A few years ago I read James Robertson’s excellent book; ‘The Fanatic’. The book tells the story of an Edinburgh tour guide and how he becomes obsessed with the gruesome character he portrays. In one passage of the book the character mentions a place called the ‘Gallow Lee’ an area just beside Leith Walk in Edinburgh where all manner of executions were carried out. I recently came across some more information about this place and its real history was even more ghastly than the fictional account.

Leith Walk is a ribbon of Shops Café’s and bars that runs from the east end of the city centre to the historical port of Leith. The origin of this thoroughfare goes back to the time of Oliver Cromwell and his attempts to capture the city. In order to repel his attacks Sir Alexander Leslie in command of the Scottish Army created a ‘breastwork’; a chest high defensive earthwork wall as part of the city defences. This wall ran northwards from the city centre down to the shore. The defences were incredibly effective and Cromwell was held off till after his victory at Dunbar.

In time buildings began to spring up along the line of these defences, a gravel path was laid down and coaches would ferry people to and from the port. Leith Walk was born!

At around the halfway point, just where the traditional boundary where Edinburgh and Leith meet is an area called Shrubhill. This was a sandy hill on the western side of the road. Being outside the city boundaries this was where the city of Edinburgh disposed of its more troublesome problems!

In 17^th century Edinburgh public executions were a common spectacle. But sometimes there was a problem where a person sentenced to execution was either too high profile or for one reason or another there was concern that the execution may cause unrest.In some cases the manner of execution was too much even by 17^th century standards. Edinburgh chose the Gallow Lee in Shrubhill to deal with its dirty business. A permanent ‘gibbet’ was set up on the hill and on most days a body would be seen swinging from it. Witches were put to death, sometimes mercifully strangled before being burned and as the years progressed the ashes of the dead added to the sandy mound.

Covenanter executions were a frequent site too and there were a few high profile scandalous murderers who were put to death on the Gallow Lee: There was the ReverentJohn Kelloe for example; a respectable minister from Dunbar who had murdered his wife. Another very notable ‘customer’ was Norman Ross, a footman who had murdered his employer Lady Baillie, sister of the Laird of Wedderburn. For around two years his rotting corpse was left to swing on the gibbet being picked at by crows.

Until halfway into the 18^th century this ghastly landmark stood on the route into Edinburgh. However the draining of the Nor loch and the expansion of the city to the North led to a new period of development. Stone was quarried from nearby Craigleith quarry to build the fashionable ‘New town’ The builders looked for a source of sand to add to the lime mortar and hit upon the Gallow Lee. The owner of the land charged the builders to cart away the sand, containing the ashes and other remainsof thousands of victims. It is said that every penny he earned went straight to the local publicans – so much so that a public house (the halfway house) sprung up nearby!

Soon the sandy mound of the Gallow Lee was gone and all that remained was a hollow. As I write this the site of the Gallow Lee is once more waste ground, formerly occupied as a bus depot now awaiting redevelopment. But how many of those living in the trendy apartments in Edinburgh’s New town realise that the very fabric of their building is bound together with the remains of Witches, covenanters and criminals?

Sleep tight!

The post The Gallow Lee; The Monsters in the Mortar! appeared first on ScotClans | Scottish Clans.

Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus

In 1545 the aptly titled War of Rough Wooing was in full, ruthless swing. In order to gain Scotland’s allegiance to England, King Henry VIII employed the curious tactic of scorching and pillaging Scotland into submission. In retaliation, approximately 2,500 Scottish soldiers were raised by the Chief of Clan Douglas, Archibald Douglas 6th Earl of Angus, with help from James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran. They gathered just a few miles from the Scottish border town of Jedburgh, confronting 5,200 English soldiers on 27 February 1545 at the Battle of Ancrum Moor.

Towards the end of Henry VIII’s reign, the King sought to unify the Kingdoms of England and Scotland through the arranged marriage of his son Edward, and Mary, Queen of Scots (aged one at the time). After much discussion and dissension, the Scottish Parliament under the Earl of Arran (Queen Mary’s regent) rejected Henry’s proposal, and instead offered the infant’s hand to the French, thus renewing the ‘Auld Alliance’.

Henry reacted rather badly to the news, and declared war against Scotland. Major hostilities broke out in Edinburgh in 1544, where Henry ordered the Earl of Hertford to burn Edinburgh, Leith and much of the border towns to the ground. The burning and pillaging of the borders continued into 1545, led by Sir Ralph Eure. Douglas’s estate had suffered heavily during the attacks – his family tombs at Melrose Abbey were vandalised by Eure, and Henry VIII had even given Eure some of Douglas’s land in the borders. The attacks forged an unlikely alliance between Douglas and Arran who had been bitter rivals for many years, even fighting a pitched battle in the streets of Edinburgh in 1520. Douglas was also joined at the battlefield by Scott of Buccleuch, whose lands had also been destroyed in the attacks.

The English command numbered approximately 5,200 and was made up of 3000 German and Spanish mercenaries, 1,500 English borderers and 700 disaffected Scots. As they settled into their encampment under Gersit Law, a small Scottish force made an attack then retreated. The English gave chase over the hill, where they met the entirety of the Scots force made up of predominantly Douglas men. Gleefully hidden on the far side of the hill, the Scots, although largely outnumbered, had the advantage of surprise and of the setting sun which was behind them. The English front line cracked under the might of the Scots pikemen, never being able to secure enough solid ground on the hill to launch a substantial attack. This sent the army into disarray, scattering the troops into the hostile countryside.

The English lost 800 men, including Eure, to the Scots two casualties. 1000 English men were also taken prisoner. Scotland’s incredibly decisive victory was enough to cool Henry VIII’s wrath for the meantime, however the war waged on until shortly after the death of the King in 1547. Local lore also says that a Lady Lilliard took part in the battle to avenge the death of her lover who was killed by English troops. Lilliard fought until dying of her wounds on the battle field, where an inscribed stone now lies in memory of her.

Fair maiden Lilliard
lies under this stane
little was her stature
but muckle was her fame
upon the English loons
she laid monie thumps
and when her legs were cuttit off
she fought upon her stumps.

In 2012 the Scottish Government announced the battle site at Ancrum Moor was to be protected under the Scottish Historic Environment Policy 2009.

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