153-535: Alexander Geddes (14 September 1737 – 26 February 1802) was a Scottish Catholic theologian and scholar. He translated a major part of the Old Testament of the Catholic Bible into English. Geddes was born at Rathven , Banffshire , of Catholic parentage, and educated for the priesthood at the local seminary of Scalan , and at Paris ; he became a priest in his native county. His translation of
306-652: A Canadian Gaelic -speaking pioneer settlement was established for Scottish Catholics through the efforts of British Army military chaplain and future Catholic bishop Alexander Macdonnell . The settlement's inhabitants consisted of members of the Glengarry Fencibles , a disbanded Catholic unit of the Highland Fencible Corps , and their families. In addition to Bishop MacDonnell, there were many other "heather priests", such as William Fraser , Angus Bernard MacEachern , and Ranald Rankin,
459-479: A port several miles away (respectively, Leith and Piraeus ). Intellectually, the Scottish Enlightenment , with its humanist and rationalist outlook, was influenced by Ancient Greek philosophy . In 1822, artist Hugh William Williams organized an exhibition that showed his paintings of Athens alongside views of Edinburgh, and the idea of a direct parallel between both cities quickly caught
612-621: A prison hulk anchored in the River Thames , Grant was deported to the Netherlands and warned never to return to the British Isles . Like the other priests deported with him, Fr. Grant returned to Scotland almost immediately. His fellow prisoner, Father Alexander Cameron , an outlawed "heather priest" to Clan Fraser of Lovat and Clan Chisholm , former military chaplain , and the younger brother to Donald Cameron of Lochiel ,
765-465: A royal charter , c. 1124–1127 , by King David I granting a toft in burgo meo de Edenesburg to the Priory of Dunfermline . The shire of Edinburgh seems to have also been created in the reign of David I, possibly covering all of Lothian at first, but by 1305 the eastern and western parts of Lothian had become Haddingtonshire and Linlithgowshire , leaving Edinburgh as the county town of
918-507: A "racially pure" national church ; particularly as German people who were of even partially Slavic or Jewish ancestry were not considered "true" members of the Volk . Edinburgh Edinburgh ( / ˈ ɛ d ɪ n b ər ə / ED -in-bər-ə , Scots: [ˈɛdɪnbʌrə] ; Scottish Gaelic : Dùn Èideann [t̪un ˈeːtʲən̪ˠ] ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas . The city
1071-537: A distinctive Celtic Church , to which Catholics, Protestants, and Eastern Orthodox Christians have all claimed in historical debates to be the only legitimate heirs. In the Celtic Church, attitudes towards clerical celibacy were more relaxed, a differing form of monastic tonsure was used, the use of prayer beads known as the Pater Noster cord preceded the invention of the rosary by St Dominic , and
1224-645: A heavy influence upon the history of Scottish Gaelic literature . In the 2011 census , 16% of the population of Scotland described themselves as being Catholic, compared with 32% affiliated with the Church of Scotland . Between 1994 and 2002, Catholic attendance in Scotland declined 19% to just over 200,000. By 2008, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Scotland estimated that 184,283 attended Mass regularly. Christianity may have been introduced to what
1377-614: A later report by Bishop John Geddes , as outlawed clergymen of an illegal and underground church denomination, it is understandable why Bishop Hugh MacDonald , the Vicar General of the Highlands between 1731 and 1773, and the priests of his district would have felt very hopeful about Jacobitism , due the House of Stuart 's promises of Catholic Emancipation , freedom of religion , and civil rights to everyone who worshipped outside
1530-732: A monastic organisation, each tribe could have its own monastery, and the larger ones could have as many as they wished." Also, despite a shared belief in the Real Presence in the Eucharist , the veneration of the Blessed Virgin , and shared use of the Ecclesiastical Latin liturgical language , as is documented by primary sources such as the Stowe Missal , there were often significant differences between
1683-607: A native speaker of Ulster Irish from the Glens of Antrim , but whose ministerial reputation collapsed following allegations of womanizing in 1885. The Catholic hierarchy was re-established in 1878 by Pope Leo XIII and six new dioceses were created: five of them were organised into a single province with the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh as metropolitan; the Diocese of Glasgow remained separate and directly subject to
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#17327830291181836-523: A population in 2014 of 1,339,380. Like most of Scotland, Edinburgh has a cool temperate maritime climate ( Cfb ) which, despite its northerly latitude, is milder than places which lie at similar latitudes such as Moscow and Labrador . The city's proximity to the sea mitigates any large variations in temperature or extremes of climate. Winter daytime temperatures rarely fall below freezing while summer temperatures are moderate, rarely exceeding 22 °C (72 °F). The highest temperature recorded in
1989-792: A practising Catholic bourgeoisie and a lapsed proletariat. This relative economic stability allowed the Catholic community to enter the political and social life of Scotland, sparking outrage among anti-Catholic and unionist circles, most notably the Orange Order 's Grand Lodge . Sectarian violence in Scotland reached its peak in the early 1930s, and Catholic religious processions were frequently attacked by anti-Catholic and Orange mobs. The Orange Order also frequently and deliberately staged provocative marches through Catholic neighbourhoods. The escalating violence and skirmishes, particularly between pro- and anti-Catholic Glasgow razor gangs , had
2142-560: A profound effect on Scotland as a whole; Rosie remarked that "the level and scale of the violence exhibited between 1931 and 1935 of a much more serious and concerted nature than of any period since the reintroduction of Orange parades in the 1870s". Sectarian violence was so severe that it caused higher policing costs, and local councils were tempted to ban all "religious and pseudo-religious processions" outright. While eventually no such ban took place, tightening restrictions were introduced in order to minimise anti-Catholic violence. In 1923,
2295-542: A series of reforms and transformations. Through the influence of his Hungarian -born wife, St Margaret of Scotland , a clearly defined hierarchy of diocesan bishops and parochial structure for local churches, in line with the queen's experiences in Continental Europe, was developed. Following the 1286 extinction of the Royal House of Dunkeld and the subsequent invasion of Scotland by Edward Longshanks ,
2448-634: A series of small summits to the south of the city centre that command expansive views looking northwards over the urban area to the Firth of Forth. Edinburgh is drained by the river named the Water of Leith , which rises at the Colzium Springs in the Pentland Hills and runs for 18 miles (29 km) through the south and west of the city, emptying into the Firth of Forth at Leith. The nearest
2601-596: A sermon by visiting anti-Catholic preacher and polemicist John Sayers Orr in October 1855. A very similar riot had previously been incited by Orr, whom Tim Pat Coogan has compared to the Rev. Ian Paisley , in Greenock on 12 July 1851. When Orr was thrown into prison, his followers also rioted. Attempts were also made to convert Irish migrants to Presbyterianism by recruiting missionaries like Rev. Patrick MacMenemy,
2754-585: A shire covering the central part of Lothian, which was called Edinburghshire or Midlothian (the latter name being an informal, but commonly used, alternative until the county's name was legally changed in 1947). Edinburgh was largely under English control from 1291 to 1314 and from 1333 to 1341, during the Wars of Scottish Independence . When the English invaded Scotland in 1298 , Edward I of England chose not to enter Edinburgh but passed by it with his army. In
2907-631: A significantly large Catholic population, served by outlawed "heather priests", continued to exist. This was especially the case in the Doric -speaking Northeast and the more remote Gàidhealtachd areas of the Hebrides , the Northwest Highlands , and in Galloway . Numbers probably reduced in the seventeenth century and organisation deteriorated. The Pope appointed Thomas Nicolson as
