Burgh Muir

The Burgh Muir is the historic term for an extensive area of land lying to the south of Edinburgh city centre, upon which much of the southern part of the city now stands following its gradual spread and more especially its rapid expansion in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The name has been retained today in the partly anglicised form Boroughmuir for a much smaller district within Bruntsfield, vaguely defined by the presence of Boroughmuir High School, and, until 2010, Boroughmuirhead Post Office in its north-west corner. The older form of the name is also retained by a street between Church Hill and Holy Corner in Morningside which recalls the vanished hamlet of Burghmuirhead. The post office has moved from the location it occupied for over a century to nearby Bruntsfield Place, thus losing its association with Boroughmuirhead. Plans for the state secondary school to relocate were approved in June 2012, and, while it is likely to retain its prestigious name, it too may lose its connection with the Boroughmuir location in all but name.

In terms of today's street names, the historic muir (Scots for 'moor') extended from Leven Street, Bruntsfield Place and Morningside Road in the west to Dalkeith Road in the east, and as far south as the Jordan Burn and east to Peffermill, thus covering a total area of approximately five square miles. The names of the historic roads that bounded it were the "Easter Hiegait", corresponding to Dalkeith Road and the "Wester Hiegait" corresponding to Bruntsfield Place and Morningside Road.

The last surviving open space of the former burgh muir is Bruntsfield Links, a public park adjoining the Meadows to the north.

The burgh muir was part of the ancient Forest of Drumselch, used for hunting and described in a 16th-century chronicle as originally an abode of "hartis, hindis, toddis [foxes] and siclike maner of beastis". It was given to the city as common land by David I in the 12th century and cleared of woodland by a decree of James IV in 1508. The open space was used for grazing cattle which would be driven there through the Cowgate (literally, "cow road") from byres within the town walls where the cows were milked.

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