Places of Interest, Holidays & Visits, Edinburgh

Historic Scotland - Visit Cowgate Vaults, Shops to Slums to Ghosts

Dec 26, 2009
Dawn Denmar

: Edinburgh Places to Visit on Holidays - Wiki Commons

Edinburgh Vaults originally built for industry end as City Slums. One of the places of interest to visit on a holiday to historic Scotland, now famous for ghosts & gigs.

Whilst there are many places of interest to visit in historic and beautiful Scotland, perhaps one of the most disturbing is the Edinburgh Vaults of Cowgate, under the South Bridge of the city. The vaults were originally excavated from the rocks beneath the South Bridge for use as commercial storage and retail shops. Also housing warehouse premises for the many thriving businesses on the South Bridge, it was not long before the Vaults deteriorated into the city slums, inhabited by the very poorest of Edinburgh's residents and migrant workers.

With no sanitary facilities at all, it is not hard to envisage the depths of degradation experienced by the slum dwellers of the Edinburgh Vaults in their damp rocky homes, with up to ten people sharing a room which may only have measured a few metres square.

Rediscovered in the 1980s the Vaults are now home to thriving restaurants and folk attractions and famous for sightings of ghosts and Night Ghost Walks.

History of the Edinburgh Vaults

In the 1700s as the Old Town of Edinburgh became overcrowded and uninhabitable, building of the New Town commenced. The South Bridge linked the Old Town to the New and was a viaduct across the spectacular Cowgate Gorge.

To increase growing commerce on the South Bridge, the viaduct arches were enclosed behind tenement buildings for additional shops and storage space. Before long, extra rooms, the Vaults, were also excavated into the rock beneath the tenements. The South Bridge Vaults originally consisted of 120 rooms, measuring from around two metres square to a maximum of around 40 metres square

The Vaults, a labyrinth of small rooms and tunnels, were completed around 1788. Initially they were used as extra storage areas for industry, for tradesmen such as cobblers and milliners and even as public houses and taverns. However, as the building of the South Bridge had been rushed and of poor quality, conditions within the Vaults soon deteriorated due to flooding and damp.

Edinburgh Vaults as Slum Town

As the shopkeepers and industrialists left the vaults, the very poorest of Edinburgh's people began to move into them. The Cowgate Vaults area developed into a poverty-ridden slum, with pubs, brothels and slum dwellers inhabiting the damp tenement vaults.

The Vaults were eventually sealed in the mid to late 1800s with tons of rubble poured into them to ensure they remained closed. All public records of the Vaults were also destroyed by the City.

Edinburgh Vaults Rediscovered in the 1980s

Excavation of the Vaults began in the 1980s and the cellar rooms were initially used for music gigs with many renowned Scots' artists appearing such as The Ramones and Jools Holland.

The Vaults are now used by private tour operators for Ghost Tours and Walks and also events such as specialist dining experiences and ceilidhs.

The rediscovery and excavation of the Vaults has given Edinburgh yet another fantastic tourist attraction to add to the many delights of this beautiful town.