3060-616: A small petition book at their altar of St. Joseph in the University Catholic Chapel, Turnbull Hall. It is one of the necessary prerequisites for Canonisation in the Catholic Church that there is a cult of devotion to the saint. According to historian Daniel Szechi, however, the government's post-Culloden backlash focused upon the Catholic clergy and laity of the Highland District, while leaving
3213-564: A third of nobles and gentry were still Catholic in inclination. In most of Scotland, Catholicism became an underground faith in private households, connected by ties of kinship. This reliance on the household meant that Scottish laywomen often became vitally important as the upholders and transmitters of the faith, such as in the case of Lady Fernihurst in the Borders. They transformed their households into centres of religious activity and created safe houses and secret chapels for priests . After
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#17327830291183366-655: A war band from across the Brittonic world who gathered in Eidyn before a fateful raid; this may describe a historical event around AD 600. In 638, the Gododdin stronghold was besieged by forces loyal to King Oswald of Northumbria , and around this time control of Lothian passed to the Angles . Their influence continued for the next three centuries until around 950, when, during the reign of Indulf , son of Constantine II ,
3519-455: Is a movement throughout the world towards the rejection of non-native constituents and the crystallization of national life from native elements." Such officially hostile attitudes started to wane considerably from the 1930s and 1940s onwards, especially as the leadership of the Church of Scotland learned of what was happening in eugenics -conscious Nazi Germany and of the dangers of creating
3672-439: Is affectionately nicknamed Auld Reekie , Scots for Old Smoky , for the views from the country of the smoke-covered Old Town. A note in a collection of the works of the poet, Allan Ramsay , explains, "Auld Reeky...A name the country people give Edinburgh, from the cloud of smoke or reek that is always impending over it." In Walter Scott 's 1820 novel The Abbot , a character observes that "yonder stands Auld Reekie—you may see
3825-570: Is almost entirely within the City of Edinburgh Council boundary, merging with Musselburgh in East Lothian. Towns within easy reach of the city boundary include Inverkeithing , Haddington , Tranent , Prestonpans , Dalkeith , Bonnyrigg , Loanhead , Penicuik , Broxburn , Livingston and Dunfermline . Edinburgh lies at the heart of the Edinburgh & South East Scotland City region with
3978-426: Is encircled by a green belt , designated in 1957, which stretches from Dalmeny in the west to Prestongrange in the east. With an average width of 3.2 km (2 mi) the principal objectives of the green belt were to contain the outward expansion of the city and to prevent the agglomeration of urban areas. Expansion affecting the green belt is strictly controlled but developments such as Edinburgh Airport and
4131-462: Is estimated that, in 2009, there were about 850,000 Catholics in the country of 5.1 million. The Gàidhealtachd has been both Catholic and Protestant in modern times. A number of Scottish Gaelic -speaking areas, including Barra , Benbecula , South Uist , Eriskay , and Moidart , are mainly Catholic. (See also the " Religion of the Yellow Stick ".) For this reason, Catholicism has had
4284-482: Is governed by the City of Edinburgh Council , a unitary authority. The City of Edinburgh council area had an estimated population of 514,990 in mid-2021, and includes outlying towns and villages which are not part of Edinburgh proper. The city is in the Lothian region and was historically part of the shire of Midlothian (also called Edinburghshire). "Edin", the root of the city's name, derives from Eidyn ,
4437-606: Is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth estuary and to the south by the Pentland Hills . Edinburgh had a population of 506,520 in mid-2020, making it the second-most populous city in Scotland and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom . The wider metropolitan area had a population of 912,490 in the same year. Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least
4590-651: Is now Scotland by soldiers of the Roman Legions stationed in the far north of the province of Britannia . Even after the 383 withdrawal of the Roman garrisons by Magnus Maximus , it is well documented in locally composed works of early Welsh-language literature , like Y Gododdin , the Book of Taliesin , and the Book of Aneirin , that Christianity survived among the Proto-Welsh-speaking kingdoms in
4743-635: Is of 13,166 Catholics in the Highlands, perhaps a quarter of whom had emigrated by 1790, and another source estimates Catholics as perhaps 10% of the population. Even though he acknowledges the vitally important role determination to keep the landowning gentry from appointing and removing Church of Scotland ministers during the Highland and Lowland Clearances played in causing the Disruption of 1843 , Marcus Tanner also writes, "the Disruption and
Alexander Geddes - Misplaced Pages Continue
4896-401: Is often seen as being invigorated by the combined effects of poverty and discrimination; priests tended to be drawn from the working classes and to relate well to economic hardship amongst their parishioners. Though Catholics moved increasingly during this period into skilled and white-collar jobs, the Catholic community retained a homogeneity which prevented a major social divide emerging between
5049-440: Is typical of the old quarters of many Northern European cities. The New Town was an 18th-century solution to the problem of an increasingly crowded city which had been confined to the ridge sloping down from the castle. In 1766 a competition to design a "New Town" was won by James Craig , a 27-year-old architect. The plan was a rigid, ordered grid, which fitted in well with Enlightenment ideas of rationality. The principal street
5202-641: The Athens of the North since the early 19th century. References to Athens, such as Athens of Britain and Modern Athens , had been made as early as the 1760s. The similarities were seen to be topographical but also intellectual. Edinburgh's Castle Rock reminded returning grand tourists of the Athenian Acropolis , as did aspects of the neoclassical architecture and layout of New Town . Both cities had flatter, fertile agricultural land sloping down to
5355-551: The Canongate , and the extensive Georgian New Town built in the 18th/19th centuries. Edinburgh's Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site , which has been managed by Edinburgh World Heritage since 1999. The city's historical and cultural attractions have made it the UK's second-most visited tourist destination, attracting 4.9 million visits, including 2.4 million from overseas in 2018. Edinburgh
5508-593: The Celtic Rite and the mainstream Roman Rite and evidence of a distinctive form of Celtic chant in Latin, which is most closely related to Gallican chant , also survives in liturgical music manuscripts dating from the period. The Culdees , an eremitical order from Gaelic Ireland , also spread to Scotland, where their presence continued at least into the 11th-century. In his life of Saint Margaret of Scotland , Turgot of Durham , Bishop of St Andrews , wrote of
5661-578: The Chief of Clan Cameron , was less fortunate. Fr. Cameron died aboard the prison hulk due to the hardship of his imprisonment on 19 October 1746. During the 21st century, the Knights of St. Columba at the University of Glasgow launched a campaign to canonize Fr. Cameron, "with the hope that he will become a great saint for Scotland and that our nation will merit from his intercession." They erected
5814-455: The Chisholms and Frasers of Strathglass , or in the north-east under Clan Gordon . In these areas Catholic sacraments were administered by disguised and outlawed priests, but with relative openness. Members of the nobility, who were often closely related, are believed to have been reluctant to pursue each other over matters of religious dissent. An English report in 1600 also alleged that
