19th century to the present
A mass prison break in 1811, in which 49 prisoners of war
escaped via a hole in the south wall, persuaded the authorities that the castle
vaults were no longer suitable as a prison. This use ceased in 1814 and the
castle began gradually to assume a different role as a national monument. In
1818, Sir Walter Scott was given permission to search the castle for the Crown
of Scotland, believed lost after the union of Scotland and England in 1707.
Breaking into a sealed room, now known as the Crown Room, and unlocking a chest
within, he rediscovered the Honours of Scotland, which were then put on public
display with an entry charge of one shilling. In 1822, King George IV made a
visit to Edinburgh, becoming the first reigning monarch to visit the castle
since Charles II in 1651. In 1829, the cannon Mons Meg was returned from the
Tower of London, where it had been taken as part of the process of disarming
Scotland after "the '45",
and the palace began to be opened up to visitors during the 1830s. St
Margaret's Chapel was "rediscovered"
in 1845, having been used as a store for many years. Works in the 1880s, funded
by the Edinburgh publisher William Nelson and carried out by Hippolyte Blanc,
saw the Argyle Tower built over the Portcullis Gate and the Great Hall restored
after years of use as a barracks. A new Gatehouse was built in 1888. During the
19th century, several schemes were put forward for rebuilding the whole castle
as a Scottish baronial style château. Work began in 1858, but was soon
abandoned, and only the hospital building was eventually remodelled in 1897.
Following the death of Prince Albert in 1861, the architect David Bryce put
forward a proposal for a 50-metre (160 ft) keep as a memorial, but Queen Victoria
objected and the scheme was not pursued.
In 1905, responsibility for the castle was transferred from
the War Office to the Office of Works, although the garrison remained until
1923, when the troops moved to Redford Barracks in south-west Edinburgh. The
castle was again used as a prison during the First World War, when "Red Clydesider" David
Kirkwood was confined in the military prison block, and during the Second World
War, when downed German Luftwaffe pilots were captured. The position of
Governor of Edinburgh Castle, vacant since 1876, was revived in 1935 as an
honorary title for the General Officer Commanding in Scotland, the first holder
being Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Cameron of Lochiel. The castle passed
into the care of Historic Scotland when it was established in 1991, and was
designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument in 1993. The buildings and structures
of the castle are further protected by 24 separate listings, including 13 at
category A, the highest level of protection for a historic building in Scotland,
and special care was taken when installing 31 kW solar panels on the roof of
the War Memorial, obscured by its parapet. The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh,
a World Heritage Site inscribed by UNESCO in 1995, is described as "dominated by a medieval
fortress".
Description
Edinburgh Castle is located at the top of the Royal Mile, at
the west end of Edinburgh's Old Town. The volcanic Castle Rock offers a
naturally defended position, with sheer cliffs to north and south, and a steep
ascent from the west. The only easy approach is from the town to the east, and
the castle's defenses are situated accordingly, with a series of gates
protecting the route to the summit of the Castle Rock.
Plan of Edinburgh
Castle
Outer defenses
In front of the castle is a long sloping forecourt known as
the Esplanade. Originally the Spur, a 16th-century hornwork, was located here.
The present Esplanade was laid out as a parade ground in 1753, and extended in
1845. It is upon this Esplanade that the Edinburgh Military Tattoo takes place
annually. From the Esplanade the Half Moon Battery is prominent, with the Royal
Palace to its left.
Main gate from the
Esplanade into the castle (with the gatehouse)
The Gatehouse at the head of the Esplanade was built as an
architecturally cosmetic addition to the castle in 1888. Statues of Robert the
Bruce by Thomas Clapperton and William Wallace by Alexander Carrick were added
in 1929, and the Latin motto Nemo me impune lacessit is inscribed above the
gate. The dry ditch in front of the entrance was completed in its present form
in 1742. Within the Gatehouse are offices, and to the north is the most recent
addition to the castle; the ticket office, completed in 2008 to a design by
Gareth Hoskins Architects. The road, built by James III in 1464 for the
transport of cannon, leads upward and around to the north of the Half Moon
Battery and the Forewall Battery, to the Portcullis Gate. In 1990, an
alternative access was opened by digging a tunnel from the north of the
esplanade to the north-west part of the castle, separating visitor traffic from
service traffic.
