William Burke and William Hare were two notorious serial killers, often mistakenly referred to as grave robbers, who lived in Edinburgh in the 1820s. They were responsible for the murder of sixteen innocent victims and sold their bodies to local anatomists for dissection before to be caught and tried in the High Court of Edinburgh. Hare made King’s Evidence his partner in crime, escaped alive, and disappeared into obscurity as Burke was publicly hanged in front of a crowd of 25,000 citizens in January 1829.

But did you know that many of the actual locations in Edinburgh associated with Burke and Hare can still be seen and visited to this day?

Tanners Close – was the site of Hare’s guesthouse and was in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. Neither the old residential building nor Tanners Close now exist and a modern private parking lot marks where the building once stood. It is accessed from a lane known as Kings Stables Road in the West Port area of ​​Edinburgh, just off the Grassmarket. All but one of Burke and Hare’s known victims were killed in the alley that was then Tanners Close.

West Port – A street in Edinburgh’s Old Town, just south of Edinburgh Castle and running from Main Point, at the junction of Bread Street, Lauriston Street, East Fountainbridge and High Riggs, to the southwest corner of Grassmarket. The name is derived from the West Port, which was the only exit to the west of the city at the time when the city walls were raised, allowing a passage through the old Flodden wall. It was in this seedy part of Old Town that Burke and Hare lived and committed their crimes, which is why they are often referred to as the West Port Killers.

Grassmarket: located at the foot of Edinburgh Castle and next to the Cowgate. Originally an open, cobbled market square and the location of some of Edinburgh’s tallest buildings, some eight or nine stories high, Grassmarket was also the scene of public executions, the last of which took place there in 1784. It was from here Burke and Hare lured many of its unsuspecting victims to their deaths.

Surgeons Square – Located behind the Old High School building and the New Surgical Hospital, near the High School Yards. Several of the houses around the square were used for private anatomy classes, including those run by the famous Dr. Robert Knox at 10 Surgeons Square. It was to this address that Burke and Hare delivered the freshly dead corpses of their victims for dissection.

Gibb’s Close – on Canongate, towards the bottom of the Royal Mile, at the “tail” of Castle Rock. On this site, in 1700, the 4th Earl of Traquair built a tenement house and it was here that he established his residence. Body builder Robert Gibb chose to make this his home at the turn of the century and it bears his name to this day. This was the scene of the murder of Mary Paterson by Burke and Hare. A shop selling Scottish tourist items now occupies the site.

Edinburgh University Museum of Anatomy – University School of Medicine, Teviot Place. After William Burke was hanged on January 28, 1829, his body, as ordered by the court, was publicly dissected by Professor Alexander Monro tertius and his skeleton hangs to this day in a display case where the post-mortem saw cut into his skull can be clearly seen.

Edinburgh Royal College of Surgeons – Surgeons Room Museum, Nicolson Street. After his death, Burke’s tanned skin was turned into various items, including a paperback book on display in the Surgeons Room Museum along with his death mask. Another example of such a book can be seen in the Police Center, a museum on the Royal Mile that houses exhibits and contains information on some of Edinburgh’s most notorious criminals.

High Courts of Scotland – Parliament Square. It was here in the High Court of Justice that William Burke’s trial took place (most of the work of the High Court of Justice now takes place in a building across the Royal Mile). The trial began on Christmas Eve 1828 and the jury returned a guilty verdict on Christmas Day after deliberating for only fifty minutes.

Burke Execution Site – Lawnmarket, Royal Mile. William Burke was publicly hanged on a damp Wednesday morning shortly after 8 a.m. on January 28, 1829 in the Lawnmarket at the head of Libberton’s Wynd. The event generated so much interest that even the famous novelist Sir Walter Scott witnessed it from a coveted upstairs window. The Wynd of Libberton no longer exists, as it was demolished during the construction of the George IV Bridge, but three ‘H’ shaped brass blocks mark the site where the gallows was erected. In the same area, diagonally across from Deacon Brodie’s tavern, a bronze plaque marks the site of the last public execution in Edinburgh, that of George Bryce (“Ratho’s Killer”), who was hanged on June 21. from 1864.

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