5967-628: The Church of Scotland ("The Kirk") to embrace the Elizabethan religious settlement , High Church Anglicanism , and episcopal polity . This led to long-term internal battles between Episcopalian and Presbyterian factions over control of the Kirk, the religious persecution of whichever faction had fallen from power, and the ultimate formation of a separate Scottish Episcopal Church . Persecution of Catholics, however, continued under both Episcopalian and Presbyterian governance. Some, including members of
6120-487: The Church of Scotland produced a (since repudiated) report, entitled The Menace of the Irish Race to our Scottish Nationality , accusing the largely immigrant Catholic population of subverting Presbyterian values and of spreading drunkenness, crime, and financial imprudence. Rev. John White , one of the senior leadership of the Church of Scotland at the time, called for a "racially pure" Scotland, declaring "Today there
6273-539: The Established Churches of the realm. It is equally understandable why the Scottish Catholic laity, who, "were discouraged and much exposed to oppression", would similarly, "wish for an event that was likely to release them, and put them again into the possession of the privileges of free-born citizens." Even though many Presbyterians and Episcopalians also fought as Jacobites, aftermath of
Alexander Geddes - Misplaced Pages Continue
6426-467: The Free Church have come in for harsh criticism especially from the political left in recent years. Apart from inflicting a peculiarly censorious and dour version of Christianity on the population, they are charged with imbuing them with ultra-Calvinist pessimism and political passivity, and with encouraging them to dwell on trivial points of doctrine while their communities were being laid waste by
6579-661: The George Square and Potterrow areas proved highly controversial. Since the 1990s a new "financial district", including the Edinburgh International Conference Centre , has grown mainly on demolished railway property to the west of the castle, stretching into Fountainbridge , a run-down 19th-century industrial suburb which has undergone radical change since the 1980s with the demise of industrial and brewery premises. This ongoing development has enabled Edinburgh to maintain its place as
6732-557: The Gutenberg Revolution also helped spread the "new learning" known as Renaissance humanism , which was also embraced and spread by many Catholic clergy. Therefore, the Church in Scotland remained relatively strong and stable until the Scottish Reformation in the sixteenth century. Scotland remained a Catholic country until the arrival of Protestant theology in books smuggled from abroad, beginning in
6885-799: The Hiberno-Scottish mission and Iona Abbey , and firmly established in Scotland for nearly a millennium, the Catholic Church was outlawed by the Scottish Reformation Parliament in 1560. Multiple regime change uprisings in the interim failed to reestablish Catholicism and, even today, the Papal Jurisdiction Act 1560 , while no longer enforced, still remains on the books. Throughout the nearly three centuries of religious persecution and disenfranchisement between 1560 and 1829, many students for
7038-722: The Highlands and Islands who both moved into Scotland's cities and industrial towns during the 19th century, especially during the Highland Clearances, the Highland Potato Famine , and the similar famine in Ireland . However, there are also significant numbers of Scottish Catholics of Italian , Lithuanian , Ukrainian , and Polish descent, with more recent immigrants again boosting the numbers. Owing to immigration (overwhelmingly white European ), it
7191-697: The Jacobite rising of 1745 further increased the persecution faced by Catholics in Scotland. The repression was particularly intense during ( Scottish Gaelic : Bliadhna nan Creach lit. " the year of the pillaging ") that followed the defeat of the Jacobite Army at the Battle of Culloden . The Hanoverian atrocities that followed were motivated by what American Civil War historian Thomas Lowry has termed "the European tradition … that to victors belong
7344-459: The Romans arrived in Lothian at the end of the 1st century AD, they found a Brittonic Celtic tribe whose name they recorded as the Votadini . The Votadini transitioned into the Gododdin kingdom in the Early Middle Ages , with Eidyn serving as one of the kingdom's districts. During this period, the Castle Rock site, thought to have been the stronghold of Din Eidyn, emerged as the kingdom's major centre. The medieval poem Y Gododdin describes
7497-590: The Royal Highland Showground at Ingliston lie within the zone. Similarly, suburbs such as Juniper Green and Balerno are situated on green belt land. One feature of the Edinburgh green belt is the inclusion of parcels of land within the city which are designated green belt, even though they do not connect with the peripheral ring. Examples of these independent wedges of green belt include Holyrood Park and Corstorphine Hill. Edinburgh includes former towns and villages that retain much of their original character as settlements in existence before they were absorbed into
7650-411: The Satires of Horace made him known as a scholar, but his liberalism led to his suspension. He then went to London , where he became known to Baron Petre , who enabled him to proceed with a new translation of the Bible for English Catholics , which he carried on as far as the Book of Second Chronicles and the Prayer of Manasseh which was published in 2 volumes (1792–1797). A translation of Psalms
7803-447: The Scotland Act , which came into force the following year, established a devolved Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive (renamed the Scottish Government since September 2007 ). Both based in Edinburgh, they are responsible for governing Scotland while reserved matters such as defence, foreign affairs and some elements of income tax remain the responsibility of the Parliament of the United Kingdom in London. In 2022, Edinburgh
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#17327830291187956-400: The Scottish Episcopal Church . Exact numbers of communicants are uncertain, given the illegal status of Catholicism. In 1755 it was estimated that there were some 16,500 communicants, mainly in the north and west. In 1764, "the total Catholic population in Scotland would have been about 33,000 or 2.6% of the total population. Of these 23,000 were in the Highlands." Another estimate for 1764
8109-466: The Scottish Reformation was effectively completed when the Scottish Parliament broke with the papacy and established a Calvinist confession by law in 1560. At that point, the offering or attending of the Mass was outlawed. The subsequent suppression of monasteries , ban on religious orders , and, most particular, the book burnings at monastic libraries that often accompanied them has recently been criticised, even by non-Catholic historians, as
8262-413: The Scottish nobility , converted openly to the Catholic Church despite the risks involved. For example, Banffshire aristocrat John Ogilvie (1569–1615) went on to be ordained a priest of the Society of Jesus in 1610. He was arrested by the Anglo-Catholic Archbishop of St. Andrews, John Spottiswoode and, in a deeply ironic parallel to the religious persecution of the Presbyterian Covenanters during
8415-564: The South Bridge in the 1780s. The Southside is particularly popular with families (many state and private schools are here), young professionals and students (the central University of Edinburgh campus is based around George Square just north of Marchmont and the Meadows ), and Napier University (with major campuses around Merchiston and Morningside). The area is also well provided with hotel and "bed and breakfast" accommodation for visiting festival-goers. These districts often feature in works of fiction. For example, Church Hill in Morningside,
8568-451: The Tridentine Mass , which had been criminalised five years previously. Even so, the remaining domestic clergy played a relatively small role and the initiative was often left to lay leaders. Wherever noble families , local lairds , or Scottish clan chiefs illegally offered religious toleration Catholicism continued to thrive covertly, as under Clan Donald in Lochaber , Eigg , and South Uist , under Clan MacNeil in Barra , under
8721-401: The derbhfine of local Irish clan chiefs led to notorious abuses; like monasteries warring against each other and the infamous Irish "royal-abbot" of Cork and Clonfert Abbeys , Fedelmid mac Crimthainn , who personally led armies into battle against other Irish clans and abbeys and routinely sacked and burned other monasteries. Due to the close ties between the Church in both countries,
