The Grassmarket and the Cowgate Edinburgh's Market Place FOR at least 500 years the Grassmarket has been an important focal point of the Old Town. It has been a trading place since the earliest times. The first written record of a market there is in 1477, and the tradition of this weekly event survived into the early years of the present century. By that time, a greatly expanded city and modern trading practices dictated the need for purpose-built markets outwith the confines of the city centre. One of the most attractive things about the Grassmarket today is that it is immediately recognisable as a market-place.
Buildings rise up on all four sides, enclosing a large open area overlooked by the towering castle.
An examination of paintings of old Edinburgh shows that the historic Grassmarket has always been a favourite spot for artists in search of the picturesque. St Patrick's Catholic Church Historical associations abound. At the east end of the Grassmarket, near the foot of Victoria Street, a small garden, a plaque, and stone markers in the centre of the roadway commemorate the place of execution where many Covenanters were put to death because they would not renounce their Presbyterian faith. Victoria Street is still known to local folk as the West Bow, which once was a steep, twisting street leading up to the top of the Royal Mile and Castlehill. It was in the Grassmarket in 1736 that an Edinburgh mob lynched Captain Porteous, the commander of the Town Guard.