 No record of David I's gift of the burgh muir has survived, many of the burgh records having been lost during the Wars of Independence and when the Earl of Hertford sacked the city in 1544.It is possible that it was given at the same time as the founding of Holyrood Abbey in the 12th century, the abbey charter (c.1143) containing the first mention of Edinburgh as a royal burgh.Three areas of the muir were exempted from the city's jurisdiction, due to having been previously granted under separate Royal Charters