Day 14

Leith Signal Tower

Places of Leith

The Leith Signal tower found today at the corner of the Shore and Tower Street is one of the oldest buildings standing in Leith today.

Originally built as a windmill at the edge of Leith harbour around 1685-1686 by Robert Mylne, the king’s master mason, and alongside a newly built seawall to protect the Timber Bush area and timber markets that were located there. Mylne built this circular structure as “a wynd mill of the largeness of thretty-two feet diameter over the walls,” one of three mills in Leith at the time.

The original structure was twice as tall as the one that stands today at 50 m with a timber structure standing atop. The mill was later transformed into a signal tower in 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars, with stone battlements added on top, offering messages to ships coming into shore about the current sea depth by flags, and it’s why it’s often known but this name today.

Today the ground floor of the structure is home to a very popular, award-winning seafood restaurant, Fishers, and the above floors are private dwellings, the top of which can often be rented.