Portobello, watering-place, parl. burgh, and quoad sacra par., partly in South Leith par. but chiefly in Duddingston par., Edinburghshire, on Firth of Forth, 3 miles E. of Edinburgh by rail - quoad sacra par., pop. 4504; parl. burgh, pop. 6794; town, pop. 6926; P.O., T.O., 3 Banks, 1 newspaper. Portobello, according to tradition, took its name from a cottage erected there in 1742 by a sailor, who so named it from his having served at the capture of Porto-Bello in South America under Admiral Vernon; was a small vil. about 1765, when the first brick and tile work was established there, and attracted attention as a watering-place about the beginning of the present century; has fine sands, an esplanade nearly a mile long, and a promenade pier, and has brick-works, potteries, bottle-works, and a papermill. Portobello is one of the Leith Burghs, which return 1 member to Parliament.

(John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887))