Edinburgh: a Canongate walk

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White Horse Close

After our recent visit to the Scottish Parliament, we walked slowly up Canongate exploring the closes, or courtyards, to either side. Canongate itself is over 800 years old and was a separate burgh from Edinburgh until 1856. Its name comes from the Augustinian Canons of Holyrood Abbey who, in the 12th century, were given permission by the king to build on either side of the path, or “gait”, between the Abbey and the Old Town of Edinburgh.

Immediately opposite the parliament is White Horse Close (above) which takes its name from an inn which once stood there. The buildings have been restored, but still give a good impression of how the courtyard must have looked hundreds of years ago. Zoom in on the window above the stairs and you will see that it is dated 1623.

Further up Canongate is 17th century Panmure House, once home to the economist and philosopher Adam Smith. It’s currently undergoing renovation, so it was hard to get a photograph to do it justice.

Panmure House

Not all the closes hide old buildings – tucked away in Crichton Close is the Scottish Poetry Library (1999).

Scottish Poetry Library

Next, we explored Canongate Kirkyard – like all these places, apart from the Poetry Library, somewhere I’ve walked past many times without investigating. I was surprised how extensive the Kirkyard is.

Canongate Mercat Cross
Canongate Kirkyard
Canongate Kirkyard

The next close was my absolute favourite – Bakehouse Close is home to Acheson House, built in 1633 for Sir Archibald Acheson and now the home of Edinburgh World Heritage. The Acheson family crest, a cock and trumpet, is above the door.

Acheson House
Acheson House
Acheson House

Why do I love it so much? The information panels on the wall about Rangers Impartial List, a 1775 guide to 66 of Edinburgh’s prostitutes. Many of the closes in the Old Town housed brothels, and Acheson House was one of them, then known as the Cock and Trumpet after the crest. The list pulls no punches in assessing the women’s appearance and skills – I hope you can enlarge the panels sufficiently to read some of it. I particularly like Mrs Agnew, a “drunken bundle of iniquity” who would think nothing of a company of Grenadiers at one time. At 50!

Panel on Acheson House
Panel on Acheson House

A couple of shots as we made our way to our next stop – the Tolbooth Tavern on Canongate peeking through an archway, and a further example of modern buildings behind old ones. These are student flats, with a lovely view of Salisbury Crags.

Tolbooth Tavern
Student flats, Edinburgh

Another 17th century mansion is Moray House, now owned by the University of Edinburgh. The buildings round about comprise the University’s School of Education.

Old Moray House
Moray House School of Education

Next up is Chessel’s Court with this traditional 18th century Edinburgh ‘mansion style’ tenement, originally built to provide better accommodation for relatively wealthy residents of the Old Town. Back on Canongate, we were observed by a strange statue which is said to represent the Emperor of Morocco.

Chessel’s Court
Morocco Land

Finally, we turned the corner into St Mary’s Street, the site of Boyd’s Inn where Dr Johnson stayed in 1773 on his way to meet James Boswell for the start of their journey to the Hebrides. I liked the shop opposite with its rather cross looking bull!

Site of Boyd’s Inn
Site of Boyd’s Inn
St Mary’s Street shop

From here, we headed across to the New Town and our visit to the ice sculptures which I’ve written about previously. I was soon to find out that it was possible to shiver even more on this bitterly cold December day!

I hope you’ve enjoyed your tour through part of old Edinburgh. I’m linking to Jo’s Monday walks – the blue skies of Portugal should warm you up after this chilly post!

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  3. Pingback: Jo’s Monday walk : Lisbon… one last time | restlessjo

  5. I’m late but I am here! I would love to live in that old part of town because it looks so medieval. I laughed at the prostitutes’ descriptions especially the one you mentioned and the other about her teeth being tolerable

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  6. So many goodies here! I wish I’d known you when I visited Scotland, Guess I will just have to come back.

