Leith Local History Society Articles
Roses lime Juice
In the late 1850'2 Lachlan Rose (1829-1885), the son of a Leith shipbuilder, set up a business provisioning ships. Among these provisions in 1863 was lime juice - a commodity every sea going vessel was required to carry by virtue of the Merchant Shi .......
Leith Fort
Leith Fort built in the 1780's is not to be confused with the Citadel in Dock Street built for Cromwell in 1656 of teh Martello Tower built on 1809. Therein lie two other stories.
John PAul Jones, the Scot from Kirkcudbright, the founder of the Ame .......
Martello Tower
The Martello Tower now lies half buried in the reclaimed land on what is now the eastern breakwater. It was built in 1809 to a design used at Mortella in Corsica. There are many of them dotted around estuaries in Britain as a deterrent to the Frenc .......
The Citadel, Leith
Cromwell marched on Scotland determined to bring her back into the Commonwealth. Without going too deeply into the history of the period, we know the Scots were heavily defeated at Dunbar and Cromwell entered Edinburgh and Leith.
In Leith, General .......
Leith Fort Gatehouse
Leith Fort built in the 1780's is not to be confused with the Citadel in Dock Street in 1656 or the Martello Tower built in 1809. Therein lie two other stories.
John Paul Jones, the Scot from Kirkcudbright and founder of the American Navy, sailed .......
The Battle of Trafalgar
It is interesting to note on this 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar that four men from Leith served abaord HMS Victory at that battle. They were:
Joshua Murray, aged 27, Able Seaman
Robert Ross, aged 20, landsman
James Sibbald, aged 19 .......
1742 - Trouble in the Kirkyard
In 1742 many people in South Leith had their suspicions about George Carkettle the grave-maker. They thought that he was selling bodies to anatomists.
This came to a head one July evening when Robert Henderson, a Custom House porter, and his wif .......
Leith People from the Past
The Leith Newspapers from the 19th and early 20th centuries contain lots of “potted biographies” of Leith people. Some of these were published when the person concerned was elected to the Town Council, the School Board or some other local body. The .......
American Hospital in Leith in 1918
For a few months in 1918 there was an American Naval Hospital in Leith. It was located at the Leith Poor House - better known to later generations as the Eastern General Hospital.
The Leith Poor House had earlier in the First World War been requi .......
A Scandinavian Connection
In North Junction Street, wedged between a tenement and Ferrylee Nursing Home, stands a small, but significant, building still referred to by many Leithers as The Scandinavian Church. In 1863 a graduate of divinity - Johan Cordt Harmens - came to Ed .......
Old Cannon Found in Junction Place
In August this year two bollards embedded in concrete outside the Victoria Baths were found to be cannon. They are believed to date from the late 18th or early 19th centuries and to have some connection with the old Leith Fort.
Leith Fort was bui .......