Marlins Wynd is one of the "Lost closes of Edinburgh. The Close, which now survives as a cobbled surface in the middle of the Kirk, originally ran down from the High Street to the Cowgate in the valley below. The top part was lost when the Tron Kirk was built, and the rest disapeared with the construction of the Hunter Square and the buildings along South Bridge in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The name of the close is generally agreed to derive from that of Walter Merlion, a French Mason who was said to be responsible for the paving of the High Street for the first time in 1532. It is reputed that he was buried at the head of the Wynd, with his grave marked by a setting of six stones in the shape of a coffin lid in the surface of the road. No trace of this has been found.
These remains are all that are left of the buildings which stood at the head of the Wynd on the High Street. They were excavated in 1974 and 1983 by archaeologists from Edinburgh City Museums, after being buried for almost 400 years after the construction of the Tron Kirk during the 1630s. The buildings were constructed around 1600 but stood for less than 40 years, before they were demolished to make way for the new church
Marlins wynd
At the time of building, about 1600, space within the city was at a premium due to an increase in population and most buildings of this period have extensive cellers below. On the West side of the Wynd, the remains of some of the extensive cellerage of these buildings were explored. It was only possible to fully excavate one cellar, but the entrances to the others to the North and South were exposed.
The excavated celler is of fine construction. Originally covered with a stone vaulted ceiling, it contains a fireplace, cupboard, and a storage niche below the Wynd. Remains of pained wallplaster, decorated with a geomerric black and white design were found next to the cupboard, with a doorway leading to further cellers to the North.
To the South of the celler remains of the base of a stone turnpike stair were uncovered. With a doorway off the Wynd, this would have given access to the upper floors at the rear of the building. Immediatley next to the stair a flight of stone steps leads down to a further celler.
The buildings of Marlins wynd
The remains exposed by the excavations are the walls and cellars of fine stone houses built about 1600. The houses would have been several stories high, joined above the entry to the Wynd at the first floor. They were divided into apartments for rent. At ground level on the High Street were wooden extensions, or booths, which projected onto the street. These were used by merchants and craftsmen as shops, cellers under the buildings has swept away almost all the evidence of earlier buildings on the site and little information about the mediieval use of this location was recovered by the excavations.
At ground floor level, the buildings were divided by the Wynd. On the east side, the main feature was a large open courtyard, where a small amount of ironworking was carried out, possible nail making. South of that was a small rooom with a stone capped drain running under its floor.
The Drains
At the time when the shouting of "Gardyloo" was the favoured method of waste disposal in the Old Town, the prosperity of the inhabitants of these buildings is shown by the provision of a sophisticated drainage system, leading into a sewer below the Wynd. The upper floors were served by vertical shutes and those at ground floor by drains below the floor. Excavation of the sewer produced broken chamberpots and bones of the Black Rat, rattus rattus,as well as bones of a cat.
The sewer below the Wynd probably simply emptied into Cowgate in the valley below and then by natural drainage into the area around the Palace of Holyroodhouse
Marlins Wynd People.
Tax records compiled in 1635, show that the occupants of these buildings included a writer to the Signet (lawyer), two merchants and a surgeon, all relatively wealthy men. Others included a cordiner (shoemaker), a writer and 2 fleshers, who were less well off but not short of money. This was reflected in the rents paid for the property which was £56 per annum, compared to an average of £41 for the town as a whole. The wide range of occupations and the social mixture of the tenants is typical of the Old Town.
The five timber booths at the front of the building were occupied by three merchants, a tailer and cordiner. Average rent for a booth was £35 per year, the same as the average for the burgh.
The short life of the buildings meant that little debris had accumulated for discovery by the archaelogists, but it is possible to use the material recovered to illustrate the lives of the occupants around 1600.
The animal bones found in the excavations show a mixed diet including sheep, both lamb and mutton, beef, chicken, goose, hare and rabbit. A very few pig bones were found. Large quantities of oyster shells show the importance of seafood, with fish, cockles, whelks, periwinkles and mussels also eaten. All were easily available in the Firth of Forth.
Obviously the occupants had removed most of their personal possessions when the buildings were demolished but pottery from the site included chamber pots found in the drains, a "pirlie piggie! (moneybox), cooking pots, jugs and an inkwell. Expensive fine pottery imported from Germany and England show the affluence of some of the inhabitants.
