Tweeddale Court is a narrow, historic close off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh’s Old Town, running south from the High Street between John Knox House and the Scottish Storytelling Centre.  It's a quiet residential lane with a rich collection of architectural and social history.
The core building at the back of the court, Tweeddale House, was first recorded in 1576 and was originally built for Neil Lang, Keeper of the Signet, one of Scotland’s senior legal officers.
In the 1670s it passed to John, 1st Marquess of Tweeddale, who enlarged and embellished it, giving the close its present name and once laying out an avenue of lime trees leading down to the Cowgate.
The lane preserves a fragment of the 15th‑century King’s Wall (Edinburgh’s earliest defensive circuit), visible as a pointed‑top stone wall along one side with rifle‑rest indentations.
There is a small Georgian “sedan‑chair house” (often called a sedan chair shed) to the left, sheltering the sedan‑chair service that once operated in the narrow closes when wheeled vehicles could not.
 
Interesting facts....
unsolved murder. The 1806 murder of bank‑messenger William Begbie (then Bank Close) is one of Edinburgh’s most notorious unsolved crimes, with the only suspect found dead in his cell before trial. Most of the stolen bank‑notes were later discovered hidden behind the wall of an Old‑Town building in the New Town, rather than on the street, suggesting prior planning or an insider connection.