MUSSELBURGH, a Scottish burgh of barony and regality, a municipal and parliamentary burgh in the parish of Inveresk and county of Midlothian, 51 miles east of Edinburgh. The burgh, which stretches about a mile along the south shore of the Firth of Forth, is intersected by the river Esk and embraces the village of Fisherrow. In the town is Pinkie House, an ancient baronial residence, formerly a seat of the abbot of Dunfermline, whose monastery held the lands and regality before the Reformation. About a mile to the south-east the battle of Pinkie, so disastrous to the Scottish arms, was fought in 1547. Musselburgh is a place of great antiquity ; one of the two stone bridges over the Esk is said to represent an ancient Roman structure, and remains of Roman work have been found at Inveresk in the immediate vicinity. The town has an important factory for fishing-nets, a paper mill, breweries, and other manufactories, and there is a harbour, chiefly for fishermen, at Fisherrow. Loretto School here has its name from the old chapel of Loretto, founded in 1534 by Thomas Duthy, a hermit from Mount Sinai. The Musselburgh Links, east of the river, are much frequented by golfers, and upon the Links there is a good racecourse. The population of the burgh in 1881 was 7866.