8874-400: The erenagh system during the time of the Celtic Church , to gain greater influence over senior appointments to the hierarchy and two archbishoprics had accordingly been established by the end of the fifteenth century. While some historians have discerned a decline of monasticism in the Late Middle Ages, the mendicant orders of friars grew, particularly in the expanding burghs , to meet
9027-506: The political purge of Scottish clergy from the hierarchy, religious orders, and parishes, and their replacement by English clergy was one of the root causes of the Scottish Wars of Independence and is part of why so many of the Scottish clergy defied the pro-English policy of Pope John XXII and signed the Declaration of Arbroath . Following the Battle of Bannockburn , large numbers of new foundations, which introduced Continental European forms of reformed monasticism, began to predominate as
9180-482: The printing press and helped spread Protestantism even further. In particular, after he was sentenced to death for his belief in Lutheranism following an Ecclesiastical trial presided over by Archbishop James Beaton and burned at the stake at St. Andrews in 1528, it was said that the "reek [that is, smoke] of Master Patrick Hamilton infected as many as it blew upon". Other similar cases had very similar results. Despite also facing considerable popular opposition,
9333-410: The recusant districts of North-East Scotland played an important part in providing support. In Dumbarton , which in 1820 only had two or three Catholic families, the population was increased by Irish and Highland migration until the first parish church, dedicated to St Patrick, was built in 1830. According to local historian I.M.M. MacPhail, "Before 1830, a few Catholics used to meet in the ruins of
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#17327830291189486-419: The reformed kirk took over the existing structures and assets of the Church, the 1567 overthrow of Mary, Queen of Scots , and the defeat of the armies seeking her restoration during the 1570s, the Vatican reclassified Scotland as a missionary territory and therefore subject to the Congregation for the Propaganda of the Faith . The leading religious orders of the Counter-Reformation , the Dominicans and
9639-399: The "burh" (fortress), named in the 10th-century Pictish Chronicle as oppidum Eden , was abandoned to the Scots. It thenceforth remained, for the most part, under their jurisdiction. The royal burgh was founded by King David I in the early 12th century on land belonging to the Crown, though the date of its charter is unknown. The first documentary evidence of the medieval burgh is
9792-427: The 15th century, Edinburgh is the seat of the Scottish Government , the Scottish Parliament , the highest courts in Scotland , and the Palace of Holyroodhouse , the official residence of the monarch in Scotland. It is also the annual venue of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland . The city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scottish law , literature, philosophy,
9945-411: The 1760s by Bishop John Geddes , who later became Vicar Apostolic of the Lowland District and a well-known figure in the Edinburgh intelligentsia during the Scottish Enlightenment . When Scottish national poet Robert Burns , who also gifted the Bishop with the priceless volume now known as The Geddes Burns , wrote to a correspondent that "the first [that is, finest] cleric character I ever saw
10098-443: The 1860s began the transformation of the area into the predominantly Victorian Old Town seen today. More improvements followed in the early 20th century as a result of the work of Patrick Geddes , but relative economic stagnation during the two world wars and beyond saw the Old Town deteriorate further before major slum clearance in the 1960s and 1970s began to reverse the process. University building developments which transformed
10251-409: The 18th-century novel The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett one character describes Edinburgh as a "hotbed of genius". Edinburgh was also a major centre for the Scottish book trade. The highly successful London bookseller Andrew Millar was apprenticed there to James McEuen. From the 1770s onwards, the professional and business classes gradually deserted the Old Town in favour of
10404-520: The 19th century and joined by new industries such as rubber works , engineering works and others. By 1821, Edinburgh had been overtaken by Glasgow as Scotland's largest city. The city centre between Princes Street and George Street became a major commercial and shopping district, a development partly stimulated by the arrival of railways in the 1840s. The Old Town became an increasingly dilapidated, overcrowded slum with high mortality rates. Improvements carried out under Lord Provost William Chambers in
10557-497: The Apostolic See. As the Catholic presence in the Lowlands increased and revived, however, there were regular cases of conflict between Highland migrants and Irish immigrants over both cultural differences and control of Catholic parishes, schools, and neighbourhoods. Irish Catholics often complained to the Holy See , particularly after the restoration of the Scottish Hierarchy in the 1878, that Irish priests were only used to organize parishes and schools and then immediately replaced by
10710-411: The Castle Rock, giving rise to allusions to the seven hills of Rome . Occupying a narrow gap between the Firth of Forth to the north and the Pentland Hills and their outrunners to the south, the city sprawls over a landscape which is the product of early volcanic activity and later periods of intensive glaciation. Igneous activity between 350 and 400 million years ago, coupled with faulting , led to
10863-404: The Church of Scotland and at Court and chose to use Ogilvie's trial and execution to prove the falseness of the accusations. Ogilvie, who was canonised by Pope Paul VI on 17 October 1976, is often assumed to be the only Scottish Catholic martyr of the Reformation era. Nevertheless, the longevity of the Catholic Church's illegal status had a devastating impact on the numbers of the laity. Even so,
11016-628: The Culdees, "At that time in the Kingdom of the Scots there were many living, shut up in cells in places set apart, by a life of great strictness, in the flesh but not according to the flesh, communing, indeed, with angels upon earth." At the same time, the erenagh system in Gaelic Ireland of hereditary lay administration of Church lands by family branches deliberately appointed from within
11169-665: The English in 1544, Edinburgh continued to develop and grow, and was at the centre of events in the 16th-century Scottish Reformation and 17th-century Wars of the Covenant . In 1582, Edinburgh's town council was given a royal charter by King James VI permitting the establishment of a university; founded as Tounis College (Town's College), the institution developed into the University of Edinburgh , which contributed to Edinburgh's central intellectual role in subsequent centuries. In 1603, King James VI of Scotland succeeded to
11322-620: The English throne, uniting the crowns of Scotland and England in a personal union known as the Union of the Crowns , though Scotland remained, in all other respects, a separate kingdom. In 1638, King Charles I's attempt to introduce Anglican church forms in Scotland encountered stiff Presbyterian opposition culminating in the conflicts of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . Subsequent Scottish support for Charles Stuart 's restoration to
11475-573: The Irish Land War , became the ringleaders of direct action resistance campaign by their parishioners to the Highland Clearances , rackrenting , religious discrimination , and other acts widely seen as abuses of power by Anglo-Scottish landlords and their estate factors . Many Scottish Roman Catholics in the heavily populated Lowlands are the descendants of Irish immigrants and of Scottish Gaelic -speaking migrants from
11628-756: The Irish Sea by the mid-seventh century. After the conversion, successful war for political independence from Norway , and increasing Gaelicisation of Scandinavian Scotland and the Isle of Man under Somerled and his heirs , the Roman Rite Diocese of the Isles under bishops appointed by the Holy See became the dominant religion. During the reign of King Malcolm III, the Scottish church underwent
