Norrie Rowan


Norman "Norrie" Rowan is a Scottish international rugby union player, from Edinburgh, who played for.
He played for Forrester RFC and later Boroughmuir RFC, and was also nominated for Rugby World's "Unsung Hero" award in 1989 - he was the only Scot to be given an award in that year, after playing in all Five Nations matches that year. He received thirteen caps playing as prop forward for the national team.
Rowan excavated the Edinburgh Vaults, after he found a tunnel leading to them in the 1980s. From this tunnel he helped Romanian rugby player Cristian Raducanu escape the Romanian secret police and seek political asylum weeks before the Romanian uprising of 1989.
Rowan stood for the Scottish Parliament elections in 1999.
He is currently semi retired. As a businessman he has run a number of pubs and bars in Edinburgh, including the Tron Tavern in the Old Town, where it was traditional for the Scotland team to entertain visiting rugby players after international games.
In 2019 he was behind a controversial campaign opposed to the creation of a new homeless centre in Edinburgh city. The campaign distributed posters using the slogan “If you want a junkie for a neighbour vote Labour.”