The Grassmarket

The Grassmarket lies in the valley immediately to the south of Edinburgh Castle.

The book, Modern Athens, published in 1829, reported: 

"Its spacious area has long afforded a market-place for corn and cattle.  It has lately, however, been shorn of half its glories - the sheep market having been transferred to an area west of it."

"Still celebrated as a place of bustle and life - it was, at no distant period, renowned also as a place of death.  It was the chosen site of the gallows, the former locality of which is still marked out by a peculiar arrangement of the pavement at its eastern extremity.

[Modern Athens]

Today, the Grassmarket has antique shops, Cafés, and occasional street market.  It can be approached from George IV Bridge down Victoria Street and West Bow which offer an interesting range of small shops.