Edinburgh

In 1995, Edinburgh was granted World Heritage Site status. Settlement is known to have been on Edinburgh’s Castle Rock since at least the late bronze or early iron age. Indeed, the defensibility of this site is a key theory as to why settlement would form atop a rocky outcrop, uphill and so far away from fresh water or the sea. Traditionally, Edinburgh Castle was known as the Maidens’ Castle because it could apparently keep safe the daughters of Pictish kings. This tradition certainly had currency when Braun and Hogenberg’s 16th-century atlas of towns, or Civitates Orbis Terrarium, labeled the castle, “Castrum puellarum.” While the veracity of this explanation is yet to be firmly established, it is much clearer that monarchy and trade played crucial roles in the ascendancy of Edinburgh. E. Patricia Dennison, in Holyrood and Canongate: A Thousand Years of History, records that the castle had been a royal residence since at least the reign of Malcolm III (r. 1058–1093), if not earlier (p. 2). By the reign of James III, it was the capital, as depicted in Michael Lynch’s chapter, “Edinburgh: 1. to 1650” (in The Oxford Companion to Scottish History, p. 218). While defense was a key consideration, trade also played an important role. The town had “royal burgh” status—and privileges—from at least the reign of David I (r. 1124–1153), but it was the capture of the larger Berwick-upon-Tweed by the English (especially in 1333, though it changed hands several times before 1482) that led to the wool trade moving north, and Edinburgh developing as the economic leader of Scotland’s burghs (ibid.). While suburban settlements, many of which were competing burghs or regality or barony, would offer alternatives to living in Edinburgh, corporatism and privilege encouraged residency within the town walls, leading to a densely packed built environment, despite the limited access to water. Milling developed along the Water of Leith, and deepwater port facilities were sought in the town of Leith on the Firth of Forth. While this short introduction simply cannot do justice to so important a city, the thematically structured bibliography in this article will point to more thorough assessments. After a note of general histories of Edinburgh, thematic sections explore the scholarship of religious, political, economic, social, cultural, legal, and medical histories of Renaissance and Reformation Edinburgh, followed by a selection of the archaeological reports of excavations undertaken in the Scottish capital. Additionally, there is a note on several important online repositories of primary and secondary sources. Many good studies of the capital have been written, but it is important to note the need for further work.

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