All About Edinburgh
Edinburgh City Wall
The Flodden Wall and Telfer Wall
Flodden Wall Route
The Flodden and Telfer Walls
Where the Ports (Gates) of Edinburgh once stood.
The Edinburgh City Wall, The Flodden and Telfer Wall, plus where the Ports or gateways into Edinburgh stood.
The first Edinburgh city wall was erected circa 1450 (The King’s Wall) James III. A marsh in the hollow below the castle to the north was flooded in 1460 which with the wall completed the defence for the Castle and the
Old Town of Edinburgh.
It was fortified and extended in 1513 after the Battle of Flodden.
A further extension to the Edinburgh city wall was built to include Heriot’s Hospital (school) circa 1630.
There was also a wall that extended to the Palace of Holyrood to surround the Canongate area, but this was not considered as a protection as was out with the city wall.
This map highlights the Old Edinburgh city wall in 1575
The 6 gates (Ports) in red and Nor’ Loch in blue.
There were a total of 6 gates (gaits or Ports). The first Port (gateway) in the wall from Edinburgh Castle where the wall started, was the West Port (1) the road from the west into the Grassmarket at the foot of the Vennel Steps. The second Port on the wall was the Bristo Port or Society Port (2) which stood at what is now Forrest Road a plaque denotes its position, the next gateway was Potterrow Port(3) which would have stood at the south west corner of Edinburgh University building across Lothian Street. The next Port (gateway) was the Kow gate (Cowgate Port) (4) which stood from the pleasance to St Mary's Wynd (Street) at the end of the Cowgate. The Main Port (Gate) into Edinburgh the Nether Bow Port (5) was next at the foot of the High Street and the final port was Leith Wynd Port (6) that stood next to Trinity College Church which was at the edge of the Nor Loch. Below the Calton Hill in line with the Governor's House.
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The Route of the Flodden Wall
Where the Flodden Wall was joined to the walls of Edinburgh Castle at David's Tower now the Half-moon Battery
is where the Edinburgh city wall started and continued straight down (Granny Green Steps) to the west end of the Grassmarket. Continued up The Vennel to join the Telfer Wall and continued on to Lauriston Place, turn left along Lauriston past Heriot’s Hospital (school) and continue along Teviot Place past the Medical School on your right.
On the corner of Bristo Place above Napier's can be seen a carved tablet (Site of Town Wall 1513).
Cross the road, continue straight forward on to Lothian Street across from Bristo Square and the McEwan Hall.
On your right is a tunnel under the road named Potterrow Port across from where the south gate into Edinburgh stood. Continue down South College Street where you will see a plaque with Charles Darwin on it and at
No.5 the house of the world's worst Poet William McGonagall, on the north side of the street is the walls of Edinburgh University where the first University building stood in 1583. Cross the road which is South Bridge you come to Drummond Street on the south corner is the cafe where J K Rowling would write her Harry Potter stories. Continue down Drummond Street and you will pass the original gates to the first Edinburgh Infirmary and then the Flodden Wall which continues to the foot of Drummond Street turn left at the foot and the wall continues down the Pleasance hill (This is the last remaining part of the Flodden Wall) to where the Cowgate Port stood at the junction of Pleasance and St Mary Street.
The Flodden Wall then continued up St Mary Street to the Nether Bow Gate at the foot of the High Street
(Brass cobbles in Road outline the Port. This was the main gate into Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh city wall continued Over to The foot of Calton Hill at the back entrance to Waverley Station.
This is where the Nor Loch and the Trinity College Church were situated. The Trinity College church was moved brick by brick to its present position in Chalmers Close High Street Royal Mile Edinburgh.
The Flodden Wall ended at the edge of where the Nor Loch shore and Trinity Church stood where
the final Port (gateway stood at Leith Wynd near the Church).
Where the Flodden Wall was Joined to the walls of Edinburgh Castle at David's Tower now the Half moon Battery.
House at top of Granny Green Steps on Johnston Terrace (First City Wall) and steps to the Grassmarket route of Flodden Wall. Inscription; Erected on a site near the extremity of the ancient town wall built in the reign of James II King of Scots A.D. 1450 for the protection of Edinburgh against invasion.
The paving stones mark where the Flodden Wall stood across the Grassmarket from Granny Green Steps.
The inscription on the slabs are a poem by Sir Walter Scott (Marmion) about the Flodden Battle in 1513.
On September 9, 1513, a battle between Scotland and England took place on Flodden Field, Branxton Moor.
The English army lead by The Earl of Surry (Thomas Howard) defeated The Scots and the death of
King James IV of Scotland the last monarch to die in Battle.
