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Summary

Description

1514-60 and 1628-36. SW bastion of Flodden Wall (at head of Vennel): crenellated shell of square-plan tower (N side incomplete). Random rubble (original to height of approximately 20 feet), 4 feet thick; purplish stone from Bruntsfield Links. Coped crenellations; long and short quoins. 2 crosslet gunloops to W, 1 to N and S. Window (now blocked) in S wall (see Notes). Section of Telfer Wall (see Notes) to E of Heriot Place: Rubble wall (mainly orange sandstone, probably from Ravelstone); S section not coped, centre section coped, S section (to W of Heriot's Examination Hall) crenellated and coped. Broad gateway to S, round-arched gateway (modern 2-leaf timber door) and corniced doorway (timber panelled door) to N.

Statement of Special Interest

Scheduled Monument. After the defeat at Flodden in September 1513 the Town Council imposed a levy in order to strengthen the town walls. The new wall enclosed the suburbs of Grassmarket and Cowgate. The principal function of the wall was probably to deter smuggling rather than defence. The SW section ran up the line of the Vennel from the fortified gateway at the SW corner of the Grassmarket known as the West Port (demolished in the 1780's) to the bastion, then turning E, running N of the site of Heriot's Hospital and Greyfriar's Churchyard. An inscription above the blocked S window reads, 'This window was inserted in the old city wall with the sanction of the Town Council 1876. The tower owes its preservation to Dr Patrick Neill, described by Lord Cockburn as 'one of the few defenders of our architectural relics,' who published a pamphlet in 1829 entitled 'Notes relative to the fortified walls of Edinburgh.' The Telfer Wall (named after its mason, John Tailefer) was constructed in 1628-36 to enclose land bought by the Town Council in 1618, most of which was then sold to the Heriot's Hospital Trust, but including also the area to the S of Greyfriars where the Charity Workhouse was later built. The walls are important both historically and for the effect which they have had on the pattern of development of the city. The EW line of the Telfer wall, for example, determined the line of Lauriston Place. In 1762 permission was granted for the dismantling of bastions of the Telfer Wall, said to be obstructing the use of Lauriston Place. This section of wall was demolished prior to the building of William Playfair's gate lodge, boundary wall and railings to Heriot's Hospital in 1828.

Re-scheduled Area 4 February 2003 - SAM 2901.

References

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