What was Edinburgh’s ‘Little Ireland’?

You might be familiar with New York City’s Little Italy. Once upon a time, Scotland’s capital had a similarly named neighbourhood. It was known as Little Ireland. 

Nowadays, the area is known by its official name, the Cowgate. But if you keep an eye out, remnants of its former life still exist. 

Some of its landmarks—like the Blair Street Underground Vaults—could have been taken straight from the 19th century, while others are hidden behind more modern facades. 

 

19th Century Edinburgh 

During the 1800s, waves of migrants were making their way to Edinburgh. Many of them were Irish immigrants, others Scottish Highlanders. They were forced from their homes by both famine and land clearances. 

But though the population of Edinburgh was increasing, its amount of housing was not. 

Transient populations and the city’s poor flocked to the slum housing of Cowgate, the area that makes up Edinburgh's southern valley. Due to the saturation of Irish immigrants in the area, it became known as ‘Little Ireland’. 

But even the slum housing wasn’t enough to provide for the city’s population. By the mid-19th century, the poorest citizens of Edinburgh had moved into the Edinburgh underground vaults. 

 

Edinburgh’s Underground City: The Edinburgh Vaults 

Sometimes referred to as the ‘Edinburgh catacombs’ or the ‘Edinburgh underground city’, the Blair Street Underground Vaults are a series of chambers and corridors beneath South Bridge. 

Contrary to popular belief, these are not Edinburgh’s catacombs. They served no religious or burial purposes. Instead, they were built to be workshops and storage rooms. 

When the South Bridge was built in the 1780s, the city decided to turn the bridge’s archways into useable space. These huge caverns, encased by tenement buildings on either side, were divvied up and allocated to shopkeepers and artisan workers. 

The haberdashers, wine merchants, jewellers and cobblers—whose shop fronts were on South Bridge—needed a place to craft and store goods. What better place than directly beneath the shops themselves? 

However, there was one major problem: the bridge was never waterproofed. In Scotland, this turned out to be a costly mistake. 

The conditions in the Edinburgh vaults were terrible: damp, dark and cold. Natural materials like fabric and leather did nothing but disintegrate. Soon, the shopkeepers and workers abandoned the vaults. 

And a transient population moved in. 

Likely, these were labouring families, parents doing everything to keep their children safe and off the streets. 

Those who lived in the vaults in the mid-1800s left little written evidence behind. But the artefacts of their daily lives were uncovered when the vaults were rediscovered in the 1980s. They may not exist on paper, but they existed nonetheless. 

 

The Edinburgh Vaults Now 

Nowadays, the South Bridge vaults have various uses. Some sections, you can visit. Some are still used as storage areas. Others have been turned into music venues and pubs. 

As we approach St Patrick’s Day, Edinburgh’s Little Ireland might look modern from a distance. But if you take a closer look—or step below ground—you might discover the remnants of the people who once inhabited this area of Scotland’s capital. 

You can visit the very places these people sheltered on an Edinburgh underground tour. Choose a history tour of the Edinburgh vaults or dive into Edinburgh's darker history with a ghost tour.