This point sits in Edinburgh's Grassmarket, a historic square below the castle, now lined with pubs and shops.
Last reviewed 16 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 600–2025
The short answer
A Zeppelin bomb dropped from the German airship L14 struck the pavement outside the White Hart Inn in Edinburgh's Grassmarket on the night of 2 April 1916, killing one person and injuring four others during a raid on the city. A stone set into the pavement still marks the spot.
Street market, Grassmarket — 1983 · Richard Webb · CC BY-SA 2.0
1477 to 1784
Covenanters hanged for a century beneath the castle
Grassmarket is a long open square in Edinburgh's Old Town, now full of cafes, bars and shops, sitting in a dip below the cliffs of Edinburgh Castle. It was first written down in 1363, called the street of Newbygging, "new buildings," under the castle. In 1477, King James III granted it a charter as one of the city's official markets, and traders brought horses and cattle here every week for more than four hundred years.
The square had a darker trade too. From about 1660 it became Edinburgh's main place of public execution, replacing the Market Cross and Castle Hill. Over the next century, more than a hundred Covenanters, Presbyterians who refused to accept the king's authority over the church, were hanged here during a period known as the Killing Time. A stone memorial, put up in 1937, now marks the spot near where the gallows stood.
In 1724, a fishwife named Margaret Dickson was hanged for hiding a pregnancy and allegedly killing her newborn. On the way to her burial, she woke up inside her coffin. Scots law held that her sentence had already been carried out, so she could not be hanged again, and she lived on for years afterward.
The crowds turned violent here too. In 1736, soldiers under Captain John Porteous fired on onlookers at another execution, killing several people. When Porteous was later reprieved from his own death sentence, a mob dragged him from his cell and lynched him in the square, an event remembered as the Porteous Riots.
By 1784, public hangings had stopped. The square kept trading livestock until 1911, when the market finally closed for good.
1791 to 1911
Burns and the Wordsworths lodged at the White Hart Inn
Poets found quieter reasons to stop here. Robert Burns stayed at the White Hart Inn on his last visit to Edinburgh in 1791. Twelve years later, William Wordsworth lodged there too, with his sister Dorothy, on their tour of Scotland.
The square's darkest crime happened just off its western end. In 1828, William Burke and William Hare murdered at least sixteen people from their lodgings near the West Port, selling the bodies for dissection. The Grassmarket itself kept trading through it all. Cattle and horses still filled the square every week, a routine that had run since 1477.
By the late 1800s, the crowds looked different again. Italian immigrants settled around the Grassmarket in the 1880s, selling ice cream from carts and calling out "Gelati, ecco un poco." Locals shortened it and the sellers became known as the "Hokey Pokey men."
The market itself finally closed in 1911, after more than four centuries of weekly trading in livestock.
2 April 1916
A Zeppelin bomb struck the pavement outside an inn
On the night of 2 April 1916, a bomb fell from the German Zeppelin airship L14 and struck the pavement outside the White Hart Inn, at the corner of Grassmarket and Heriot Bridge. It killed one person and injured four others. A stone set into the pavement still marks the spot.
1937 to now
The square became home to pubs, cafes and dance
The square has since been rebuilt and repaved more than once, most recently in a redevelopment that cleared out the public toilets at its east end, once a gathering spot for the city's homeless. Grassmarket today is lined with pubs, cafes and shops, with Dance Base, Scotland's national center for dance, standing at its western corner since 2001.
A fire broke out in a flat on Heriot Bridge near the Apex hotel in December 2025, closing the square to traffic for about an hour while firefighters worked.
Grassmarket today is a wide, paved square of pubs and cafes, with Edinburgh Castle rising on the cliffs above it.
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Edinburgh's town walls, part of them still standing nearby, were built from the 12th century onward and were extended south in the 16th century to take in the Grassmarket.
Greyfriars Kirkyard, a short walk east, holds the graves of philosopher David Hume's contemporaries in science and letters, including chemist Joseph Black, mathematician Colin MacLaurin and poet Allan Ramsay.
In 1724 Maggie Dickson was hanged in the Grassmarket for concealing her pregnancy, but she revived in her coffin on the way to burial and could not legally be hanged again.
In 1736 Captain John Porteous ordered his men to fire on the crowd watching smuggler Andrew Wilson's execution, and months later an enraged mob dragged Porteous from jail and hanged him in the Grassmarket.
In 1828 William Burke and William Hare, living nearby in Tanner's Close at the West Port, killed at least 16 people and sold the bodies for dissection.
An influx of Italian immigrants settled in the Grassmarket in the 1880s, becoming known locally as 'Hokey Pokey men' for the ice cream they sold on the street.
corner of Grassmarket and Heriot Bridge, outside the White Hart Inn
On the night of 2 April 1916 a bomb dropped from the German airship L14 struck the pavement here, killing one person and injuring others during a raid on the city.
A memorial erected by public subscription in 1937 near the old gibbet site commemorates the Covenanters hanged here, with their names recorded on a nearby plaque.
A fire broke out in a flat on Heriot Bridge near the Apex hotel on 11 December 2025, bringing fire engines and ambulances and shutting the Grassmarket.
On the night of 2 April 1916 a bomb dropped from the German Zeppelin airship L14 struck the pavement outside the White Hart Inn, at the corner of Grassmarket and Heriot Bridge, killing one person and injuring four others. A stone set into the pavement still marks the spot.
What was here before the Zeppelin bombing?
The Grassmarket was a long-standing market square, licensed by King James III in 1477 for horse and cattle trading, and for over a century before that it had also served as Edinburgh's main place of public execution, including the hanging of more than a hundred Covenanters.
Who was Maggie Dickson?
Maggie Dickson was a fishwife hanged in the Grassmarket in 1724 for concealing her pregnancy, who revived inside her coffin on the way to burial and, under Scots law, could not legally be hanged again.
What were the Porteous Riots?
In 1736 Captain John Porteous ordered his men to fire on a crowd watching the execution of smuggler Andrew Wilson in the Grassmarket. When Porteous was later reprieved from his own death sentence, a mob dragged him from jail and lynched him in the square.
When did the Grassmarket market close?
The Grassmarket had traded horses and cattle since 1477, a weekly routine that continued for more than four hundred years until the market finally closed in 1911.
Who stayed at the White Hart Inn?
Robert Burns lodged at the White Hart Inn on his last visit to Edinburgh in 1791, and William and Dorothy Wordsworth stayed there in 1803 during their tour of Scotland.