Walter Scott's Poem (Marmion)
The Battle of Flodden 1513
From Flodden ridge,
The Scots beheld the English host
Leave Barmoor Wood, their evening post
And headful watched them as they crossed
The Till by Twizell Bridge.
High sight it is, and haughty, while
They dive into the deep defile;
Beneath the cavern’d cliff they fall,
Beneath the castle’s airy wall.
By rock, by oak, by Hawthorn tree,
Troop after troop are disappearing;
Troop after troop their banners rearing
Upon the eastern bank you see.
Still pouring down the rocky glen,
Where flows the sullen Till,
And rising from the dim-wood glen,
Standards on standards, men on men,
In slow procession still,
And sweeping o’er the Gothic arch,
And pressing on in ceaseless march,
To gain the opposing hill.
Sir Walter Scott
1771 - 1832
Paving Slabs highlighting where the wall stood, across the Grassmarket between Granny Green Steps and the Vennel
The marker where the Flodden Wall and West Port Gate
stood at the foot of the Vennel Steps
The Vennel Steps, now have been renamed Miss Jean Brodie Steps, that access to the Flodden Tower. The Paving Stone at the foot of the steps is where the West Port Gate would have stood.
The Flodden Wall this is the only remaining lookout tower of the Flodden wall.
It is also where a wall to protect Heriot’s Hospital (school) joined the Flodden wall.
The window in the Flodden Tower.
A double window was inserted in the wall by the town council in 1876, now blocked.
The inscription reads;
THIS WINDOW WAS MADE IN THE OLD CITY WALL WITH THE SANCTION OF THE TOWN COUNCIL 1876
The Telfer Wall in Heriot Place with Edinburgh Castle in the background.
This has become a favourite viewpoint of Edinburgh Castle for visitors to Edinburgh
The Telfer Wall at the corner of Heriot Place and Lauriston Place
The last part of the Telfer Wall still standing (Lauriston Place).
Behind the wall was the Covenanter’s Prison. (Access in Greyfriars Graveyard)
Wall Tablet above Napier's The Herbalist Bristo Place
The Potterow Port stood across Lothian Street opposite the underpass
The origin Infirmary Gates that stood in High School Yards at the foot of Infirmary Street 1830.
The Flodden Wall in Drummond Street turning into the Pleasance Edinburgh.
Where there is an old bricked up gateway for entrance to Edinburgh.
The final part of the Flodden Wall that still stands at the foot of St Mary's Street Edinburgh.
The Cowgate Port stood across the entrance to the Cowgate one of the six Ports (Gates)
The brass cobbles showing the outline of where the Nether Bow Port (Gate) stood.
On the boundary of Edinburgh and outside the walls a baron area before the Burgh of the Canongate.
The Nether Bow was the most important gateway as it stood at the foot of the High Street.
The port (Gate) access to and from the Canongate, which was at that time a separate Burgh.
Edinburgh's Trinity Apse Church stood below the Calton Jail Wall.
It was moved when the Waverley Rail Station was built. The dismantled it brick by brick and rebuilt it in
Chalmer's Close in the High Street Royal Mile.
Calton Hill from Jeffrey Street looking over where the end of the Flodden Wall stood and the shore of the Nor Loch beside the Trinity Church which is now in Chalmer's Close.
Flodden Plaque shows where the route of the Flodden wall was and where the Bristo Port once stood.
This section of the Flodden wall pictured below that still stands in Grayfriars burial ground was original attached to the Flodden Tower (In Vennel up from Grassmarket) and Bristo Port which is no longer there. The Telfer Wall is now attached to the Flodden Tower and is now the main route of the Flodden Wall.
Tweeddale Court
The wall in Tweeddale Court may represent part of the original city wall as the city gates were originally higher up the High Street near Tweeddale Court before The Burning of Edinburgh in 1544 by an English army lead by Hertford the gate was almost destroyed the gate was rebuilt in 1606 were it stands today.
All that remains are parts of the wall, the gates (ports) have all been removed in 1764.
The clock that was a centre piece of the Nether Bow Port can now be seen on the
Modern Art Gallery 2 (Dean Gallery) in Belford Road.
The bell that hung on the Port from 1621 and a carved stone plaque from 1606 be seen at the Storytelling Centre where the old gate once stood.
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Nether Bow
High Street Royal Mile
Edinburgh City Gates.
There were walls around the city of Edinburgh with gates known as Ports, 6 in all. In the 1700s the demolition of sections of the wall began. The Nether Bow was pulled down in 1764, and demolition of the wall continued into the 19th century. Today, a number of sections of the three successive walls survive, although none of the ports remain. You can see and find out more about Edinburgh’s history in the Museum of Edinburgh in the Canongate.
Nether Bow Clock @ Dean Gallery
