Flodden Wall

The Flodden Wall was a defensive structure built around the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, after the disastrous Battle of Flodden (1513), in which King James IV was killed. The construction was a response to threatened English invasion after a war started by James in support of the French and the Auld Alliance.

Although construction continued into the middle of the 16th-century, the hurriedly-conceived project offered little protection when the Protector Somerset sacked Edinburgh during the Rough Wooing. Its main effect, before being dismantled from the middle of the 17th-century, was to restrict the southern development of Edinburgh's Old Town.

Today, the wall is best inspected at two locations. Firstly it is visible in the Vennel to the west of the Grassmarket, where the wall was later extended by the Telfer Wall. This section of the wall contains the last remaining bastion of the town walls - the Flodden Tower. [ [http://www.nls.uk/maps/townplans/edinburgh500_sw.html Town Plan of Edinburgh, Surveyed: 1893-4] ] It can also be seen on the west side of the Pleasance turning up Drummond Street, where it originally enclosed the Blackfriar's Monastery.

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