Half Hangit Maggie

Robert Burns, Dorothy and William Wordsworth, and Oliver Cromwell (not in that order) all had a pint here. This pub claims to be Edinburgh's oldest pub and has stood here since 1516. The Grassmarket was a main market for selling and buying horse and cattle. It would have been noisy!

The pub would also have been the last sight in the eyes of those who were being turned off the public gallows - an execution every day, they say, right through to the 18th century.

In Edinburgh they will tell you the story of Half-Hangit Maggie - who faced the drop just outside this pub.

In 1728 Maggie Dickson was sentenced to death for murdering her baby. She was hung in the Grassmarket, taken down, put in a coffin to be transported back to Musselburgh where she had been a fishwife. And on the way she woke up!

Under Scots Law she had served her punishment so she was set free. Later the words "until dead" were added to the sentence of hanging to make sure that wouldn't happen again!