A small stream ran from Corstorphine west of Edinburgh to the area now occuoied by Portobello. This ran north of Edinburgh's Old Town and was known as The Stank to the west and Figgate Burn to the east. Where the land dipped and broadened around St Cuthberts this changed into a marsh, before the various rivulets united again to a stream along the line of Calton Road. This marsh formed part of the natural defence of the Edinburgh Old Town. In 1460 King James III ordered the hollow to be flooded in order to strengthen the castle's defences. The loch was formed by creating an earthen dam to block the progress of a stream that ran along the north side of the castle. The water level was controlled by sluice in the dam. The dam was on the line of New Street. The current profile of Princes Street Gardens was the bed of the loch and gives an idea of its depth. Because the Old Town was built on a steep ridge, it expanded on an east-west axis, eastwards from the castle; expansion northward, as would happen with the later New Town, was extremely difficult at this point. The Nor Loch was thus a hindrance to both invaders and town growth. In the winter of 1571, the Earl of Morton suggested an English army would more easily capture the Castlefrom the north because the Loch would be frozen and there were no town walls on that side. In 1603, King James VI gave the Town Council title to the land, pools and marshes of the loch.
As the Old Town became ever more crowded during the Middle Ages, the Nor Loch became similarly polluted, by sewage, household waste, and general detritus thrown down the hillside. Historians are divided on whether the loch was ever used for drinking water. The Nor Loch fulfilled a variety of other roles during this period including:
Defence: Scotland, and particularly Edinburgh, suffered frequent English invasions during the period of intermittent Anglo-Scottish wars from the 13th to 16th centuries.
Suicides: The Nor Loch was a common spot for suicide attempts.
Crime: The loch appears to have been used as a smuggling route.
Punishment: It is a popularly held myth that the Nor' Loch was the site of 'witch ducking' in Edinburgh. 'Witch ducking' or 'the swimming test' was employed by witchcraft prosecutors in some areas of Europe as a method of identifying whether or not a suspect was guilty of witchcraft. However, according to the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft there is little evidence that 'witch ducking' was utilised as a means of identifying witches in Scottish witchcraft trials.
However, in 1685 the law of Scotland outlawed drowning as a form of execution. Before then many lives were taken. On one day in 1624, eleven women were drowned. Four years later, George Sinclair confessed to committing incest with his two sisters. All three were sentenced to death, but it was said that the clergy commuted the sentence on the younger sister. Sinclair and his older sister were placed in a large chest with holes drilled in it and thrown into the loch to drown. Two centuries later, in 1820, the chest was rediscovered by workmen digging a drain near the Wellhouse Tower of the Castle. James Skene of Rubislaw, who was present at the work in the gardens, reported that the skeleton of a tall man was found between those of two women. Later 19th-century accounts report only two skeletons being found in the chest. In 1685, Margaret Wilson, aged eighteen, and Margaret McLachlan, aged sixty three, were drowned for overheard comments they made about James VII's position on the Church. Draining of the Nor Loch began at the eastern end to allow construction of the North Bridge. Draining of the western end was undertaken 1813 to 1820, under supervision by the engineer James Jardine to enable the creation of Princes Street Gardens. For several decades after draining of the Loch began, townspeople continued to refer to the area as the Nor Loch.
Modern period
Although the Nor Loch was drained during the 19th century, neither its legacy nor its name are entirely forgotten. During the construction of Waverley Station and the railway lines through the area, a number of bones were uncovered. Princes Street Gardens were created in the 1820s and now occupy much of the loch's former extent.
Other lost lochs in Edinburgh
The Nor Loch is not the only "lost loch" in the city. Another example is Gogarloch in the South Gyle area. Like the Nor Loch, this was mostly marshland, rather than a true loch. It was reclaimed for a park, housing and to build the railway to the Forth Bridge. The Meadows, a large open park immediately to the south of the city centre, was once the Burgh Loch, occasionally referred to as the South Loch. Its name is remembered in the street called Boroughloch. Canonmills Loch once stretched from today's Dundas Street to Rodney Street.