11781-673: The Jacobite "Highland Army" before its march into England. After its eventual defeat at Culloden , there followed a period of reprisals and pacification, largely directed at the rebellious clans . In Edinburgh, the Town Council, keen to emulate London by initiating city improvements and expansion to the north of the castle, reaffirmed its belief in the Union and loyalty to the Hanoverian monarch George III by its choice of names for
11934-424: The North". Robert Louis Stevenson, also a son of the city, wrote that Edinburgh "is what Paris ought to be". The earliest known human habitation in the Edinburgh area was at Cramond , where evidence was found of a Mesolithic camp site dated to c. 8500 BC. Traces of later Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have been found on Castle Rock, Arthur's Seat , Craiglockhart Hill and the Pentland Hills . When
12087-548: The Provost for the time as Sheriff, and by the Bailies for the time as Sheriffsdepute conjunctly and severally; with full power to hold Courts, to punish transgressors not only by banishment but by death, to appoint officers of Court, and to do everything else appertaining to the office of Sheriff; as also to apply to their own proper use the fines and escheats arising out of the exercise of the said office." Despite being burnt by
12240-723: The Scottish church re-established its independence from England and developed a clearer diocesan structure, becoming a "special daughter of the see of Rome" but lacking leadership in the form of archbishops. During the Late Middle Ages , similar to in other European countries, the Investiture Controversy and the Great Schism of the West allowed the Scottish Crown, like Scottish clan chiefs using
12393-544: The Scottish mainland to parishes in the Hebrides was accordingly no accident. About that time, when the Bishop and his priests were the leaders of direct action , rent strikes , and other acts of resistance to the Anglo-Scottish landlords, Fr. Michael MacDonald has since commented, "I think that one of the things that may have influenced the boldness of the priests at that time was simply that they had no relations on
12546-569: The United Kingdom's second largest financial and administrative centre after London. Financial services now account for a third of all commercial office space in the city. The development of Edinburgh Park , a new business and technology park covering 38 acres (15 ha), 4 mi (6 km) west of the city centre, has also contributed to the District Council's strategy for the city's major economic regeneration. In 1998,
12699-544: The adjectival forms Edinburgensis and Edinensis are used in educational and scientific contexts. Edina is a late 18th-century poetical form used by the Scots poets Robert Fergusson and Robert Burns . "Embra" or "Embro" are colloquialisms from the same time, as in Robert Garioch 's Embro to the Ploy . Ben Jonson described it as "Britaine's other eye", and Sir Walter Scott referred to it as "yon Empress of
12852-628: The architectural style of the New Town into the early 19th century. Bute House , the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland , is on the north side of Charlotte Square. The hollow between the Old and New Towns was formerly the Nor Loch , which was created for the town's defence but came to be used by the inhabitants for dumping their sewage . It was drained by the 1820s as part of
13005-543: The area. With the redevelopment, Edinburgh has gained the business of cruise liner companies which now provide cruises to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands. The coastal suburb of Portobello is characterised by Georgian villas, Victorian tenements, a beach and promenade and cafés, bars, restaurants and independent shops. There are rowing and sailing clubs, a restored Victorian swimming pool, and Victorian Turkish baths . The urban area of Edinburgh
13158-543: The beginning of three centuries of Germanic influence in south east Scotland that laid the foundations for the development of Scots , before the town was ultimately subsumed in 954 by the kingdom known to the English as Scotland. As the language shifted from Cumbric to Northumbrian Old English and then Scots , the Brittonic din in Din Eidyn was replaced by burh , producing Edinburgh . In Scottish Gaelic din becomes dùn , producing modern Dùn Èideann . The city
13311-475: The bishops of Dunkeld . They joined the Jesuit order and returned to attempt conversions. Their focus at first was mainly on the court, which led them into involvement in seeking to end the religious persecution of the Church through a series of complex regime change plots and entanglements. The majority of surviving Scottish laity, however, were long ignored. James VI and his heirs, however, had intended for
13464-587: The bishops with Doric -speaking pastors from Banffshire and other recusant districts in the Northeast of Scotland. Even though this was intended to assimilate Irish Catholics into Scottish culture as quickly as possible, the Hierarchy's success in this policy ultimately proved mixed. Later Italian, Polish , and Lithuanian immigrants further reinforced the numbers. The post- World War II arrival of large numbers of Ukrainian displaced persons resulted in
13617-565: The city between October and April. Located slightly north of the city centre, the weather station at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) has been an official weather station for the Met Office since 1956. The Met Office operates its own weather station at Gogarbank on the city's western outskirts, near Edinburgh Airport . This slightly inland station has a slightly wider temperature span between seasons,
13770-423: The city was 31.6 °C (88.9 °F) on 25 July 2019 at Gogarbank, beating the previous record of 31 °C (88 °F) on 4 August 1975 at Edinburgh Airport. The lowest temperature recorded in recent years was −14.6 °C (5.7 °F) during December 2010 at Gogarbank. Given Edinburgh's position between the coast and hills, it is renowned as "the windy city", with the prevailing wind direction coming from
13923-539: The city's northward expansion. Craig's original plan included an ornamental canal on the site of the loch, but this idea was abandoned. Soil excavated while laying the foundations of buildings in the New Town was dumped on the site of the loch to create the slope connecting the Old and New Towns known as The Mound . In the middle of the 19th century the National Gallery of Scotland and Royal Scottish Academy Building were built on The Mound, and tunnels for
14076-572: The composer of the famous Gaelic Christmas carol Tàladh Chrìosda , who similarly followed their evicted and voluntary émigré parishioners into the Scottish diaspora during the Clearances. After receiving his post following the 1878 Restoration of the Hierarchy and during the last decade of the Clearances, Bishop Angus MacDonald of the Diocese of Argyll and the Isles led by example during
14229-445: The contours they have since preserved - a region marked by a strong tradition of sabbatarianism and a puritanical distaste for instrumental music and dancing, which have only recently regained popular acceptance". The pioneering Victorian era folklorist and Celticist John Francis Campbell of Islay ( Scottish Gaelic : Iain Òg Ìle ) and his many assistant collectors had very different reasons for criticising what they saw as
14382-475: The creation of tough basalt volcanic plugs , which predominate over much of the area. One such example is the Castle Rock which forced the advancing ice sheet to divide, sheltering the softer rock and forming a 1 mi-long (1.6 km) tail of material to the east, thus creating a distinctive crag and tail formation. Glacial erosion on the north side of the crag gouged a deep valley later filled by
14535-623: The crest of a ridge from it terminating at Holyrood Palace. Minor streets (called closes or wynds ) lie on either side of the main spine forming a herringbone pattern. Due to space restrictions imposed by the narrowness of this landform, the Old Town became home to some of the earliest "high rise" residential buildings. Multi-storey dwellings known as lands were the norm from the 16th century onwards with ten and eleven storeys being typical and one even reaching fourteen or fifteen storeys. Numerous vaults below street level were inhabited to accommodate
