Gunner's Blog

Sir James McLurg the Dean of Guild for the City of Edinburgh who died in 1717 is buried in Greyfriars kirkyard.

The Corn Exchange was built at the west end of the Grassmarket in 1716.

Sir Hugh Cunningham was buried in Greyfriars kirkyard in 1710. The chief magistrate, he was appointed Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh in 1702. He founded the Merchant Maiden Hospital.

The Martyrs’ Monument was set up at the north east side of the kirkyard in 1706. The names of the Covenanters who were executed in the Grassmarket are inscribed on the memorial.

A strip of land next to the Flodden Wall was purchased by the Town Council in 1703 and added to the kirkyard. A gate was built the following year. The area became known as the Covenanters’ Prison.

When the Lord Advocate, Sir George McKenzie of Rosehaugh who prosecuted the Covenanters died in 1691 he was buried in Greyfriars kirkyard. His tomb stands on the south side of the kirkyard close to the Inner Yard where the men, women and children captured at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge were held under armed guard.

In November the 257 prisoners who remained in the yard were marched to the Port of Leith and put on a ship bound for Virginia where they were to be sold as slaves. The ship ran into a storm off the Orkneys. The crew and forty eight prisoners managed to get ashore before the ship sank.

The men, women and children numbering over a thousand who had been captured during the battle were kept under armed guard in the Inner Yard of the burial ground without shelter. The wounded were sent to Heriot’s for medical treatment.

The Covenanters were defeated at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge which spans the River Clyde in June 1679 by the government army commanded by the Duke of Monmouth. Over one thousand men, women and children captured during the battle were marched back to Edinburgh.

The Bow Well at the foot of the West Bow was built in 1674. It was one of the twelve public wells to be set up in the town. The water came via a wooden pipeline from the Comiston Springs which lie the south of the city to the reservoir on the Castle Hill.