The Shore, Leith

Due to its location it was the arrival point of several monarchs on historic visits to the city: Mary Queen of Scots (1561) before her Entry to Edinburgh; Anne of Denmark (1590) who stayed at the King's Wark before her coronation;[1] Charles II (1651); George IV (1822).

[2] In May 1544, during the war known as the Rough Wooing, an English army arrived in Leith intending to burn Edinburgh.

Captain James Mansfield, attempting to attend the latter, was cruelly bayonetted by a mutineer who in turn was shot in the head by a corporal.

The other Fencibles were buried in the open ground at the foot of Canongate Churchyard (which was reserved for deaths connected to Edinburgh Castle.

[4] The Shore was the first place in Leith to install public street lighting: oil lamps in 1771 (to combat a number of people falling in the river in the dark.

For around a decade the outer lock was kept fully open once a year at low tide to allow silt in the river bed to flush out, but this routine halted when the inner harbour ceased to be navigable.

[6] This was adapted to allow (and encourage) modern housing schemes and the demolitions and redevelopments crept towards the Shore in the 60s and 70s.

[7] The secondary hindrance was a huge Health and Safety exclusion zone centred on Leith Docks, which prohibited new residential development due to the explosive value of fertilisers housed in Scottish Agricultural Industries for a radius of 1 km.

Coupled with the housing revival the Shore and its environs became a magnet to restaurants and the new concept of gastro pubs.

The north end of The Shore is also in close proximity to the Port of Leith tramstop, via Tower Place.