Portcullis Gate and
Argyle Tower
The Portcullis Gate
The Portcullis Gate was begun by the Regent Morton after the
Lang Siege of 1571–73 to replace the round Constable's Tower, which was
destroyed in the siege. In 1584 the upper parts of the Gatehouse were completed
by William Schaw, and these were further modified in 1750. In 1886–1887 this
plain building was replaced with a Scots Baronial tower, designed by the
architect Hippolyte Blanc, although the original Portcullis Gate remains below.
The new structure was named the Argyle Tower, from the fact that the 9th Earl
of Argyll had been held here prior to his execution in 1685. Described as "restoration in an extreme form",
the rebuilding of the Argyle Tower was the first in a series of works funded by
the publisher William Nelson.
Just inside the gate is the Argyle Battery overlooking
Princes Street, with Mills Mount Battery, the location of the One O'Clock Gun,
to the west. Below these is the Low Defense, while at the base of the rock is
the ruined Wellhouse Tower, built in 1362 to guard St. Margaret's Well. This
natural spring provided an important secondary source of water for the castle,
the water being lifted up by a crane mounted on a platform known as the Crane
Bastion.
Military buildings
Governor's House
(1742)
The areas to the north and west of the Argyle Tower are
largely occupied by military buildings erected after the castle became a major
garrison in the early 18th century. Adjacent to Mills Mount are the
18th-century cart sheds, now tea rooms. The Governor's House to the south was
built in 1742 as accommodation for the Governor, Storekeeper, and Master Gunner,
and was used until the post of Governor became vacant in the later 19th
century; it was then used by nurses of the castle hospital. Today, it functions
as an officers' mess, and as the office of the Governor since the restoration
of the post in 1936.
The New Barracks
(1799)
South of the Governor's House is the New Barracks, completed
in 1799 to house 600 soldiers, and replacing the outdated accommodation in the
Great Hall. They now house the Regimental Headquarters of the Royal Regiment of
Scotland and the Regimental Headquarters of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
(Carabiniers and Greys) as well as the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Museum. The
latter was opened in 1995 by the regiment's Colonel, Queen Elizabeth II. Also
nearby, in the former Royal Scots drill hall, constructed in 1900, is the
Regimental Museum of the Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment). The military prison
was built in 1842 as a detention block for the castle garrison and was extended
in the 1880s. It was last used in 1923, when the garrison moved to the city's
Redford Barracks.
National War Museum
of Scotland
West of the Governor's House, a store for munitions was
built in 1747–48 and later extended to form a courtyard, in which the main gunpowder
magazine also stood. In 1897 the area was remodelled as a military hospital,
formerly housed in the Great Hall. The building to the south of this courtyard
is now the National War Museum of Scotland, which forms part of the National
Museums of Scotland. It was formerly known as the Scottish United Services Museum
and, prior to this, the Scottish Naval and Military Museum, when it was located
in the Queen Anne Building. It covers Scotland's military history over the past
400 years, and includes a wide range of military artefacts, such as uniforms,
medals and weapons. The exhibits also illustrate the history and causes behind
the many wars in which Scottish soldiers have been involved. Beside the museum
is Butts Battery, named after the archery butts (targets) formerly placed here?
Below it are the Western Defenses, where a postern, named the West Sally Port,
gives access to the western slope of the rock.
Upper Ward
Foog's Gate
The Upper Ward or Citadel occupies the highest part of the
Castle Rock, and is entered via the late 17th-century Foog's Gate. The origin
of this name is unknown, although it was formerly known as the Foggy Gate,
which may relate to the dense sea-fogs, known as haars, which commonly affect
Edinburgh. Adjacent to the gates are the large cisterns built to reduce the
castle's dependency on well water and a former fire station, now used as a
shop. The summit of the rock is occupied by St Margaret's Chapel and
15th-century siege gun Mons Meg. On a ledge below this area is a small
19th-century Dogs ‘Cemetery for the burial of the soldiers’ regimental mascot.
