The last standing tower of the town wall Edinburgh built in the years after Flodden, at the head of the Vennel steps above the Grassmarket.
Climb the Vennel from the west end of the Grassmarket, and on your left, at the top of the steps, a low stone tower with battlements stands against the backs of the houses.
Visited and photographed by Simon Hird
A small sign on the rubble wall below the tenement corner names it: the Flodden Wall. For all the traffic of visitors on the steps, few stop to read it.
Turn round at the top for the view that brings most people here. The castle rises on its rock straight ahead, over the rooftops and chimneys of the Grassmarket, and through a narrow slit in the old parapet you can frame it just as a defender once framed the ground below. Then follow the high rubble wall south along Heriot Place, with the school grounds hidden behind it, and you are walking the old edge of the town.
The tower and the wall stand in the open, free to see at any hour, at the top of the Vennel steps from the Grassmarket.
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Add your reviewThe wall is said to have gone up in fear of an English invasion after Flodden in 1513, but some of its gates stood at least eight years before the battle. The defeat hurried on work already under way, which went on in stages until about 1560.
This is the only tower of the Flodden Wall still standing: nearly square, with walls about 1.2 metres thick and 5 to 6 metres high, and gunloops still in its walls.
The tower is an oddity: every picture of the Flodden Wall from its own time shows round towers, and the one recorded at Drummond Street was round too.
The taller wall running south from the tower is the Telfer Wall, built about 1628 to 1636 to take in the ground of George Heriot's and land beside Greyfriars. It is named after its mason, John Tailfer.
Both walls are built of local sandstone, but the Telfer Wall's blocks are a different colour and mostly larger than those of the Flodden Wall.
In the 19th century a large ornamental window was knocked through the old tower, by order of the Council.
Part of the city’s boundary defences in the 1560s, the crenellated remains of Flodden Wall still stand strong, close to where the so-called Vennel Steps give arguably the best – and some of the closest – castle views in the city.
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What is on in EdinburghAt the head of the Vennel, the stepped lane up from the west end of the Grassmarket.
Vennel StepsThe stepped lane with one of the best-known views of the castle.Under a mile 1 min by road
George Heriot's SchoolA Renaissance school behind the Telfer Wall.Under a mile 1 min by road
Armchair BooksA family-run secondhand bookshop on the West Port.Under a mile 1 min by road
Covenanters' MemorialA circle of stone where the Grassmarket gallows stood.Under a mile 2 min by road
Maggie Dickson’sA pub named for the woman who survived her own hanging.Under a mile 2 min by road
Greyfriars BobbyThe statue of the Skye terrier who kept watch by his owner's grave.Under a mile 2 min by road
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Places to stay near the wall, and when each is next free.
Moment George IV Bridge
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The Scott Hotel
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