    That cock and trumpet family crest has now got me thinking about what I want my family crest to be (Perhaps a unicorn and rainbow 🦄🌈😁)

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  8. Lots of interesting sites on this walk! Love the cock and trumpet crest, but I’m most intrigued by Rangers Impartial List, which sounds very much like Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies…which was published by an H. Ranger, so now I’m rather curious if this is somehow an offshoot of the London version. I’ve always wondered how they were compiled – did Tytler (who has a rather apt name for the job, if it’s pronounced the way I think it is!) actually visit all the ladies in question himself, or did he have correspondents? From what I know of Boswell, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a correspondent!

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    • Interesting! Ranger’s maybe published a whole series in different cities. I read elsewhere that Tytler (I’d pronounce it that way too) found the research for the Edinburgh guide so exhausting he didn’t do one for Glasgow. Make of that what you will…

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  10. Hi Anabel – what an enlightening part of the world … fascinating to see so many gems – thanks for giving us an insight … when I visit Edinburgh – an area to add in to the list … lovely post – cheers Hilary

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  11. No one can deny that the ladies of Acheson House had stamina: a company of Grenadiers indeed. Reminds me of the line in the lovely Victoria Wood song about Brenda “… could handle half the tenors in a male voice choir”.
    I really feel I know your Glasgow now after all your Posts.

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  14. Didn’t know much about Edinburgh – other that the usual tourist things built around the castle and a few other places, so canongate was all new. I enjoyed the experience.

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  15. Really enjoyed that tour. I use that graveyard and that first close as a scenic short cut fairly often walking between CH and AS but the other items were new to me. Must have been slightly confusing using f for S when they also had the normal f at that time. It’s a fascinating district.

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    • I suppose if you just learn to read it that way, it’s fine – it’s certainly confusing for us. Most of this was new to me too, it definitely pays to get off the main drag from time to time.

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  17. I love that part of Edinburgh, though my explorations haven’t been nearly as thorough, and always ended in a pub. So nice to see a photo of the Scottish Poetry Library; I only know it in its virtual incarnation. 🙂

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  20. I know Canongate well, having lived in Edinburgh for a few years, including undertaking my PGCE at Moray House. You have taught me something new, however, in that I did not know that that building had been a brothel.

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  21. Chilly it is in Northern Spain, though with sunshine and lots of snow. We did not venture to that part of Edinburgh so it was grand to learn about it. Thanks, Anabel.

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  23. I am glad you explained what a “close” was. I can’t wait to visit. I agree I like the bull head and it is rather large over that doorway. I guess it is nice to make way for modern buildings, but to me, they would be better someplace else. The ambiance through your photos is what I like. Thank you!

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  26. Hi, Anabel – I thoroughly enjoy taking these virtual walks with you. They are fascinating – and I always learn a great deal. I followed your suggestion to enlarge ‘Rangers Impartial List’ (screen shot and then drag to increase size). What irony that the author of the list was thought to be a Preacher and son of a Minister!

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  27. I enjoyed that, thank you. The Canongate is one of my favourite bits of Edinburgh. Have you been to Dunbar’s Close? It’s just off the Canongate, near the Christmas shop across from Starbucks. It’s a nice garden, one of the quieter and more pleasant places in the Old Town.

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  28. How interesting – the gentlemen’s reviews of the 66 prostitutes! Crazy. I love that photo of the student flats with the Salisbury Crags glowing in the distance. The closes must have been fun to explore. Thanks for sharing this bit of Edinburgh, Anabel. 🙂

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  29. It’s an amazing mish mash of old and even older, isn’t it? When I was there with Jude last year I did a bit of snooping around some of those properties. 🙂 🙂 Many thanks for the link, Anabel!

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  31. Nice story, I have been here, but I didn’t notice till I saw the picture, that Panmure House, looks a lot like our historic Officers Square in down town Fredericton. ( Museum of New Brunswick.) I can definitely see the English architecture influence of the time period. ThanlKs

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