Rumours that the mound was built on the bodies of plague victims have been greatly exaggerated.
Well it might not have been...
But Leith Links and Brunstfield Links certainly were.
Both these sites were mass graves.
Bruntsfield Links is all that's left of the old Burgh Muir, an oak forrest that used to cover most of south Edinburgh. When the plague struck, the forrest was used to isolate victims in an effort to halt the disease.
It was very well organised. All plague victims had to be reported to the proper authorities within 12 hours, and were then carried off in horse or hand drawn carts to the Burgh Muir.
If they survived the journey, their clothes were boil washed and they were given bed gowns. Then they were taken to wooden huts clustered around the chapel of St Roche, the patron saint of plague victims.
If they didn't survive the journey the victims were buried by the wayside. Bodies have been turning up in private gardens in what was the Burgh Muir area ever since.
One outbreak of the plague was so aggressive that half the population of Leith was completely wiped out, the bodies buried in a mass grave in what is now Leith Links.
