Burgh Muir - As A Place of Execution

As A Place of Execution

Edinburgh had several execution sites in the past. An area of ground known as "the Gallowgreen" (when its feuing was recorded in 1668) was the site of a gibbet of uncertain date, erected on the eastern edge of the burgh muir. It was deliberately placed to face down the road to Dalkeith, presumably to deter highway robbers. It is known that a horse-thief, accused of also being a "commone gyde to Inglis Thevis" - "a common guide to English thieves") was hanged "at the galloss of the burrow mure" in 1563; and it is also recorded that two men were hanged for stealing infected clothing during an outbreak of the plague in 1585. In the following year the Town Council ordered the gibbet, described as "foullet and decayand, bayth in the timmer wark and the wallis", to be replaced close to the same spot (at the present-day junction of East Preston Street and Dalkeith Road) and enclosed by walls of sufficient height "sua tht doggis sal not be abill to cary the cariounis furth of the samyn"; a statement that implies the practice of hanging the bodies or body parts of malefactors in chains. The new gibbet is described in the Town Council Minutes of 1568 as consisting of two or more stone pillars connected at the top by one or more wooden cross-beams, with the whole structure surrounded by a wall to keep out stray dogs.

Other executions here included the hanging of members of the outlawed Clan McGregor clan, of whom a total of 38 were judicially killed on the spot between 1603 and 1624, as were four 'Gypsies' in 1611, for failing to observe a parliamentary act of 1609 which had banished all "Egyptianis" from the kingdom. They were followed by 11 more Gypsies in 1624, whose womenfolk were initially sentenced to drowning, but eventually ordered to leave Scotland.

The ground at this part of the Muir was also used for the unmarked burials of malefactors. For example, the torso of James Graham, 1st Marquis of Montrose, without his heart (removed from his coffin at the instigation of his niece), was unceremoniously buried in unconsecrated ground after his execution on 21 May 1650. Following the Restoration his remains were disinterred in 1661 and eventually placed in an elaborate tomb in St. Giles.

The diarist John Nicoll recorded the event,

went out thaireftir to the Burrow mure quhair his corps wer bureyit, and quhair sundry nobles and gentrie his freindis and favorites, both hors and fute wer thair attending; and thair, in presence of sundry nobles, earls, lordis, barones and otheris convenit for the tyme, his graif was raisit, his body and bones taken out and wrappit up in curious clothes and put in a coffin, quhilk, under a canopy of rich velwet, wer careyit from the Burrow-mure to the Toun of Edinburgh; the nobles barones and gentrie on hors, the Toun of Edinburgh and many thousandis besyde, convoyit these corpis all along, the callouris fleying, drums towking, trumpettis sounding, muskets cracking and cannones from the Castell roring; all of thame walking on till thai come to the Tolbuith of Edinburgh, frae the quhilke his heid wes very honorablie and with all dew respectis taken doun and put within the coffin under the cannopie with great acclamation and joy; all this tyme the trumpettis, the drumes, cannouns, gunes, the displayit cullouris geving honor to these deid corps. From thence all of thame, both hors and fute, convoyit these deid corps to the Abay Kirk of Halyrudhous quhair he is left inclosit in ane yll till forder ordour be by his Majestie and Estaites of Parliament for the solempnitie of his Buriall.

Executions at the gallows on the burgh muir ended in 1675 after the ground had been leased, first to a wright and burgess of Edinburgh in 1668, then, in 1699, to a brewer in the Pleasance. The gibbet continued to be marked on all maps and plans of the district until 1823.