Gladstone’s Land
Admire one of the oldest buildings on the Royal Mile, housing wealthy residential and commercial tenants in its heyday.
View hand-painted Renaissance interiors with deep hidden meanings.
See the 1600s stone arches, built to shelter customers but which became the ideal place for criminal activity.
Spot the gilded bird of prey that hangs outside the house.
Entry prices
- Adult
- £7.00
- Family
- £16.50
- One adult family
- £11.50
- Concession
- £5.00
-
Exterior close-up view of Gladstone’s Land -
Golden bird statue hangs at the front of Gladstone’s Land -
Beautiful painted ceiling panels in Gladstone’s Land -
Close-up of painted ceiling panels in Gladstone’s Land
About this place
The best address in town!
Just a stone’s throw from the castle, this 500-year-old building is a towering testament to tenement life in Edinburgh’s Old Town and was once owned by merchant Thomas Gladstone. He extended and remodelled the building to attract wealthy tenants for his opulently decorated apartments, as well as for the high-end grocer and cloth shop on the ground floor and the tavern located in the basement.
By the mid-1800s, only the poorest of the city’s inhabitants remained in the Old Town. Gladstone’s Land was one of the first buildings that the National Trust for Scotland acquired, rescuing it from demolition in 1934.
Today, Gladstone’s Land shows how the wealthy went about their lives at a time when the cramped Lawnmarket was at the heart of one of the world’s fastest-growing and most influential cities.
