish & Newcastle](/source/Scottish_%26_Newcastle) (the last of its buildings demolished in 2012)

1980: [Debenhams](/source/Debenhams) open a Princes Street store

1980s: Restoration of houses in the Old Town leads to a population increase in the area

1981: Royal Insurance Group headquarters moves to Glasgow

1984: [Mikhail Gorbachev](/source/Mikhail_Gorbachev), Chairman for the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Soviet Union, stays at Holyrood Palace during his visit to Scotland

1985: The population of the city is 440,000; Edinburgh University institutes a Chair of [Parapsychology](/source/Parapsychology);[86] Portobello Open Air Bathing Pool closes

1986: City hosts the 13th [Commonwealth Games](/source/Commonwealth_Games)[83]

1988: [Eleanor McLaughlin](/source/Eleanor_McLaughlin) becomes Edinburgh's first female [Lord Provost](/source/Lord_Provost_of_Edinburgh)

1989: National Gallery of Scotland renovated

1990: [Edinburgh Castle](/source/Edinburgh_Castle) is first, and [Holyrood Palace](/source/Holyrood_Palace) eighth, in ranking of paid Scottish tourist attractions

1993: First Edinburgh [Hogmanay](/source/Hogmanay) Street Party held as an organised event[87]

1994: [Murrayfield Stadium](/source/Murrayfield_Stadium) rebuilt[65]

1995: [Cutty Sark Tall Ships](/source/Tall_Ships_Races) at Leith Docks;[88] Infirmary Street baths close[89]

1996: The [City of Edinburgh Council](/source/City_of_Edinburgh_Council) is created, replacing the former District and Regional Councils;[90] the [Stone of Destiny](/source/Stone_of_Scone) transported from Westminster Abbey to Edinburgh Castle[91]

1998: The [Museum of Scotland](/source/Museum_of_Scotland) is built as an extension to the Royal Scottish Museum.[92]

1999: The [Scottish Parliament](/source/Scottish_Parliament) is opened by [Queen Elizabeth](/source/Elizabeth_II) in the [Assembly Hall](/source/General_Assembly_Hall_of_the_Church_of_Scotland) on The Mound[93]

## Twenty-first century

2002: A major [fire](/source/Cowgate#2002_fire) destroys part of the Cowgate and buildings on the South Bridge;[94] first Edinburgh [Makar](/source/Makar) appointed, [Stewart Conn](/source/Stewart_Conn)[95]

2003: [MTV Europe Music Awards](/source/2003_MTV_Europe_Music_Awards) held at [Ocean Terminal](/source/Ocean_Terminal%2C_Edinburgh), Leith;[96] the [Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh](/source/Royal_Infirmary_of_Edinburgh) moves to [Little France](/source/Little_France)[8]

2004: The [Scottish Parliament Building](/source/Scottish_Parliament_Building) opens[97]

2005: An estimated 225,000 people march through the city as part of the "Make Poverty History" campaign, calling on world leaders to act at the [G8 summit](/source/31st_G8_summit) being held at [Gleneagles](/source/Gleneagles_Hotel).[98]

2008: Work begins on new [tramway](/source/Edinburgh_Trams) (the project is beset by difficulties, taking six years to lay 14 km of track)[99]

2009: City hosts the biggest international clan gathering as part of [Homecoming Scotland](/source/Homecoming_Scotland)[100]

2010: [Pope Benedict XVI](/source/Pope_Benedict_XVI) received by [Queen Elizabeth](/source/Queen_Elizabeth_II) at Holyrood Palace at the start of his state visit to Great Britain.[101]

2010–13: [Waverley Station](/source/Edinburgh_Waverley_railway_station) roof renovated[102]

2011: The [Scottish National Portrait Gallery](/source/Scottish_National_Portrait_Gallery) opens after two years long renovation;[103] the city hosts [Armed Forces Day](/source/Armed_Forces_Day#United_Kingdom);[104] two giant pandas from China, Yang Guang and Tian Tian, arrive at [Edinburgh Zoo](/source/Edinburgh_Zoo)[105]

