Opening times: 1 April to 30 September, 9.30am – 6.00pm; 1 October to 31 March, 9.30am – 5.00pm; EXCEPT 25 & 26 December, closed; 1 January 11.00am – 5.00pm
Entry: Adults £19.50, concession £15.50, child (7 – 15) £11.40, under 7s free, members free.
Access: City parking, charge applies.
I started this series of posts from Edinburgh at the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the bottom of the Royal Mile, so it is only appropriate to conclude it at Edinburgh Castle at the top. As with the other Royal Mile sites there is no brown sign for the castle, so I am taking it as being one of the attractions referred to in the many ‘City Centre & Attractions’ brown signs on the ring road. Not that the castle needs any signage as it sits upon Castle Rock, a volcanic plug in the heart of the Old Town and the highest point on the city bar Arthur’s Seat. It is impossible to miss.
Edinburgh castle, on an earlier visit to the capital. The sky had absolutely no intention of being this blue on the day I went to write up this entry.
Castle Rock was settled by humans in the Iron Age, long before there was an actual castle. That only came along in the 11th century, during the reign of Malcolm III (1058 – 1093), although possible predecessors crop up in the works of Ptolemy (2nd century CE), the epic Welsh poem Y Gododdin (7th century) and Geoffrey de Monmouth (12th century).
Nothing remains of the 11th century castle, which was slighted on the orders of Robert the Bruce to prevent it falling into English hands. Following the 1357 Treaty of Berwick, Bruce’s son David II commenced rebuilding the castle, an undertaking completed after his death by his son Robert II. However, Edinburgh has the unenviable distinction of being the most besieged castle in Britain, being attacked a total of 26 times throughout its history, so most of what we see today was built after the Long Siege of 1571 – 1573, when the castle was held by supporters of the dethroned Mary Queen of Scots against those of the Earl of Lennox, acting as regent of Scotland on behalf of the infant James VI.
Grey skies and umbrellas. The Castle Esplanade on the day I visited to research this piece.
The castle had ceased to be a royal residence by this time, the monarchy favouring the altogether cosier Palace of Holyroodhouse built during the reign of James V (1513 – 1542), but it continued to serve as the backdrop to any number of dramas. Some examples: • The castle is captured in 1633 by Covenanters during the civil war prompted by Charles I’s attempts to impose English Episcopacy on Scottish Presbyterian. • In 1650, Oliver Cromwell besieged the castle, enraged that Scottish Covenanters had signed a treaty with the exiled Charles II; the castle if transformed into a full-time military garrison following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. • It saw its last military action in 1745, when the Jacobite army of ‘Bonnie Prince’ Charlie took Edinburgh but failed to capture the castle, thwarted by its redoubtable 85-year-old commander George Preston.
The main entrance to the castle is guarded by statues of Scotland’s two greatest heroes, Robert the Bruce (left) and Sir William Wallace (right)
The statues are a relatively recent addition to the castle, being unveiled in May 1929. They were sculpted by Alexander Carrick, who was head of sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art.
In 1818, Sir Walter Scott found the Crown of Scotland, believed lost since the 1707 union between Scotland and England, in a sealed room that now acts as the Crown Room. It and the other ‘Honours of Scotland’, the sceptre and sword of state, were created during the reigns of James IV and James V and were first used collectively for the coronation of the eight-month-old Mary Queen of Scots in 1543. They remain on display in the Crown Room today, although there are no pictures of them here as photography is forbidden.
Today, the castle is in the care of Historic Environment Scotland and is Scotland’s most visited tourist attraction. According to the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, 1,981,152 people visited the castle in 2024, down slightly from its pre-Covid numbers but up half a million from a decade ago. Despite it being a cold, overcast day today, the castle is certainly busy today, hopefully a sign those visitor numbers will be maintained.
Let’s have a look.
The Portcullis Gate was built following the Long Siege of 1574 – 1577.
