A historic and renowned gunmaker is to close the doors of its flagship store for the final time after more than 200 years.
John Dickson and Son, who counted beloved poet Lord Byron among their customers, have sold bespoke sporting "round action" guns in the Scottish Capital for 211 years.
The business has been operating from a store with a big golden gun hanging above its sign in Edinburgh but shares the spot with outdoor fashion brand Barbour.
The sole gunmaker working in the shop has been employed at the same shop on Frederik Street since 1963.
As well as making the iconic "round action" guns on commission, the shop also carries out repairs and sells other shooting equipment John Dickson and Son will now only operate from its premises in Dunkeld, Perth and Kinross.
The company said: "It is with regret that we announce the closure of John Dickson & Son.
"The business will close at the end of February, ending 211 years of Dickson gunmaking in Edinburgh, 80 of these years at their present location.
"The firm will now operate out of its Dunkeld premises only."
The original John Dickson was an apprentice, aged 12, to gunmaker James Wallace, who operated from premises on the High Street in 1806.
After the completion of his apprenticeship, he set up on his own in 1820, then in 1838 he began building guns and rifles under his own name at 60 Princes Street.
The gunmaker moved to different premises on Princes Street ten years later and then moved to the shop's current location on Frederik Street in 1928.
Donald Dallas, who two years ago wrote a history book about the business and also works in the Frederick Street store, was sad to hear it was closing.
He said: "It is such a famous name - people know of John Dickson guns all over the world.
"It is very well-respected amongst gun makers and everyone is very sad that it is closing."
John Dickson & Son has incorporated a number of well-known Scottish gunmaking businesses over the years, including Thomas Mortimer and Dan'l Fraser.
The firm, which was family run until 1936, was bought by American investor Charles Palmer in 1999, bringing John Dickson & Son under the same ownership as historic rival James MacNaughton, with whom he had a patent dispute in the late 1880s.
Mr MacNaughton disputed claims to the trigger plate action, Mr MacNaughton having patented his in 1876 and Dickson his in 1880, with the courts eventually finding in favour of Mr Dickson.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel