Talk:Cowgate

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I'm a little dubious as to the meanings presented for the word "cowgate". South Bridge wasn't built until the 18th century, and George IV until the 19th (see Thomas Hamilton (architect)), but I'm sure the name dates from before the bridges. Does the contributor have an sources for their information? Maccoinnich 08:48, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

The Derivation of Edinburgh's Street Names gives "The line of this ancient thoroughfare, once a path along which cows were driven to pasture, follows the south flank of the Old Town ridge as far as St. Mary's Street. Centuries ago the Cowgate was a fashionable quarter of the town." [1].

More to the point, if it was named for the bridges no-one told James VI - he referred to (a different) Thomas Hamilton, his advisor, as "Tam o' the Cowgate"... [2] Shimgray | talk | 13:26, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

Given the second point, which seems to pretty strongly delink it from the bridge, I've gone back to an old version of the etymology. It strikes me as more likely to be correct. Shimgray | talk | 13:33, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Merger proposal

The Edinburgh Cowgate fire page needs a bit of a tidy, and I was going to do it, but I think it would function better as a section in the main Cowgate page. It's hardly a long page as it is. The fire page seems to have been created almost straight after the fire, before this page even existed. Also, I seem to remember that was another, and much larger, fire sometime in the 19th century (?) that could, and should, also be covered in this page. Maccoinnich

No objections, so I merged it in, and did a slight copyedit to the content. Maccoinnich 22:00, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] First Pavement

According to "The New Shell Book of Firsts" by Patrick Robertson, which is usually well researched, in 1688, Edinburgh High Street and Cowgate became the first streets in the UK to have pavements. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.225.148.191 (talk) 00:55, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Translation into Chinese Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cowgate&oldid=164502102 The 14:46, 14 October 2007 88.97.244.220 version] of this article is translated into Chinese Wikipedia.--Philopp 13:47, 1 November 2007 (UTC)