The firing of the One-O’Clock Gun, a tradition dating from 1861,was originally to allow ships in the Forth to set their maritime clocks. It is still fired everydayexcept Sundays, Christmas, and Good Friday as a tourist crowd-pleaser. The vaults below Crown Square were used to house pirates and prisoners of war in the 1700s and 1800s, and now contain a recreation of how it looked circa 1800. Incredibly, the youngest prisoner was a five-year-old drummer boy captured at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. St, Margaret’s Chapel is the oldest surviving part of the castle and the oldest building in Edinburgh. It was built around 1130 by David I, who named it for his mother Queen Margaret, who died in the castle in 1093 and was canonised in 1250 by Pope Innocent IV. Its role as a chapel ended when the castle stopped being used as a royal residence and it was used as a storeroom for gunpowder from the 16th century. Its original purpose was ‘rediscovered’ by the Scottish antiquary Daniel Wilson, the man who introduced the word ‘prehistoric’ into the English vocabulary. The chapel was restored in 1851 – 1852 and can be used for weddings and other religious ceremonies today. The mediaeval cannon Mons Meg, one of the largest in the world, was a gift from the Duke of Burgundy to James II in 1454. It was used in sieges over the next two centuries, and was fired to mark the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to the Dauphin of France on 3 July 1558. The castle affords some magnificent views over the city and beyond. Princes Street and Princes Street Gardens are in the middle distance, and the spire on the right is the Scott Monument. Beyond lies the Forth River with Inchkeith Island clearly visible. The grassy area in the foreground is a cemetery for soldiers’dogs. Another view, looking east over the Esplanade and on to Arthur’s Seat. The crown of St. Giles’ Cathedral can be seen on the extreme left, and just right of that is distinctive white and black upper section of Outlook Tower, home of the Camera Obscura. The prominent spire next to Outlook Tower is the Hub, which, as its appearance would suggest, was once a church, and before that a meeting hall for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. It is now the home of the Edinburgh International Festival, serving as a ticket office, performance space, and information point. When they captured Edinburgh Castle in 1650 Oliver Cromwell’s men turned this room into a barracks, which will come as no surprise to regular readers of this site, who will recognise this as par for the course for Oliver’s Army. It later served as a military hospital, but now the Great Hall has been restored to its mediaeval splendour. Crown Square at the heart of the castle, with the Scottish National War Memorial on the left and the Royal Palace and Honours of Scotland on the right. According to tradition, this is the room where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James IV and it can only viewed from the doorway and by using the mirrors on the floor. While reading an article in the spring 2025 issue of Historic Scotland magazine I came across this sentence: “At one point during Mary Queen of Scots’ protracted labour, a spell was cast to pass her pains onto one of her attendants, but without success”. What I find remarkable is (a) how casually it conveys an acceptance of witchcraft, (b), how different Mary clearly was from the son she was trying to deliver, under whom Scottish ‘witches’ would suffer their most severe persecution, and (c), who’d want to be an attendant? View of the castle from the Grassmarket. The castle is used as a venue for open air concerts. The Royal Military Tattoo has been performed on the Esplanade since 1950, and more recently pop and rock concerts have become a regular thing during the summer months. The picture shows American art-rockers the National, who played the castle 7 July 2024.
Destination or Diversion?
I suggest allowing 2 – 3 hours to do Edinburgh Castle justice, and that’s without stopping at any of its eating areas or gift shops. It is, therefore, a destination, and one worth savouring.
I mentioned earlier that Edinburgh Castle was the most besieged castle in Britain, enduring 26 sustained attacks during its lifetime. So I am going to end this article with this picture, which is not of the castle but of the last buildingon your right as you approach the Esplanade from Castlehill. This is known as Cannonball House, and if you look to the right between the two windows you can see a cannonball lodged in the wall. This is a souvenir from the last siege of Edinburgh Castle, when the Jacobites made their failed attempt to take the castle in 1745, and the cannonball above was just one of many lobbed their way by the defending forces.