14688-500: The destruction of Scotland's cultural inheritance . Although strictly illegal under the Papal Jurisdiction Act 1560 and other similar legislation, an underground Catholic Church continued to survive in Scotland. In 1565, for example, John Knox relates that for one hour and four hours on two separate days underground priest Sir James Tarbet was tied to the Mercat Cross, Edinburgh and pelted with eggs after being caught saying
14841-450: The early 16th century. As often happens in cases of religious persecution of any kind, efforts by the Hierarchy of the Church to enforce the traditional principle of Canon law that " error has no rights" and treat Protestantism as a criminal offense triggered a widespread public backlash. Particularly due to the greater availability and affordability of paper and books, the trials and executions of Protestant martyrs were widely publicized by
14994-790: The ecclesiastical powers. He is buried next to the south-east corner of St. Mary's Church in Paddington, London . Catholic Church in Scotland The Catholic Church in Scotland ( Scottish Gaelic : An Eaglais Chaitligeach ann an Alba ; Scots : Catholic Kirk in Scotland ) overseen by the Scottish Bishops' Conference , is part of the worldwide Catholic Church headed by the Pope. After first arriving in Roman Britain , being reintroduced by both
15147-551: The erenagh system also spread to Gaelic Scotland , with at least some similar results. For example, during the 11th-century reign of the Scottish High King Macbeth , which was later fictionalized by William Shakespeare , the High King's greatest domestic foe by far proved to be his own uncle, Crínán of Dunkeld , the warrior-abbot of Dunkeld Abbey , Mormaer of Atholl , the legitimately married father of
15300-434: The expanding city of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many areas, such as Dalry , contain residences that are multi-occupancy buildings known as tenements , although the more southern and western parts of the city have traditionally been less built-up with a greater number of detached and semi-detached villas. The historic centre of Edinburgh is divided in two by the broad green swathe of Princes Street Gardens . To
15453-422: The fact that the social classes shared the same urban space, even inhabiting the same tenement buildings; although here a form of social segregation did prevail, whereby shopkeepers and tradesmen tended to occupy the cheaper-to-rent cellars and garrets, while the more well-to-do professional classes occupied the more expensive middle storeys. During the Jacobite rising of 1745 , Edinburgh was briefly occupied by
15606-628: The first Vicar Apostolic over the mission in 1694. The country was organised into districts and by 1703 there were thirty-three Catholic clergy. In 1733 it was divided into two vicariates, one for the Highland and one for the Lowland, each under a bishop. A Catholic minor seminary founded by Bishop James Gordon at Eilean Bàn in Loch Morar and moved in 1716 to Scalan in Glenlivet became
15759-621: The first Scottish parish of the Eastern Catholic Churches being founded in 1965: St Andrew's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Leith , Edinburgh . Mass immigration to Scotland saw the emergence of sectarian tensions. Although the interwar Catholic community in Scotland was overwhelmingly working-class and endangered by poverty and economic crises, it was able to cope with the Great Depression . This relative immunity
15912-495: The founders and first two abbots of Iona Abbey , St Donnán of Eigg , and St Máel Ruba , a monk from Bangor Abbey who became the founder of Applecross Abbey in Wester Ross . These missionaries tended to found monastic institutions, which expanded to include schools, libraries, and collegiate churches whose priests both evangelized and served large areas. Partly as a result of these factors, some scholars have identified
16065-580: The height of the Highland Land League agitation. The Bishop and his priests became leading and formidable activists for tenant 's rights, reasonable rents, security of tenure , free elections , and against the political bossism , excessive rents, and religious discrimination that were keeping a majority of the Catholic and Protestant population of the Highlands and Islands critically impoverished. According to Roger Hutchinson, Bishop MacDonald's choice to assign Gaelic-speaking priests from
16218-830: The home of institutions including the National Museum of Scotland , the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish National Gallery . The city is also known for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe , the latter being the world's largest annual international arts festival. Historic sites in Edinburgh include Edinburgh Castle , the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the churches of St. Giles , Greyfriars and
16371-620: The influx of incomers, particularly Irish immigrants , during the Industrial Revolution . The street has several fine public buildings such as St Giles' Cathedral, the City Chambers and the Law Courts . Other places of historical interest nearby are Greyfriars Kirkyard and Mary King's Close . The Grassmarket , running deep below the castle is connected by the steep double terraced Victoria Street. The street layout
16524-467: The islands who could have been got at by the estate Factor or others." During the 19th century, Irish immigration substantially increased the number of Catholics in the country, especially in Glasgow and its vicinity, and other industrial communities in the West of Scotland, but also in many rural communities, where Irish migrants worked as navvies and farm labourers. Initially, clergymen from
16677-534: The landlords . There is something in the charge. Few Highland ministers emulated the Catholic clergy of Ireland, who commandeered the Repeal movement in the 1830s and 1840s and the land campaigns several decades on. The Catholic clergy in agitated Irish counties like Tipperary led the agrarian militants from the front, which cannot be said for most Disruption clergy or their successors. Evangelical Presbyterianism counseled submission and acceptance of misfortune. But it
16830-557: The late High King Duncan I , the grandfather of King Malcolm III of Scotland , and progenitor of the Scottish Royal House of Dunkeld . Despite the ongoing religious persecution and expulsion from their monasteries and convents of "Romanists" like St Mo Chota , who opposed how much the Celtic Church had been, "absorbed by the tribal system" and lost its independence from control by local secular rulers , at least some of these issues had been resolved on both sides of
16983-512: The later events known as The Killing Time , Ogilvie was hanged for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy and declare that the King was Supreme Head of the Church at Glasgow Cross on 10 March 1615. A further reason, according to Thomas Wynne, was that Archbishop Spottiswoode, like many other adherents of Laudianism at the time, had allegedly been accused of Crypto-Catholicism by his enemies in both
17136-476: The lunar method was used for calculating the date of Easter . During the 1960s, Frank O'Connor explained that the reason why, on both sides of the Irish Sea , abbots were often more significant than bishops is because a Church governed by an Episcopal polity , "in a tribal society was a contradiction in terms. No tribe, however small or weak, would accept the authority of a bishop from another tribe; but with
17289-535: The middle of the 14th century, the French chronicler Jean Froissart described it as the capital of Scotland (c. 1365), and James III (1451–88) referred to it in the 15th century as "the principal burgh of our kingdom". In 1482 James III "granted and perpetually confirmed to the said Provost, Bailies, Clerk, Council, and Community, and their successors, the office of Sheriff within the Burgh for ever, to be exercised by
17442-623: The modern-day skyscraper. Most of these old structures were replaced by the predominantly Victorian buildings seen in today's Old Town. In 1611 an act of parliament created the High Constables of Edinburgh to keep order in the city, thought to be the oldest statutory police force in the world. Following the Treaty of Union in 1706, the Parliaments of England and Scotland passed Acts of Union in 1706 and 1707 respectively, uniting
17595-482: The more elegant "one-family" residences of the New Town, a migration that changed the city's social character. According to the foremost historian of this development, "Unity of social feeling was one of the most valuable heritages of old Edinburgh, and its disappearance was widely and properly lamented." Despite an enduring myth to the contrary, Edinburgh became an industrial centre with its traditional industries of printing, brewing and distilling continuing to grow in
