Battlefields›English naval landing and burning of Leith, 1544
Tudor

English naval landing and burning of Leith, 1544

1544
Midlothian, Scotland
Era
Tudor
Battle Type
Raid
Location
Midlothian, Scotland
Status
Unregistered
The Combatants

Who Fought

Defeated
Scotland
VS
Victor
England
Forces involved

English expedition of roughly 12,000 infantry and 4,000 border horsemen carried by about 200 ships; a Scottish force of around 5,000 to 6,000 horsemen briefly opposed the landing at the Water of Leith ford before withdrawing.

Outcome
English forces under Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, landed unopposed near Leith, occupied the port, seized Scottish shipping and the King's Wark arsenal, then advanced on and burned Edinburgh (including Holyroodhouse and the Abbey); Edinburgh Castle held out under Scottish artillery fire.
The Battle

History & Significance

English naval landing and burning of Leith, 1544 was a Tudor raid, fought at Midlothian, Scotland in 1544. England prevailed over Scotland. English forces under Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, landed unopposed near Leith, occupied the port, seized Scottish shipping and the King's Wark arsenal, then advanced on and burned Edinburgh (including Holyroodhouse and the Abbey); Edinburgh Castle held out under Scottish artillery fire.

Confirmed battlefield location
The ground

The ground they fought on

The site of English naval landing and burning of Leith, 1544 lies on Strathclyde Group, bedrock that formed in the Visean. The rock here is sedimentary rock cycles, strathclyde group type.

Casualties & Losses
  • Accounts describe only light casualties during the initial landing (a handful on each side), with Scottish losses reported in the low hundreds during the later assault on Edinburgh's Netherbow Gate; English losses in that phase are reported as around 40 killed. Figures vary between sources and should be treated as approximate.
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Monuments
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Roman Britain
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Stat Accounts
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Civil War
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Geology
The bedrock beneath the site, its age and rock type, reaching back hundreds of millions of years.
Local Names
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Historical Maps
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Literature
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Protected heritage nearby

Scheduled Monuments near English naval landing and burning of Leith, 1544

Leith,dry dock off Sandport Street
Leith,dry dock off Sandport Street
Scheduled monument · ~0.1 mi

Leith dry dock off Sandport Street is a maritime engineering structure situated in the port of Leith, Midlothian. The dock was constructed to facilitate the construction and maintenance of vessels by allowing ships to be drained of water for repair and inspection work. Such facilities became esse…

Edinburgh,Citadel Arch at Johnston Street
Edinburgh,Citadel Arch at Johnston Street
Scheduled monument · ~0.1 mi

Edinburgh Citadel Arch at Johnston Street is a citadel arch surviving in the heart of Edinburgh's historic fabric. The structure stands on bedrock of the Strathclyde Group, sedimentary rocks formed during the Visean period of the Carboniferous era. These ancient deposits underlie much of central…

Custom House,hydraulic crane & cabin S of,Albert Dock,Leith
Custom House,hydraulic crane & cabin S of,Albert Dock,Leith
Scheduled monument · ~0.4 mi

Custom House, hydraulic crane & cabin S of, Albert Dock, Leith is a late 19th-century or early 20th-century industrial complex serving Leith's thriving port. The site comprises a Custom House building alongside a hydraulic crane and associated cabin positioned south of Albert Dock, reflecting the…

Leith Links, artillery mounds
Leith Links, artillery mounds
Scheduled monument · ~0.6 mi

Leith Links artillery mounds is a set of defensive earthworks constructed during the sixteenth or seventeenth century to protect Edinburgh's port. The site occupies gently sloping ground above the Forth estuary, where the underlying bedrock of Strathclyde Group sedimentary rocks provided a stable…

Holyrood Abbey, precinct and associated remains
Holyrood Abbey, precinct and associated remains
Scheduled monument · ~1.6 mi

Holyrood Abbey is a Augustinian monastery founded in 1128 by King David I of Scotland in the Canongate area of Edinburgh, Midlothian. The abbey became one of Scotland's most important religious houses and a royal mausoleum, with its precinct encompassing substantial buildings including the abbey…

Edinburgh Town Wall, Flodden Wall, Drummond Street to Pleasance
Edinburgh Town Wall, Flodden Wall, Drummond Street to Pleasance
Scheduled monument · ~1.9 mi

Edinburgh Town Wall, Flodden Wall, Drummond Street to Pleasance is a sixteenth-century defensive wall constructed following Scotland's defeat at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. Built to protect Edinburgh's growing population and commercial centre, this section of the wall extends between Drummond…

Gareth Davies / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Martello Tower,Leith
Scheduled monument · ~0.8 miles
St Triduana's Aisle,chapel and wellhouse
Scheduled monument · Medieval · ~1.5 miles
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