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The Royal Mile, from the Castle to St Giles
A prison in the street and the story of Brodie's gallows place punishment among the busiest locations in the Old Town.
Crime, Punishment and Medicine in Edinburgh: audio walks
What linked the gallows, the bodies and the anatomy theatres?
4 walks with different starting points and stories. Compare their maps, stops and duration, then choose where to begin.
Explore these walks
Medicine and punishment share some uncomfortable pages in Edinburgh's history. This theme links places of execution, stories of bodies and the teaching of anatomy. The interest lies in what happened, but also in how a city accepted it, judged it or later turned it into a familiar tale. The walks keep people in view throughout.
In “Ghosts, Witches and Legends”: Witch trials and a prison without cells help distinguish actual punishment from the stories that later grew around it.
In “The Royal Mile”: A prison in the street and the story of Brodie's gallows place punishment among the busiest locations in the Old Town.
In “Burke, Hare and medicine”: In the early nineteenth century, Edinburgh's anatomy schools paid for dead bodies.
Choose from 4 independent walks in Edinburgh. Open the one that interests you to see its map, stops and approximate duration before deciding. You don't need to do them all or follow this selection's order; each walk has its own starting and finishing points.
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Burke and Hare and Edinburgh Medicine
In the early nineteenth century, Edinburgh's anatomy schools paid for dead bodies.
Canongate and Holyrood: the other Royal Mile
The night the town dragged the captain of its own guard out of prison, and the gate London wanted demolished as a punishment, with the bell that still hangs in a tower.
Ghosts, Witches and Legends of the Old Town
Witch trials and a prison without cells help distinguish actual punishment from the stories that later grew around it.
Edinburgh, before you go
A stone city built on hills, with a castle above it and weather that keeps changing. Cobbled streets and narrow stairways reward walking, provided your shoes have grip and your coat has a hood.
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