The Canongate

 History of Brewing  Comments Off on The Canongate
Jan 292018
 
A view of Canongate

Canongate

Canongate, Edinburgh EH8 8BN

The Canongate originally linked the Old Town of Edinburgh to Holyrood Abbey, established in 1128 by king David I, who reigned from 1124 to 1153. It takes its name from the Augustinian canons who lived in the Abbey. The word ‘gate’, originally spelt ‘gait’, is not derived from the English word but comes instead from the Norse word for ‘street’, so Canongate can be translated ‘Walk of the Monks’. The monks were the first known brewers of beer for sale in Edinburgh. In the sixteenth century beer was generally been made by women at home for the needs of the household. In 1520 228 homes in Edinburgh brewed beer, representing one brewery for every 40 inhabitants. The monks, by contrast, produced more beer than they could drink themselves, so on market days they used to bring it up the Canongate to the city’s market to trade with the people of the town. Canongate retained its connection with brewing in later centuries and at one time 20 breweries were to be found on this street or nearby. The popularity of this neighbourhood for brewing was a consequence of the good underground water supply in the area known to the brewers as the ‘Charmed Circle’.

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William Younger’s Holyrood Brewery

 History of Brewing  7 Responses »
Jan 292018
 

112 Canongate, Edinburgh EH8 8BW

This brewery was bought over by William Younger in 1858, who turned it into what was at one time the largest brewery in Edinburgh, with the capacity to produce 60 brews a week, generating 600 barrels of beer a week, or 432 million pints of beer every year. In the twentieth century malt was brought in in huge quantities by lorry and off-loaded near Coopers Close. The brewery finally closed in 1986. You can see more of the old brewery buildings by walking down Crichton’s Close.  William Younger’s also owned the Abbey Brewery on the site of what is now the Scottish Parliament. It was named after Holyrood Abbey where monks first brewed beer in in the twelfth century. Abbey Brewery was demolished in the late 1990s to make way for the new parliament building which opened in 2004.  Before its demolition it had been the head office of Scottish and Newcastle breweries, which grew to become the largest brewing company in the UK.

View of old brewery buildings in Crichton's Close.

View of old brewery buildings looking up Crichton’s Close.

View of old brewery buildings looking down Crichton's Close.

View of old brewery buildings looking down Crichton’s Close.

Old brewery buildings in Cooper's Close.

Old brewery buildings in Cooper’s Close.

Label for William Youngers Export Pale Ale, with an illustration of a man with a long beard on a yellow background.

Label for William Youngers Export Pale Ale.

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