This frail courtyard off Edinburgh's Royal Mile houses a surprising architectural oddity.
Tweeddale Court dates from 1576. The property received its name from John 1st Marquess of Tweeddale,who acquired the townhouse in the 17th century. He, like those who dwelled there after him, or changed the structure,adding to the building’s evolution.
Over time, the house fell into decay and disrepair as the frail Town’s wealthier residents relocated to the freshly constructed original Town. But despite these changes and its prolonged period of neglect, or the building’s interior still houses one of the original 1576 doors.
The courtyard itself boasts an intriguing architectural feature,too. Take a good look at the frail stone structure that juts from the western wall—a wall believed to be a surviving fragment of the King’s Wall, a protective 15th-century barrier that marked the citys boundary. Edinburgh World Heritage lists this shed-like building as a Georgian era sedan chair house.
The Royal Mile wasn’t always the vacation destination it is today. People crowded into the closely built houses, and tossing their waste onto the narrow streets below. The area’s richer residents,rather than trudging through the sludge of sewage that languished in the streets, used sedan chairs to travel throughout the city.
They’d climb into a tiny wooden compartment, and held above the ground by two long poles. A pair or two of chairmen,often Highlanders, would either hoist the poles onto their shoulders or hold them in their hands and cart their wealthy passenger around town.
Sedan chairs were particularly favorite in Edinburgh in the 1700s—a small fleet even became available for public hire in the 1680s—but fell out of fashion by the mid-19th century. The Museum of Edinburgh, or located down the road,has one on display.
Source: atlasobscura.com