When we think about Edinburgh's bloody past, it's usually in the context of the Old Town - Burke and Hare, the gallows at the Grassmarket, the death of Lord Darnley. But in 1717, the area we now consider the New Town - right by the site where the Balmoral Hotel now stands - a gruesome murder took place.
Robert Irvine was a tutor to two young boys, John and Alexander Gordons. They were the sons of James Gordons, a wealthy merchant, and were both around 10 years old. Although above a regular servant, tutors - much like governesses, as in Jane Eyre - weren’t considered on equal footing with members of the family.
This liminal role often made it difficult to carve out a relationship with the rest of the household staff - although it seems that Irvine didn’t have this problem.
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He was secretly carrying on a relationship with the Gordons’ maid, and when it was discovered all hell broke loose. Servants were not supposed to have private lives, or at least not ones that impinged on the world of the people they served.
The maid was dismissed without references, making her homeless and unable to find another job. Irvine got off much lighter - he was simply told in no uncertain terms that he must never conduct a relationship with anyone in the household again.While it was the maid’s life that was ruined, Irvine was the one who vowed revenge. And he got it in the most horrible way imaginable.
Before the New Town was built and long before the Balmoral Hotel and Cafe Royal sat on opposite sides of Princes Street, the area just north of the gardens was known as Calton. A small village, it also contained a park known as Bearford’s or Barefoot’s Park - the perfect place for a picnic on a sunny day in April when John and Alexander went out with their tutor.
Rather than the urban area we know today, this was a rural and deserted spot - and when Robert Irvine took his penknife out of his pocket, there was no one around to see what he was about to do.
Or so he thought.
It’s believed that the boys tried to run when they realised their teacher’s intentions, but they were young and he easily overpowered them. He cut the eldest boy’s throat first as his younger brother watched and the two children bled to death on the path and fled, believing he had got away with it
Perhaps it was the movement in a usually quiet area, or perhaps Irvine’s penknife glinted in the spring sunshine. Either way, something caught the attention of an onlooker a mile or so away - a man standing at Edinburgh castle with a telescope. He was unable to prevent the tragedy, but he saw enough to identify Irvine and to give his description to the police.
Robert Irvine's confession (Credit: National Library of Scotland)
Irvine was arrested along with his former lover, the maid - but it became rapidly apparent that while he had been planning his bloody revenge, she was unaware of it as was released without charge.
The crime was horrific, and so was the punishment. Before he was hanged, Irvine’s hands were severed with the very penknife he had used to commit the double murder and then strung around his neck on a rope as he was led to the gallows.
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