First mentioned in the "Registrum Magni Sigilii Regum Scotorum" (1363) as "the street called Newbygging buildings under the castle", the Grassmarket was, from 1477, one of Edinburgh's main market places, a part of which was given over to the sale of horse and cattle (the name apparently deriving from livestock grazing in pens beyond its western end). Alternatively the name could date from before the 16th Century when the area lay outwith the King's Wall. The sale of pigs was not permitted within the town, so the area became known as the Grice Mercat (pig market), with later anglicisation rendering it Grassmarket (In point of fact it was not grassy, its low-lying boggy situation making it the first area in the town to be paved at public expense).