|
The Story of Leith
A brief introduction to the history of Leith
The Siege of Leith
The Lords of the Congregation sent a demand to Leith in October 1559, for the Town of Leith to surrender within twelve hours or war would start in earnest. This was ignored...Find out what happened in the blood soaked weeks that followed....
Sir Andrew Wood
The Nelson of Scotland...find out about some of his greatest sea battles and his connections with the port of Leith
Mary Queen of Scots
So who was Mary, Queen of Scots who after the death of Francis II on the 5th December 1560 set sail for Scotland? A country she had not seen for almost thirteen years and which had changed so much in that time.
Templars in Leith
Find out about the connection between Leith and the religous military order of the Knights Templar
Leith and the Holy Grail
Surely a port on the east coast of Scotland couldn't have a link with the Cup of Christ...or could it?
Templars & Tau Cross
The Tau is a figure constructed of five lines and is considered an important emblem or badge in Royal Arch Masonry and was the symbol of the Knight Templars of St Anthony of Leith. Find out why....
Templar Treasure
In October 13th 1307 while the Templars were being arrested, the Templar fleet stationed at La Rochelle quietly slipped away. According to tradition and a lot of evidence it carried the records of the Order, and the treasure of the Templar Preceptory of Paris, taking them to the West and East coast of Scotland. Some of these ships must have come to Leith as Berwick was in English hands
Jealousy of Edinburgh
It is an odd fact that when visitors come to Leith they are in a different place from Edinburgh. Somehow, even today, there is a community feeling that just doesn. t exist anywhere else in the city.
Civil War
Going down Henderson St from Great Junction St and going towards the Shore you will see on the left hand side opposite the . Vaults. , Parliament Street and it was from here a brutal Civil War was controlled
Morton & Witchcraft
After the brutal and bloody cival war between Leith and Edinburgh...revenge was wanted...whose blood would appease the Nobles?
South Leith Parish Church
Find out the past of this historic church in Leith from its roots with St Triduana through its role in the life, faith and blood of the port of Leith
Great Plague
The Black Death swept across Europe killing millions in its path and desimating entire communities...how did the town of Leith cope through the dark times it was faced with?
The Darien Scheme
The story of the creation of a Scottish colony the Isthmus of Darien in Central America.
Personal Memories of Leith in the 20th Century
You may not consider yourself important enough to be remembered but you are because what we do affects what other people do and in turn affects and creates what sort of society we live in
Why death worked overtime in Leith
The year was 1746 and at a place called Culloden the Duke of Cumberland defeated the Jacobites and at long last the dreams of the Jacobites of regaining the throne of Great Britain came to a very bloody end. So what impact did this have on Leith with the first flood of displaced people from the Highlands after 1746?
Life and Times of Lady Anne Mackintosh
The story of Lady Anne Mackintosht takes us back to the 1745 rebellion and the time of Charles Edward Stuart and the Stuarts last desperate attempt at the throne of Great Britain.
The Home of Golf
The first rules of golf in the world formulated not at St Andrews but on the Links of Leith. Not only this but the first Golf House in the World was on the site of what is now Queen Margaret University College in Duke St (the old Leith Academy building). Furthermore it was from Leith that St Andrews got the Rules of Golf. So in fact the true home of golf is not St Andrews but Leith!
Presbyterianism Triumphant
With the exile of James II and the succession of William and Mary (William was William of Orange,son of William II, prince of Orange and Mary, daughter of Charles I. William in 1677 married his cousin Mary daughter of James II) the Episcopalian Clergy were removed from the Leith Churches and Episcopacy came to an end in Scotland and the Church of Scotland was established as it now exists today.
The Killing Times
It's recorded in the records of the Kirk Session of South Leith Parish Church the following statement "12th May 1644 Being ye Lords day it was intimat be ye minister befor noon yat those persons were excomunicat viz Erle of Montrose,Lodovick Erle of Crawford, Robert Erle of Nithsdail, James Vicont of Aboyn, James Lord Ogilvie and John Lord Heres." All these nobles were leading Royalists in Scotland against whom the Covenanters were waging war. The sentence of excommunication (which still exists to this day in the Church of Scotland ) carried with it serious Civil as well as spiritual penalties. In fact they could be declared rebels and were liable to be shot on sight.
Leith Under Cromwell and Charles II
The turmulant times around Scotland under Charles II and Cromwell
The Port of Leith
A brief history of the Port of Leith itself, looking at how Leith developed into the commercial center it is, and how various industries impacted on the development of the port.
A Strange Connection
One of the greatest mysteries connected to South Leith Parish church is when it was built and the usual answer is 1483 or about that date but is this date correct ?
|
