Edinburgh blaze excavation study

A team of archaeologists and historians have spent nine months piecing together a massive jigsaw of photographs, drawings and accounts from the archives to shed light on 500 years of the Cowgate, which by the mid-1800s had become a notorious slum in the Capital.

Around 2500 photographs taken in the wake of the blaze but before the destroyed buildings were razed to the ground have been matched up to all existing historical records of the site. The city council’s study, jointly produced with a specialist firm hired to help conduct the research, found that there were remains of buildings dating as far back as the early 16th century.

Residents of the area included the Adam family (the architects), as well as the notorious philandering priest and property magnate Sir John Dingwall. Read the full article here.

Posted by David on September 18, 2003 11:30 AM