Besides this, the Lang Stair leads down to the Argyle Battery, past a section
of a medieval bastion, and gives access to the upper storey of the Argyle
Tower. The eastern end of the Upper Ward is occupied by the Forewall and Half
Moon Batteries, with Crown Square to the south.
St. Margaret's Chapel
The oldest building in the castle and in Edinburgh is the
small St. Margaret's Chapel. One of the few 12th-century structures surviving
in any Scottish castle, it dates from the reign of King David I (r.1124–1153),
who built it as a private chapel for the royal family and dedicated it to his
mother, Saint Margaret of Scotland, who died in the castle in 1093. It survived
the slighting of 1314, when the castle's defenses were destroyed on the orders
of Robert the Bruce, and was used as a gunpowder store from the 16th century
when the present roof was built. In 1845, it was "discovered" by the antiquary Daniel Wilson, while in use
as part of the larger garrison chapel, and was restored in 1851–1852. The
chapel is still used for religious ceremonies, such as weddings.
Mons Meg
The 15th-century siege gun or bombard known as Mons Meg is
displayed on a terrace in front of St. Margaret's Chapel. It was constructed in
the Flanders on the orders of Philip III, Duke of Burgundy, in 1449, and given
as a gift to King James II, the husband of his niece, in 1457. The 13,000-pound
(5.9 t) gun rests on a reconstructed carriage, the details of which were copied
from an old stone relief that can be seen inside the tunnel of the Gatehouse at
the castle entrance. Some of Meg's large gun stones, weighing around 330 pounds
(150 kg) each, are displayed alongside it. On 3 July 1558, it was fired in
salute to celebrate the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, to the French
dauphin, François II. The royal Treasurer's Accounts of the time record a
payment to soldiers for retrieving one of her stones from Wardie Muir near the
Firth of Forth, fully 2 miles (3 km) from the castle. The gun has been defunct
since its barrel burst while firing a salute to greet the Duke of Albany, the
future King James VII and II, on his arrival in Edinburgh on 30 October 1681.
Half Moon Battery and
David's Tower
The Half Moon Battery, which remains a prominent feature on
the east side of the castle, was built as part of the reconstruction works
supervised by the Regent Morton, and was erected between 1573 and 1588. The
Forewall to the north was built between 1689 and 1695 to link the Half Moon to
the Portcullis Tower, although part of the original wall of 1540 was
incorporated into it. The Half Moon Battery was built around and over the ruins
of David's Tower, two storeys of which survive beneath, with windows facing out
onto the interior wall of the battery. David's Tower was built on an L-plan,
the main block being 51 by 38 feet (16 by 12 m), with a wing measuring 21 by 18
feet (6.4 by 5.5 m) to the west. The entrance was via a pointed-arched doorway
in the inner angle, although in the 16th century this was filled in to make the
tower a solid rectangle. Prior to the Lang Siege, the tower was recorded as
being 59 feet (18 m) high, and the remaining portions stand up to 49 feet (15
m) from the rock.
The tower was rediscovered during routine maintenance work
in 1912, and excavations below the Half Moon Battery revealed the extent of the
surviving buildings. Several rooms are accessible to the public, although the
lower parts are generally closed. Outside the tower, but within the battery, is
a three-storey room, where large portions of the exterior wall of the tower are
still visible, showing shattered masonry caused by the bombardment of 1573.
Beside the tower, a section of the former curtain wall was discovered, with a
gun loop which overlooked High Street: a recess was made in the outer battery
wall to reveal this gun loop. In 1912–1913 the adjacent Fore Well was cleared
and surveyed and was found to be 110 feet (34 m) deep, mostly hewn through the
rock below the castle.
