Shrubhill
Shrubhill is a distinct area on Leith Walk just south of Pilrig. It was the site of a gibbet known as the Gallow Lee, literally the "field with the gallows", where several infamous executions took place. Bodies were buried at the base of the gallows or their ashes scattered if burnt. A small church, the Rood Chapel, stood nearby.
1570- Two criminals strangled and burned to death.
1570 (4 October)- Rev. John Kelloe minister of Spott, East Lothian (near Dunbar) strangled and burnt for the murder of his wife
1664- Nine witches strangled and burnt
1670- Major Thomas Weir for witchcraft (almost the only self-confessed witch executed).
1678- Five witches strangled and burnt
1680- The body of Covenanter David Hackston was hanged in chains after his execution at the mercat cross in Edinburgh for the murder of Archbishop Sharp in 1679.
1681 (10 October)- Covenanters Garnock, Foreman, Russel, Ferrie and Stewart hanged and beheaded. Their headless bodies were buried on the site and their heads placed on the Cowgate Port. Friends reburied the bodies in the West Churchyard (St. Cuthberts). The heads were retrieved and placed in a box then buried in garden ground at Lauriston. They lay there until 7 October 1726 when the then owner, Mr Shaw, had them exhumed and reburied near the Martyrs' Monument in Greyfriars Kirkyard.
1697 (8 January)- Thomas Aikenhead, an Edinburgh University student, became the last person in Britain to be executed for blasphemy.
1752 (10 January)- Norman Ross, a footman, hanged for the murder of Lady Baillie, sister of Home, Laird of Wedderburn. The body was left to hang in a gibbet cage "for many a year" and became a local ghoulish tourist attraction.
Read more about this topic: Leith Walk