image copyright Rachel Windsor

The current name for this court off the Royal Mile is taken from Tweeddale House which has stood here since the 16th century.   Old names for the court include James Brown’s Court, Alexander Young’s Court and John Laing’s Court.  It was an ancestor of this last, Neil Laing, who inherited the land in 1585 and built  what we know as Tweeddale House.    His initials, and those of his wife Elizabeth Danielstoune, can be found in the inscription above the door of the house.  The land remained in the Laing family until it was sold to the architect William Bruce who sold it to John Hay, the 2nd Earl of Tweeddale in 1670.