2012: [The Edinburgh Agreement](/source/The_Edinburgh_Agreement) between the [Scottish Government](/source/Scottish_Government) and the [UK Government](/source/United_Kingdom_government) on the terms of the [Scottish independence referendum 2014](/source/2014_Scottish_independence_referendum) is signed in Edinburgh.[106]

2013: To mark the 500th anniversary of the [Battle of Flodden](/source/Battle_of_Flodden), a minute's silence for the town's dead is observed at the [Mercat Cross](/source/Mercat_Cross%2C_Edinburgh) on 8 September.[107]

2014: Completion of [new tramway](/source/Edinburgh_Trams) between the city centre and [Edinburgh Airport](/source/Edinburgh_Airport)[99]

## See also

- [History of Edinburgh](/source/History_of_Edinburgh)

- [Scotland](/source/Scotland)

- [History of Scotland](/source/History_of_Scotland)

- [Timeline of Scottish history](/source/Timeline_of_Scottish_history)

- [Timeline of Glasgow history](/source/Timeline_of_Glasgow_history)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["History and Research"](https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/holyrood-park/history/). *www.historicenvironment.scot*. Retrieved 6 September 2017.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Fry 2010, p. 35

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Holyrood_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Holyrood_3-1) ["Royal Residences: The Palace of Holyroodhouse"](https://www.royal.uk/royal-residences-palace-holyroodhouse). *The Royal Family*. 23 November 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["St Margaret's Chapel"](http://www.edinburghcastle.gov.uk/discover/highlights/st-margarets-chapel). *www.edinburghcastle.gov.uk*. Retrieved 7 December 2016.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-yards_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-yards_5-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-yards_5-2) ["History of High School Yards"](http://edinburghcentre.org/history.htmlwebsite=Telegraph.co.uk). Retrieved 7 December 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Fry 2010, p. 69

