Marlin's Wynd

The 17th-century Tron Kirk, on the High Street, Edinburgh (NGR: NT 2592 7363), is built over the remains of tenement buildings that were pulled down to allow its construction. The re-development of the building provided an opportunity to complete the earlier excavations carried out between 1974 and 1983 and a more complete footprint of the tenements emerged, together with a fragment of the old High Street. The archaeological investigation has been complemented by documentary research which has populated the tenements with colourful occupants as far back as the late 15th century. The artefact assemblages from both the recent and earlier excavations contain only material of 16th- and 17th-century date, which suggests that the tenements had been redeveloped during the late 15th/early 16th centuries, thus removing all but a trace of the earlier medieval settlement.