In 1779 Seventy Highlanders of the 42nd and 71st (the known as the Master of Lovat’s Regiment) when marched down to Leith refused to embark as a rumour had been spread that they were to be drafted into a Lowland Corps and they wouldn’t be able to wear the Kilt and they deeply resented this.. They decided to resist this to the death and mutinied. (more…)
During the 1715 Jacobite uprising all the ports in the South of Scotland had been blockaded by the Royal Navy and so to circumvent this the Earl of Mar sent a detachment of Highlanders south to link up with a General Forster in the Lothians. The detachment was under the command of Brigadier Macintosh of Borlum who was a brave soldier in his time but he was getting on a bit. (more…)
The “Schole of Warre is a poem written by Thomas Churchyard who came to Leith in 1560 with the English army and goes on for eighty verses. (more…)
In the year 1779, Leith was thrown into the utmost confusion and alarm, by the appearance of the noted John Paul Jones. (more…)
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.
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After the brutal and bloody civil war between Leith and Edinburgh…revenge was wanted…whose blood would appease the Nobles? (more…)
The Nelson of Scotland…find out about some of his greatest sea battles and his connections with the port of Leith
The siege went on day after bloody day. Eventually the French troops were reduced to eating horsemeat. Confirmation of this was found in the last century with the discovery of a well at the foot of what is now Easter Road with the discovery of a well full of horse’s heads.
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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….
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