Musselburgh

Musselburgh (Gaelic: Baile nam Feusgan) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Edinburgh city centre. At the 2001 census, the civil parish, known as Inveresk, had a population of 23,991. The name Musselburgh is Old English in origin with mussel referring to the shellfish, and burgh derived from the Old English for 'town'. Musselburgh was first settled by the Romans in the years following their invasion of Scotland in AD80. They built a fort a little inland from the mouth of the River Esk and bridged the river here. In doing so they established the line of the main eastern approach to Scotland's capital for most of the next two thousand years. The bridge built by...