Qualla: Leith https://qualla.com/leith en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:17 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Leith https://qualla.com/leith Leith: Introduction https://qualla.com/leith/ When the people of Leith voted in 1920 on whether to merge with Edinburgh, they said no by 26,810 to 4,340. The merger went ahead anyway. A century later, Leith was named the fourth coolest neighbourhood in the world by Time Out magazine. That arc, from defiant burgh to absorbed suburb to revived destination, is the story of every port city that outlived the trade that built it. Leith was a town long before it became a postcode. Mary of Guise ruled Scotland from here. The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers wrote the rules of golf on the Links in 1744. The Sunshine on Leith record made the Proclaimers famous. Trainspotting was set in its tenements. The Royal Yacht Britannia is permanently moored in its docks. The Walk that connects it to Edinburgh ends, like so many things in Leith, with a story.

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/w/leith-wp/gcvw-leith-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Leith: Mary of Guise and the French Garrison https://qualla.com/leith/ The first documentary reference to Inverlet, later Leith, is in the 1128 charter founding Holyrood Abbey. By 1449 a French royal bride, Mary of Guelders, was arriving here to marry James II. By 1503 Leith merchants like James Makysone were supplying tapestries to James IV. In 154...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/w/leith-wp/gcvw-leith-mary-of-guise-and-the-french-garrison.mp3 0:06 2 full Leith: Plague, Privateers, and Independence https://qualla.com/leith/ In 1645 plague struck Leith. Over half the population of the southern district died. An archaeological dig in 2016 at St Mary's RC Primary School uncovered a mass grave of 81 bodies from that outbreak. Many were buried in their clothes with money still in their pockets, evidence ...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/w/leith-wp/gcvw-leith-plague-privateers-and-independence.mp3 0:06 3 full Leith: Industries of a Working Port https://qualla.com/leith/ For centuries Leith led Scottish industry in glass, soap, sugar, wine and whisky, ropes, ships, and lead. The Leith Glassworks made up to a million wine bottles a week; the parallel-sided, narrow-necked Leith pattern bottle is still the dominant shape in the wine trade. Around 17...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/w/leith-wp/gcvw-leith-industries-of-a-working-port.mp3 0:06 4 full Leith: Reinvention https://qualla.com/leith/ Leith Central Station closed. Henry Robb's yard closed in 1983. The last bond on Water Street closed around 1995. The Kirkgate, Leith's historic centre, was lost to slum clearance in the 1950s. For decades the docks were a place people stopped going. Then the Shore picked up, wit...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/w/leith-wp/gcvw-leith-reinvention.mp3 0:06 5 full