Leith Links facts for kids
Leith Links is a large open park area in Leith, which is part of Edinburgh, Scotland. This public park is split into two main parts by a road: a western side and an eastern side. Both are mostly flat grassy areas with old trees around the edges. Long ago, this park was much bigger and stretched all the way to the sea. It used to be a place where people played golf.
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What You Can Do There Now
The west side of Leith Links has fun things for everyone. You'll find play areas for children and pitches for playing football. In the north-west corner, there are three public bowling greens and new courts for tennis and petanque (a game similar to bocce).
On the east side, there's a cricket pitch that has been used since 1826. The Leith Franklin Academicals Beige cricket club plays here. This club started in 1852 and is named after Benjamin Franklin. The club has its own building just outside the park.
Every year, in the first week of June, the Leith Festival Gala Day takes place here. Also, the Edinburgh Mela, a big festival celebrating different cultures, has been held on the Links in late August since 2010.
What It Was Used For Before
In the past, Leith Links had a Victorian bandstand where music was played. There was also a pond where people sailed model yachts. The park was often used for big annual events like pageants, which are like parades or historical plays. The famous Leith Races used to happen on the sandy areas at the edge of the original Links.
A Look Back in Time
Leith Links has a long and interesting history.
Important Events in History
During the Scottish Reformation, a time of big religious change in Scotland, a peace agreement was made here on July 25, 1559. The Protestant leaders, called the Lords of the Congregation, made a truce with the Catholic Queen Regent, Mary of Guise. She agreed to leave Holyroodhouse and Edinburgh.
In 1560, during the Siege of Leith, English and Scottish soldiers used this area to dig trenches for their attack. There are two mounds on Leith Links, known as "Giant's Brae" and "Lady Fyfe's Brae." These mounds are believed to be where cannons were placed during the siege in April 1560. They are now protected historical sites.
Golf's Special Place
Leith Links is very important in the history of golf. Records show there was a 5-hole golf course here that was played for a long time. Both King Charles I and the future James VII and II (who was also King James II of England) are said to have played golf on the Links when they stayed at Holyrood Palace.
The rules of golf that were developed in Leith were later adopted by the famous Royal and Ancient Company of Golfers when they moved to St. Andrews in 1777. A special stone monument and a plaque on the west side of the park mark this important connection to golf history.
It's thought that the very first international golf competition happened at Leith Links. The Duke of Albany played against two English courtiers to decide which country could claim golf as its own game.
Becoming a Public Park
The entire area officially became a public park in 1888. This was part of a plan to improve Leith. At this time, the land was made flatter (except for the two cannon mounds), and trees were planted around the edges. Paths were also added to divide the area. Iron fences were put up around the park, but they were taken down during World War II to help with the war effort. After the park was created, golf was not encouraged and was officially banned here in 1905.
During the changes in 1888, two burial areas were found at each end of the Links. The one on the far west side was thought to be mass graves from a terrible outbreak of the plague in Leith in the mid-1600s.
The Plague of 1645
The plague that hit Leith in 1645 was one of many outbreaks that happened in Edinburgh and Leith between the 1300s and 1600s. Historians believe the 1645 epidemic might have been a type of typhus and could have been brought north by Scottish soldiers.
Records from South Leith Parish Church show that the first cases appeared in April 1645, and the outbreak was worst in the summer. The town was divided into sections, and people who were sick were moved to huts on Leith Links. This was a way to keep them separate and stop the disease from spreading.
Special workers, called "foul clengeris," cleaned the huts. They wore a special uniform: a black coat with a white Saint Andrew's Cross sewn on it so everyone would know who they were. Clothes were cleaned by boiling them or by burning them if they couldn't be washed. Some clothes were put in special kilns to be disinfected by smoke and heat. One such kiln, which used to be a castle doocot (a pigeon house), still stands at Lochend, about a mile south of the Links.
Most of the people who died from the plague were buried on Leith Links. A record from 1646 shows that 2,421 people died in South Leith alone, out of an estimated population of over 4,000.
Recently, during work at St Mary's RC Primary School, which is on the north edge of Leith Links, the remains of 79 bodies were found. These are believed to be victims of the plague. They were reburied in Rosebank Cemetery in 2018, and a memorial plaque marks their new resting place.
Buildings Around the Park
Leith Links was originally outside the old town walls of medieval Leith. Building around the park only started after 1770. The first buildings were three similar villas built around 1775 on the north-west corner. Over time, more houses were built around the edges of the Links, especially grand ones on the south-east side in the early 1800s. Most of the buildings facing the Links today were built in the 1800s. There are also colony houses (a type of Scottish housing) to the south of the Links.
During World War II, small garden plots called allotment gardens were created on the north-east edge, and they are still there today. This area used to have rope factories and barrel makers. For most of the 1900s, it was a bottling plant for United Distillers until they moved out around 2005.
Seafield Cemetery was built at the far east end of Leith Links in 1887. Seafield Crematorium, where bodies are cremated, is at the very east side of the cemetery and opened in 1939.
The west side of the Links has two large school buildings: Leith Primary and the old Leith Academy building, which has now been turned into homes.
Monuments to See
- A statue of John Rattray playing golf, located on the north edge of the park.
- A memorial stone (cairn) marking the founding of golf on this site, on the west edge.
- Plaques on "Giant's Brae" and "Lady Fyfe's Brae" that explain their historical military importance.
Amazing Trees
Leith Links is special because it has many old elm trees. Even though some have been lost to Dutch elm disease, almost half of the 270 mature trees in the park in 2013 were elms. Most are wych elm, but there are also other types like Huntingdon Elm, Field Elm, and even rare kinds from other countries like European White Elm and Japanese Elm.
At the east end of Claremont Park, there is a rare old English Elm. When trees are lost to disease, new disease-resistant elm trees are planted, such as the Ulmus 'Regal'. Elms were originally chosen for planting here because they can handle the salty sea winds.
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A type of elm tree, Vanburgh Place, Leith Links, 2016
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A type of elm tree, Links Place, Leith Links, 2016
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A special kind of field elm, Duncan Place, Leith Links, 2016
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Another type of elm tree, Claremont Park, Leith Links, 2016
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Blandford Elm, Hermitage Place, Leith Links, 2016
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A type of Dutch elm, Hermitage Place, Leith Links, 2016
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An unidentified elm tree, south corner of Leith Links, 2016
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