Abbeyhill, an old suburb of Edinburgh, adjacent to the N side of Holyrood gardens, and on the North British railway at the deflection of the northern branch from the main line, about 1 mile E of the centre of Edinburgh. It consists chiefly of the old street, containing one or two houses which may have been residences of the courtiers of Holyrood: and in 1732 it was the death-place of the first Duchess of Gordon. The railway passes it partly on viaducts and partly on embankments. The new thoroughfare from Holyrood to Regent Road, formed for giving better access to Edinburgh than by the old Canongate route, is spanned by one of the viaducts. A station of the name of Abbeyhill is on the northern branch of the railway, in the northern neighbourhood of the old suburb, adjacent to the new suburb on the line of London Road.

(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)