17748-651: The much larger and better organized Lowland District reasonably unscathed. According to Marcus Tanner, "As the Reformed Church faltered in the urban and increasingly industrialised Lowlands, Presbyterianism made its great breakthrough among the Gaelic Highlanders, virtually snapping cultural bonds that had linked them to Ireland since the lordship of Dalriada . The Highlands, outside tiny Catholic enclaves like in South Uist and Barra , took on
17901-514: The mythic character of the Pentateuch , he cast doubt not on those books' veracity but their historicity , seeing in the Fall for example "the mythic account of the painful condition of human life," rather than a historical chronicle. He died without recanting his works of higher criticism, but received absolution at the hands of a French priest, though public Mass for his soul was forbidden by
18054-537: The name for the region in Cumbric , the Brittonic Celtic language formerly spoken there. The name's meaning is unknown. The district of Eidyn was centred on the stronghold of Din Eidyn, the dun or hillfort of Eidyn. This stronghold is believed to have been located at Castle Rock , now the site of Edinburgh Castle . A siege of Din Eidyn by Oswald , king of the Angles of Northumbria in 638 marked
18207-459: The newly founded Jesuits , initially took relatively little interest in Scotland as a target of missionary work and their effectiveness was at first severely damaged by Vatican bureaucracy and, especially by territorial rivalries against each other, secular priests, and other religious orders. The initiative was taken by a small group of Scots connected with the Crichton family , who had supplied
18360-475: The now drained Nor Loch . These features, along with another hollow on the rock's south side, formed an ideal natural strongpoint upon which Edinburgh Castle was built. Similarly, Arthur's Seat is the remains of a volcano dating from the Carboniferous period , which was eroded by a glacier moving west to east during the ice age. Erosive action such as plucking and abrasion exposed the rocky crags to
18513-710: The old pre-Reformation parish church of Cardross in the Levengrove policies and later, just before their church was built, the Rev. John Gordon of Greenock held services in an old store in College Street. In 1837, it was estimated that there were 284 Catholics in Dumbarton". The same community saw regular outbreaks of violence in the pubs on the paydays of local Irish navvies and the first of many serious anti-Irish riots that negatively affected Dumbarton's reputation after Protestant shipwrights listened to
18666-456: The period 1770 to 1810 and there is evidence that anti Catholic sentiment (along with famine, poverty, and rackrenting ) was a contributory factor in that period. In an April 1787 letter from Moidart to the Congregation for Propaganda in Rome, Fr. Austin MacDonald wrote, "On account of the emigration of the people of Knoydart to Canada, along with their priest; it fell to me in the autumn to attend to those who were left behind, and during
18819-448: The popular imagination. When plans were drawn up in the early 19th century to architecturally develop Calton Hill , the design of the National Monument directly copied Athens' Parthenon . Tom Stoppard 's character Archie of Jumpers said, perhaps playing on Reykjavík meaning "smoky bay", that the "Reykjavík of the South" would be more appropriate. The city has also been known by several Latin names , such as Edinburgum , while
18972-465: The preliminary centre of education for Catholic priests in the area. It was illegal, and it was burned to the ground on several occasions by soldiers sent from beyond the Highlands. Beyond Scalan there were six attempts to found a seminary in the Highlands between 1732 and 1838, all suffering both financially and due to Catholicism's illegal status. Clergy entered the country secretly and although services were illegal they were maintained. According to
19125-434: The priest was not delivered up to them. Father James Grant , who was missionary then, and afterward Bishop, being informed of the threats in a safe retreat in which he was in a little island, surrendered himself, and was carried prisoner to Mingarry Castle on the Western coast (i.e. Ardnamurchan ) where he was detained for some weeks." After long and cruel imprisonment with other Catholic priests at Inverness Gaol and in
19278-406: The priesthood, such as John Ogilvie , Angus Bernard MacEachern , and Alexander Cameron , went abroad to study, others remained in Scotland and attended strictly illegal seminaries. An early seminary upon Eilean Bàn in Loch Morar was moved during the Jacobite rising of 1715 and reopened as Scalan seminary in Glenlivet . After multiple arson attacks by government troops, Scalan was rebuilt in
19431-411: The railway line between Haymarket and Waverley stations were driven through it. The Southside is a residential part of the city, which includes the districts of St Leonards , Marchmont , Morningside , Newington , Sciennes , the Grange and Blackford . The Southside is broadly analogous to the area covered formerly by the Burgh Muir , and was developed as a residential area after the opening of
19584-413: The river gets to the city centre is at Dean Village on the north-western edge of the New Town, where a deep gorge is spanned by Thomas Telford 's Dean Bridge , built in 1832 for the road to Queensferry . The Water of Leith Walkway is a mixed-use trail that follows the course of the river for 19.6 km (12.2 mi) from Balerno to Leith. Excepting the shoreline of the Firth of Forth, Edinburgh
19737-399: The sciences and engineering. The University of Edinburgh , founded in 1582 and now one of three in the city, is considered one of the best research institutions in the world. The financial centre of Scotland, Edinburgh is the second-largest financial centre in the United Kingdom, the fourth largest in Europe, and the thirteenth largest internationally. The city is a cultural centre, and is
19890-403: The second half of the century, the city was at the heart of the Scottish Enlightenment , when thinkers like David Hume, Adam Smith, James Hutton and Joseph Black were familiar figures in its streets. Edinburgh became a major intellectual centre, earning it the nickname "Athens of the North" because of its many neo-classical buildings and reputation for learning, recalling ancient Athens. In
20043-431: The smoke hover over her at twenty miles' distance". In 1898, Thomas Carlyle comments on the phenomenon: "Smoke cloud hangs over old Edinburgh, for, ever since Aeneas Silvius 's time and earlier, the people have the art, very strange to Aeneas, of burning a certain sort of black stones, and Edinburgh with its chimneys is called 'Auld Reekie' by the country people". The 19th-century historian Robert Chambers asserted that
20196-427: The sobriquet could not be traced before the reign of Charles II in the late 17th century. He attributed the name to a Fife laird, Durham of Largo, who regulated the bedtime of his children by the smoke rising above Edinburgh from the fires of the tenements. "It's time now bairns, to tak' the beuks, and gang to our beds, for yonder's Auld Reekie, I see, putting on her nicht -cap!". Edinburgh has been popularly called
20349-445: The south of Scotland, which are still referred to in Modern Welsh as the Hen Ogledd (lit. "the Old North"), but which were slowly driven westward as refugees from the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain . The Picts , Anglo-Saxons, and Gaels of modern Scotland, who were traditionally tribal peoples, were mainly evangelized and converted between the fifth and seventh centuries by Irish missionaries such as Sts Columba and Baithéne ,
20502-448: The south, the view is dominated by Edinburgh Castle, built high on Castle Rock, and the long sweep of the Old Town descending towards Holyrood Palace. To the north lie Princes Street and the New Town. The West End includes the financial district, with insurance and banking offices as well as the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. Edinburgh's Old and New Towns were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 in recognition of
