Barclay, G. J. and Ritchie, A., eds. (2008). Scotland's Parliament Site and the Canongate: . Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

This chapter considers the sources of evidence for the pre-burghal evolution of Edinburgh, the natural setting of the site, topography and ancient rivers and lochs. Most of the evidence comes primarily from the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental records. Documentary references are limited to a very few sources in the latter part of the first millennium AD. The chapter includes a summary of the evidence for Edinburgh's prehistoric origins and the evidence for settlement before 1128.

This chapter describes the main archaeological features encountered during the excavation, and the artefactual and environmental evidence where appropriate. The results are prefaced by a summary of the main archaeological findings. At the end of the chapter is a brief discussion od how the archaeological results shed light on the main research questions posed at the beginning of the project. The results are organised chronologically beginning with early features, mainly represented by a small residual lithic assemblage. Subsequent sections are organised as follows: period 1 - 12th-14th-century ditch; period 2 - 14th-15th century burgage plots (medieval accumulation, boundaries and backlands, a possible vennel); period 3 - 16th-17th-century tenements and gardens (possible tanning pit); period 4 - 17th-18th-century townhouses and formal gardens (Haddington House, Balmakellie and Queensberry House, Canongate frontage, Lothian Hut), period 5 - 19th-century military barracks and modern features (Haddington House. Quartermaster's store and military features, tenement and Queensberry House). A separate section considers the artefactual evidence for each of the periods identified and there is a brief account of the environmental evidence.

Royalty had been frequent visitors to the guest house of the Abbey of Holyrood throughout the Middle Ages, but from the 15th century there is increasing evidence that the Stewart Kings found the abbey precincts, with their gardens and orchards, a commodious place to stay. The palace underwent major remodelling and refurbishment in the reign of James V and again in 1554 when the Queen Mother, Queen Regent Mary of Guise, restored Holyrood. The building work encompassed not only prestigious accommodation for royalty and its entourage, but also gardens and courtyards and the more mundane essentials such as stables, workshops and storerooms for hay for the king's carthorse. Edinburgh had become effectively the sole capital of Scotland, and the small burgh of Canongate would be increasingly drawn into the limelight of national politics.

The archaeological evidence strongly suggests that the original house constructed by Dame Margaret Douglas of Balmakellie was substantially the same as the house later purchased by Charles Maitland of Hatton, although he improved and somewhat extended it. For this reason, some mentions is made of Hatton's house in this chapter and the plans mostly apply in his case also, although his house is examined in the next chapter. It seems most likely that the motivation in acquiring and developing the house was different in each of these two cases, and the significance of the house to each of them consequently differed. The Balmakellie Lodging successfully combined a number of fairly traditional and some rather advanced elements. In the 1670s it was one of the largest townhouses in Edinburgh.

If Hatton had failed to impress the Duke of York during his sojourn in Edinburgh in the early 1680s. he was even further out of favour when the Duke became James VII and II in 1685. The combined consequences of political failure, allegations of corruption and crippling debt ultimately lay behind Lord Hatton's decision to sell the house in 1686 to William, first Duke of Queensberry. Much detail about the house and its contents is provided by an inventory of 1695.

The relationship between town and garden in the medieval burgh was a close one. One of the main reasons for a burgh's existence was to bring about a concentration of people to provide a market for goods and to provide a focus for local agriculture. In the Canongate there is a long history of gardening, of a grander and more specialist kind, and on a more ambitious scale than the rest of Edinburgh. The more complex typology of the garden in this area is related partly to topography but mainly to the proximity of Holyrood Palace and its predecessor, Holyrood Abbey.

The monograph concludes with a brief overview of the Canongate in the 20th century when its population had become much depleted. The main focus is on the housing improvements of the 20th century.

The choice of the Holyrood area for the site of the new Scottish Parliament involved as a first stage of its development both archaeological excavation and architectural analysis, the results of which are described in this volume. Situated in Canongate at the foot of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, the site encompassed the former Scottish and Newcastle Breweries and Queensberry House. The area was known to have been part of the medieval burgh of Canongate and in the 17th and 18th centuries to have included two other major townhouses, Haddington House and Lothian Hut, in addition to Queensberry House. The history of the site has been intensively researched alongside archaeological investigation and spans nine hundred years of urban life from the 12th to the 20th century. Holyrood Abbey, which was founded in the 12th century was allowed to found a burgh in order to attract commerce and create wealth: the burgh of Canongate, which was separate from the burghs of Edinburgh and Leith. Canongate became a fashionable place for Scotland's leading noble families to build townhouses and remained so until the later 18th century, when its fortunes declined and the fine houses were gradually replaced by slums, hospitals for the poor and breweries. Iron working and possibly tanning of hides were among the activities that appear to have taken place in the burgage plots of the Canongate.