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Fry 2010, p. 70

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Womersley_8-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Womersley_8-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Womersley_8-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-Womersley_8-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-Womersley_8-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-Womersley_8-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-Womersley_8-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-Womersley_8-7) [***i***](#cite_ref-Womersley_8-8) Womersley, Tara; Crawford, Dorothy (2010). *Bodysnatchers to Lifesavers*. Edinburgh: Luath Press Limited. pp. 13–16. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-910745-37-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-910745-37-3).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** ["Oxford DNB article: David II"](http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3726?docPos=1). *[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography](/source/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography)* (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1093/ref:odnb/3726](https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fref%3Aodnb%2F3726). Retrieved 21 December 2016. (Subscription, [Wikipedia Library](https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/partners/88/) access or [UK public library membership](https://www.oxforddnb.com/help/subscribe#public) required.)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** [Maitland, William](/source/William_Maitland_(historian)) (1753). [*History of Edinburgh from Its Foundation to the Present Time*](https://books.google.com/books?id=E9pOAAAAcAAJ&q=1477). Vol. 1. p. 8.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["Margaret Tudor"](http://tudorhistory.org/people/margaret/). *tudorhistory.org*. Retrieved 21 December 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** ["History and Vision"](https://www.rcsed.ac.uk/the-college/about-us/history-and-vision). *The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh*. Retrieved 21 December 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** ["500 years of printing in Scotland"](http://www.nas.gov.uk/about/070914.asp). *www.nas.gov.uk*. Retrieved 21 December 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** ["Edinburgh, 41 Cowgate, Magdalen Chapel"](http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/52256/details/edinburgh+41+cowgate+magdalen+chapel/). Retrieved 26 March 2013.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** *Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of the City of Edinburgh* (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1951), pp. 41, 43.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** ["Undiscovered Scotland: Timeline of Scottish History: 1550 to 1600"](https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usfeatures/timeline/to1600.html). *www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk*. Retrieved 26 June 2022.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** Kerr, Henry (30 November 1933). ["Notes on the Nether Bow Port, Edinburgh"](https://journals.socantscot.org/index.php/psas/article/view/7881). *Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland*. **67**: 297–307. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.9750/PSAS.067.297.307](https://doi.org/10.9750%2FPSAS.067.297.307). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [2056-743X](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/2056-743X).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-18)** [Richard Oram](/source/Richard_Oram), "'It cannot be decernit quha are clean and quha are foulle' Responses to Epidemic Disease in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Scotland", *Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Reforme*, 30:4 (2006), pp. 13–39. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.33137/rr.v30i4.9093](https://doi.org/10.33137%2Frr.v30i4.9093)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-19)** Robert Waterston, 'Early Paper Making Near Edinburgh', *Book of the Old Edinburgh Club*, 25 (Edinburgh, 1945), pp. 56–58.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-20)** [Maureen Meikle](/source/Maureen_Meikle), 'Anna of Denmark's Coronation and Entry', [Julian Goodare](/source/Julian_Goodare) & Alasdair A. MacDonald, *Sixteenth-Century Scotland* (Brill, 2008), pp. 277–294.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-21)** James Dennistoun, *Memoirs of the Affairs of the Scotland by David Moysie* (Edinburgh: Maitland Club, 1830), p. 86.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-22)** Steven Veerapen, *The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I* (Birlinn, 2023), p. 179.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-discriptio-trans_23-0)** Napier, John (1614). [*The Description of the Wonderful Canon of Logarithms*](http://www.17centurymaths.com/contents/napier/ademonstratiobookone.pdf) (PDF). Translated by Wright, Edward; Bruce, Ian. 17centurymaths.com. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20230422184237/http://17centurymaths.com/contents/napier/ademonstratiobookone.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 22 April 2023. Retrieved 14 March 2022.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-24)** ["Edinburgh, 137 Cowgate, Tailor's Hall"](http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/52268/details/edinburgh+137+cowgate+tailor+s+hall/). Retrieved 26 March 2013.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-25)** Spinks, Bryan D. (2017). [*The rise and fall of the incomparable liturgy: the Book of common prayer, 1559-1906*](https://www.worldcat.org/title/994905930). Alcuin Club collections. London: SPCK, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. p. 73. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-281-07605-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-281-07605-5). [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [994905930](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/994905930).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-26)** ["Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh"](https://web.archive.org/web/20130513123235/http://www.covenanter.org.uk/Greyfriars/). *www.covenanter.org.uk*. Archived from [the original](http://www.covenanter.org.uk/Greyfriars/) on 13 May 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-27)** ["Sir Robert Sibbald"](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Sibbald). *Encyclopædia Britannica*. Retrieved 7 December 2016.

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## Notes

- Fry, Michael (2010). *Edinburgh : a history of the city* (New ed.). London: Pan. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-330-45579-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-330-45579-4).

## Further reading

- *The Oxford Companion to Scottish History*, ed. Michael Lynch, Oxford University Press, 2001

- *The Making of Scotland*, Robin Smith, Canongate Books, 2001

- *The Hutchinson Encyclopedia*, 1997 ed., Helicon Publishing Ltd, 1996

- *Chronicle of Britain*, Chronicle Communications Ltd, 1992

- *Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century*, W. M. Gilbert, Edinburgh 1901

- *An Edinburgh Alphabet*, J. F. Birrell, Edinburgh 1980

- [*Post office directories: Edinburgh*](http://www.nls.uk/family-history/directories/post-office/index.cfm?place=Edinburgh) – via National Library of Scotland 1773–1912

- [*Directory for Edinburgh, Leith, Mussleburgh and Dalkeith*](https://archive.org/details/directoryforedin17941795aitc). R. Wilson. 1794.

## External links

- [Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh, 1403-1528](http://www.british-history.ac.uk/edinburgh-burgh-records/1403-1528): edited by J.D. Marwick for the Burgh Records Society

- [Incorporated Trades of Edinburgh](https://web.archive.org/web/20110701192059/http://edinburgh-trades.org/)

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---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Timeline of Edinburgh history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Edinburgh_history) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Edinburgh_history?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.