What was edinburgh nickname in the 1700s

Moving forward in time to the Iron Age, we know that Edinburgh and the surrounding area was home to several hill forts with some located in East Lothian notably on Traprain Law and others in Holyrood Park. These hillforts were some of the earliest defensive buildings in Britain and were mostly built to take advantage of high elevations, which is why the rocky peaks of Holyrood Park were so highly prized.

I already mentioned Traprain Law in East Lothian but did you know the tribe that lived there — the Votadini — were one of the most powerful in Scotland during the Iron Age? Although Traprain Law was their capital they eventually moved to the region south of the Firth of Forth which they called Eidyn and built their new capital — Din Eidyn — on top of the volcanic plug of Castle Rock.

After the Romans left Britain in AD the Votadini expanded their territory and created a new kingdom of Gododdin which covered a large part of North England and South Scotland with Edinburgh serving as their capital.

The first Scottish King Kenneth MacAlpin united the Gododdin and other tribes together in AD and the fort on Castle Law continued to be used as a seat of power, but it was David I who founded Edinburgh as a royal burgh in the 12th-century. Although the stone was later returned to Westminster, in on St.

At the time, the year-old 6th Earl of Douglas and his younger brother were invited to the castle for a feast by King James II, but during the meal a platter was served to the Earl which contained the severed head of a black bull a Scottish symbol of death.

One of the most iconic areas of Edinburgh is the Old Town where most of the historic buildings have survived local conflicts and world wars almost completely unscathed. While many city buildings in Britain were devastated by German bombs in WWII, most of Edinburgh remained untouched as the city had virtually no military importance due to its economy centring on education, grain milling and finance, unlike Glasgow which had one of the largest shipbuilding industries in the world at the time.

Giles Cathedral , Greyfriars Kirk and the Palace of Holyroodhouse , all of which are notable for their attractive design which makes extensive use of locally sourced sandstone. Before the creation of the Union Canal in , sandstone had to be brought into the city centre via horse and cart so local quarries at Bruntsfield and Craigmillar were used.

However, when the canal opened it offered easy transport links from Edinburgh all the way to Falkirk which made it possible for cheaper building material to be brought in from the further-afield quarries in Binny, Humbie and Dalmeny.

In the Scottish army was defeated by the armies of the English King James IV at the Battle of Flodden, and fearing an imminent English invasion of Edinburgh the city councillors made plans to construct a defensive wall around the entire city.

This wall — now called the Flodden Wall — was built 24 feet high and 4 feet thick and protected a site of acres, but it had only a few entry points. Although the English invasion never materialized the city councillors soon realized they could make money by levying hefty taxes on the city folk who wanted to enter and exit the wall, so instead of demolishing it when the threat passed they let it stand for another years.

In fact, Edinburgh has more historic multi-floor tenements than any other city on earth and some rise up to 15 storeys, making them the tallest buildings in the world when they were built. Although the tenement buildings allowed more people to live in Edinburgh they created problems of their own due to overcrowding and pollution.

In the s a rapidly growing population of 50, people meant the original sewage system was woefully inadequate and raw sewage was either thrown out of tenement building windows into the streets below or deposited in the Nor Loch which was a body of water located where Princes Street Gardens now lies. The competition was won by a young architect named James Craig who came up with the idea of a central street linked by parks at either end and smaller streets joining it along its length in a grid pattern.

This grid system was so highly regarded that its design was copied throughout the world and it is the main reason why most cities in the United States today are comprised of rectangular city blocks interspersed by connecting streets and public gardens.

Calton Hill is one of the most recognizable tourist attractions in Edinburgh, but long before the famous monuments were built on it the site was used to prepare for war. Initially, the radical idea worked and much of the local population became proficient with a bow and had high levels of fitness, but as the English threat subsided Calton Hill became a site for leisure activities.

That could have meant Edinburgh staying as a town rather than the great European city it has since become - but at the same time Berwick could have evolved as the nation's capital and may well have stayed a Scottish town instead of finding itself in England, as it now.

People have lived on the present site of Edinburgh's most famous attraction - the castle - since the 6th century, though nearly the development in the so-called old town which you see today dates from the middle ages or later. Edinburgh may be a spacious and elegant city now, but as it evolved into Scotland's capital, it became so dirty and overcrowded that people living there almost choked to death on the grime and the smell.

Buildings in and around the historic Royal Mile from the Castle down to the Palace at Holyrood may look desirable and attractive these days, but in the middle ages, the area was so squalid that it became known as Auld Reekie - a nickname which has stuck right up to the present day.

Edinburgh was always going to be a prime site for human settlement, because its geographic position near the River Forth made it both attractive and highly defensible. With its high and steep walls and commanding views of the countryside, the rock on which the castle is currently built was a perfect spot for a fortified settlement.

However, serious building didn't really start to take place until the 11th century, when a small town began to grow up around the site which had been fortified by Malcolm Canmore and his wife, Saint Margaret of Scotland. David is also thought to have founded St Margaret's Chapel at Edinburgh Castle - the oldest part of the building, which still survives to this day.

In David's time, there was no real capital of Scotland - the king and his retune simply travelled round various residencies. However, Edinburgh Castle became one of their regular stopping off points, and a population slowly grew up around it. David's influence on Edinburgh marked the start of its growth into the great city we know today. In he granted it the status of a burgh, which meant that it had permission to act both as a market and as a centre for early manufacturing industries such as cloth weaving.

This helped build its prosperity, as did the king's decision to allow the first ever Scottish coins to be minted in the town. As Edinburgh expanded, so houses were built on the ridge between the castle and Holyrood - in other words, along the present Royal Mile.

King David continued to encourage population growth, finding that French, Flemish and English craftsmen were keen to move in. Even in these early days, Edinburgh was turning into an international community. Leith, two miles away on the banks of the Forth, was already established as a port and trading with the Baltic states and the Low Countries such as Holland. One problem the fledgling town faced was that its proximity to the English border made it vulnerable to regular attacks from the auld enemy.

This security, however, came at a price. The foul smell that would thus rise from its stagnant waters was overwhelming, to say the least. As Old Town became increasingly overcrowded, the defensive walls prevented residents from expanding outwards, thus resulting in a dense concentration of homes within a small area. The smoke which billowed out created a thick, choking smog over the city.

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