Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

A fortress above the capital

Few castles dominate a city the way Edinburgh Castle dominates Scotland's capital. It stands on Castle Rock, the worn-down plug of an ancient volcano, its cliffs falling sheer on three sides high above the streets below. For more than a thousand years this rock has been a fortress, a royal home, a prison and a symbol of the nation. Today it is Scotland's most-visited paid attraction, and each year hundreds of thousands of people climb the long approach to its gates.

The oldest building in the city

People have lived on Castle Rock since at least the Iron Age, but the castle became a true royal stronghold in the twelfth century, in the reign of King David I. From that time survives its oldest building — and the oldest building in all of Edinburgh — the tiny St Margaret's Chapel, built around 1130 in memory of David's mother, the saintly Queen Margaret. It is a simple, beautiful little stone room that has watched over the city for nine hundred years.

A prize in the Wars of Independence

Like Stirling, Edinburgh was bitterly fought over during the Wars of Scottish Independence around the year 1300. The most daring moment came in 1314, when a small band of Scots led by Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, recaptured the castle from an English garrison by climbing the sheer rock face in darkness and taking the defenders completely by surprise. To stop the English using it again, the Scots then knocked down much of its defences — a sign of just how precious, and how dangerous, such a fortress could be.

A royal castle

Edinburgh was a home of kings and queens as well as a fortress. In 1566 Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth here to her son, the future James VI of Scotland and I of England, in a tiny room in the royal palace. The castle is also the guardian of Scotland's greatest treasures: the Honours of Scotland — the crown, sceptre and sword that make up the Scottish crown jewels, the oldest royal regalia in the British Isles — and for many years it was the resting place of the ancient Stone of Destiny, on which Scottish kings were once enthroned.

Cannons and the One O'Clock Gun

The castle is full of military wonders. Near its summit stands Mons Meg, a gigantic medieval cannon made in the 1450s, once able to hurl a stone ball nearly two miles. The Great Hall, built by James IV around 1511, was a place for royal feasts. And every day except Sunday a gun is fired from the ramparts at exactly one o'clock — the famous "One O'Clock Gun," first fired in 1861 so that ships in the harbour below could set their clocks. In later centuries the castle also served as a barracks and as a prison for sailors and soldiers captured in distant wars.

Visiting today

Today Edinburgh Castle is the beating heart of the city. Visitors can see the crown jewels glittering in the Crown Room, peer into the room where a future king was born, gaze down the vast barrel of Mons Meg, and jump at the boom of the One O'Clock Gun. Each summer the great esplanade in front of the gates hosts the spectacular Military Tattoo, with pipers and drummers from around the world. From the ramparts the whole of Edinburgh spreads out below — a city, and a nation, that has gathered around this single mighty rock for a thousand years.