20655-472: The south-west, which is often associated with warm, unstable air from the North Atlantic Current that can give rise to rainfall – although considerably less than cities to the west, such as Glasgow. Rainfall is distributed fairly evenly throughout the year. Winds from an easterly direction are usually drier but considerably colder, and may be accompanied by haar , a persistent coastal fog. Vigorous Atlantic depressions, known as European windstorms , can affect
20808-497: The southern shore of the Firth of Forth. The city centre is 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 mi (4.0 km) southwest of the shoreline of Leith and 26 mi (42 km) inland, as the crow flies, from the east coast of Scotland and the North Sea at Dunbar . While the early burgh grew up near the prominent Castle Rock, the modern city is often said to be built on seven hills , namely Calton Hill , Corstorphine Hill , Craiglockhart Hill, Braid Hill , Blackford Hill , Arthur's Seat and
20961-410: The spiritual needs of the population. New saints and cults of religious devotion also proliferated. Despite problems over the number and quality of clergy after the Black Death in the fourteenth century, and some evidence of heresy in this period, during the Renaissance in Scotland , the wider availability of books, including the Classics and newer works of early modern Scottish literature , due to
21114-416: The spoils - the losers could expect pillage and plunder ", and that enemy civilians are "grist for the mills of more hardheaded conquerors such as Genghis Khan , Tamerlane , and Ivan the Terrible ." Also according to Bishop John Geddes, "Early in the spring of 1746, some ships of war came to the coast of the isle of Barra and landed some men, who threatened they would lay desolate the whole island if
21267-400: The streets of the New Town: for example, Rose Street and Thistle Street; and for the royal family, George Street , Queen Street , Hanover Street, Frederick Street and Princes Street (in honour of George's two sons). The consistently geometric layout of the plan for the extension of Edinburgh was the result of a major competition in urban planning staged by the Town Council in 1766. In
21420-438: The throne of England resulted in Edinburgh's occupation by Oliver Cromwell 's Commonwealth of England forces – the New Model Army – in 1650. In the 17th century, Edinburgh's boundaries were still defined by the city's defensive town walls . As a result, the city's growing population was accommodated by increasing the height of the houses. Buildings of 11 storeys or more were common, and have been described as forerunners of
21573-484: The two kingdoms in the Kingdom of Great Britain effective from 1 May 1707. As a consequence, the Parliament of Scotland merged with the Parliament of England to form the Parliament of Great Britain , which sat at Westminster in London. The Union was opposed by many Scots, resulting in riots in the city. By the first half of the 18th century, Edinburgh was described as one of Europe's most densely populated, overcrowded and unsanitary towns. Visitors were struck by
21726-415: The unique character of the Old Town with its medieval street layout and the planned Georgian New Town, including the adjoining Dean Village and Calton Hill areas. There are over 4,500 listed buildings within the city, a higher proportion relative to area than any other city in the United Kingdom. The castle is perched on top of a rocky crag (the remnant of an extinct volcano) and the Royal Mile runs down
21879-502: The unnecessary excesses of the Calvinisation of the Highlands and Islands . At the beginning of his groundbreaking collection Popular Tales of the West Highlands , Campbell and his helpers complained at length that, due to the fear of displeasing the local ministers, elders, and parish school-masters, it had become almost impossible to collect Scottish mythology or folklore from the seanchaidhs in Gaelic-speaking regions that had recently converted to Presbyterianism from Catholicism or
22032-551: The west before leaving a tail of deposited glacial material swept to the east. This process formed the distinctive Salisbury Crags , a series of teschenite cliffs between Arthur's Seat and the location of the early burgh. The residential areas of Marchmont and Bruntsfield are built along a series of drumlin ridges south of the city centre, which were deposited as the glacier receded. Other prominent landforms such as Calton Hill and Corstorphine Hill are also products of glacial erosion. The Braid Hills and Blackford Hill are
22185-417: The winter to the people of Moydart (sic) as well. Although not less than 600 Catholics went to America, still I administered the Sacraments to over 500 souls who remained. The overpopulation of these districts, together with the oppression of the landlords, are the principal causes of the departure of so many, not only among the Catholics, but also among the Protestants." In Glengarry County , Upper Canada ,
22338-411: Was a Roman Catholick", he was referring to Bishop John Geddes. Catholic emancipation in 1793 and 1829 helped Catholics regain both freedom of religion and civil rights . In 1878, the Catholic hierarchy was formally restored . As the Church was slowly rebuilding its presence in the Gàidhealtachd , many Roman Catholic clergy, including Bishop Angus MacDonald and Fr Allan MacDonald , inspired by
22491-417: Was a faith chosen quite voluntarily by the people and if it failed to make them rebels against injustice, it certainly lent them dignity." While most of the landlords responsible for the Highland Clearances did not target people for ethnic or religious reasons, there is evidence of anti-Catholicism among some of them. In particular, large numbers of Catholics emigrated from the Western Highlands in
22644-463: Was a matter of great resentment when the two burghs merged in 1920 into the City of Edinburgh. Even today the parliamentary seat is known as "Edinburgh North and Leith". The loss of traditional industries and commerce (the last shipyard closed in 1983) resulted in economic decline. The Edinburgh Waterfront development has transformed old dockland areas from Leith to Granton into residential areas with shopping and leisure facilities and helped rejuvenate
22797-414: Was affected by the 2022 Scotland bin strikes . In 2023, Edinburgh became the first capital city in Europe to sign the global Plant Based Treaty , which was introduced at COP26 in 2021 in Glasgow. Green Party councillor Steve Burgess introduced the treaty. The Scottish Countryside Alliance and other farming groups called the treaty "anti-farming". Situated in Scotland's Central Belt , Edinburgh lies on
22950-491: Was caused by the Education (Scotland) Act 1918, which made Catholic schools fully state-funded. Michael John Rosie argues that in addition to state-funded education, it was the nature of Scottish Catholicism that "made it less vulnerable to economic dislocation": Arguably, the Catholic Church was the best-equipped denomination in tackling the adverse effects of economic depression, and does not seem to have suffered serious losses arising from recessionary periods. The Catholic faith
23103-418: Was published in 1807. Geddes was also a poet , and wrote Linton: a Tweedside Pastoral , Carmen Seculare pro Gallica Gente (1790), in praise of the French Revolution . He released his Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures in 1800, wherein he largely anticipated the German school of higher criticism . The result of this publication was Geddes's suspension from all ecclesiastical functions. Arguing for
23256-403: Was the home of Muriel Spark 's Miss Jean Brodie, and Ian Rankin 's Inspector Rebus lives in Marchmont and works in St Leonards. Leith was historically the port of Edinburgh, an arrangement of unknown date that was confirmed by the royal charter Robert the Bruce granted to the city in 1329. The port developed a separate identity from Edinburgh, which to some extent it still retains, and it
23409-576: Was to be George Street , running along the natural ridge to the north of what became known as the "Old Town". To either side of it are two other main streets: Princes Street and Queen Street. Princes Street has become Edinburgh's main shopping street and now has few of its Georgian buildings in their original state. The three main streets are connected by a series of streets running perpendicular to them. The east and west ends of George Street are terminated by St Andrew Square and Charlotte Square respectively. The latter, designed by Robert Adam , influenced
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