page_title: Siege of Leith
section_title: Mount Somerset, Mount Falcon, and Byer's Mount
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Leith / The Siege / Mount Somerset, Mount Falcon, and Byer's Mount
caption_attribution_description: English: Plaque near the site of the Mount Falcon battery in the 1560 Siege of Leith
context_page_description: The Siege of Leith ended a twelve-year encampment of French troops at Leith, the port near Edinburgh, Scotland. The French troops arrived by invitation in 1548 and left in 1560 after an English force arrived to attempt to assist in removing them from Scotland. The town was not taken by force and the French troops finally left peacefully under the terms of a treaty signed by Scotland, England and France.
context_section_description: At the end of April the siege works were extended westwards and a new emplacement built in the vicinity of the later Pilrig House, named "Mount Somerset" after Captain Francis Somerset, whom Thomas Churchyard identifies as the brother of the Earl of Worcester. Among the Scots recorded at the siege at this time, on 27 April 1560 with a tent (palzoun) at the Water of Leith, were Robert and John Haldane of Gleneagles.
  The works were continued further west and north, across the Water of Leith to Bonnington, where a series of batteries were established. "Mount Falcon" was built after 7 May 1560 and, according to John Lesley, commanded the houses on the Shore quayside. The battery was placed west of a bend in the Water of Leith, near the intersection of South Fort Street and West Bowling Green Street. A position to the north with a single cannon is marked "Byere Mownt" on the Petworth map. Stuart Harris locates the gun's position near the intersection of the present-day Ferry Road and Dudley Avenue South. 
  The completed emplacements stretched for approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) around the fortified town, with six gun sites at a distance of around 500 yards (460 m) from the Leith ramparts. Mounts Pelham and Somerset, named after their officers, were both large temporary forts with ramparts up to 13 feet (4.0 m) high. Apart from the foot soldiers, there were, on 25 May 145 English artillery-men, with 750 English and 300 Scottish pioneers or labourers working on the fortifications, and 468 men looking after work-horses.
caption: Modern plaque at the site of the Mount Falcon battery
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