Crown Square
Crown Square, also known as Palace Yard, was laid out in the
15th century, during the reign of King James III, as the principal courtyard of
the castle. The foundations were formed by the construction of a series of
large stone vaults built onto the uneven Castle Rock in the 1430s. These vaults
were used as a state prison until the 19th century, although more important
prisoners were held in the main parts of the castle. The square is formed by
the Royal Palace to the east, the Great Hall to the south, the Queen Anne
Building to the west, and the National War Memorial to the north.
Royal Palace
The Royal Palace comprises the former royal apartments,
which were the residence of the later Stewart Monarchs. It was begun in the mid-15th
century, during the reign of James IV, and it originally communicated with
David's Tower. The building was extensively remodeled for the visit of James VI
to the castle in 1617, when state apartments for the King and Queen were built.
On the ground floor is the Laich (low) Hall, now called the King's Dining Room,
and a small room, known as the Birth Chamber or Mary Room, where James VI was
born to Mary, Queen of Scots, on 19 June 1566. The commemorative painted
ceiling and other decorations were added in 1617. On the first floor is the
vaulted Crown Room, built in 1615 to house the Honors of Scotland: the crown,
the scepter and the sword of state. The Stone of Scone, upon which the monarchs
of Scotland were traditionally crowned, has been kept in the Crown Room since
its return to Scotland in 1996. To the south of the palace is the Register
House, built in the 1540s to accommodate state archives.
Great Hall
The Great Hall measures 29 by 12.5 metres (95 by 41 ft), and
was the chief place of state assembly in the castle, although there is no
evidence that the Parliament of Scotland ever met here, as is sometimes reported.
Historians have disagreed over its dating, although it is usually ascribed to
the reign of King James IV, and is thought to have been completed in the early
years of the 16th century. The decorative carved stone corbels supporting the
roof have Renaissance detailing, which has been compared to works at Blois,
France, of around 1515, indicating that the arts in Scotland were relatively
advanced at this time. It is one of only two medieval halls in Scotland with an
original hammerbeam roof.
Following Oliver Cromwell's seizure of the castle in 1650,
the Great Hall was converted into a barracks for his troops; and in 1737 it was
subdivided into three storeys to house 312 soldiers. Following the construction
of the New Barracks in the 1790s, it became a military hospital until 1897. It
was then restored by Hippolyte Blanc in line with contemporary ideas of
medieval architecture. The Great Hall is still occasionally used for ceremonial
occasions, and has been used as a venue on Hogmanay for BBC Scotland's Hogmanay
Live programme. To the south of the hall is a section of curtain wall from the
14th century with a parapet of later date.
Queen Anne Building
In the 16th century, this area housed the kitchens serving
the adjacent Great Hall, and was later the site of the Royal Gunhouse. The
present building was named after Queen Anne and was built during the attempted
Jacobite invasion by the Old Pretender in 1708. It was designed by Captain
Theodore Dury, military engineer for Scotland, who also designed Dury's
Battery, named in his honor, on the south side of the castle in 1713. The Queen
Anne Building provided accommodation for Staff Officers, but after the
departure of the Army it was remodelled in the 1920s as the Naval and Military Museum,
to complement the newly opened Scottish National War Memorial. The museum later
moved to the former hospital in the western part of the castle, and the
building now houses a function suite and an education centre.
Scottish National War
Memorial
The Scottish National War Memorial occupies a converted
barrack block on the north side of Crown Square. It stands on the site of the
medieval St. Mary's Church which was rebuilt in 1366, and was converted into an
armory in 1540. It was demolished in 1755, and the masonry reused to build a
new North Barrack Block on the site. Proposals for a Scottish National War
Memorial were put forward in 1917, during the First World War, and the
architect Sir Robert Lorimer was appointed in 1919. Construction began in 1923,
and the memorial was formally opened on 14 July 1927 by the Prince of Wales.
The exterior is decorated with gargoyles and sculpture, while the interior
contains monuments to individual regiments. The stained-glass windows are by
Douglas Strachan.
The memorial commemorates Scottish soldiers, and those
serving with Scottish regiments, who died in the two world wars and in more
recent conflicts. Upon the altar within the Shrine, placed upon the highest
point of the Castle Rock, is a sealed casket containing Rolls of Honour which
list over 147,000 names of those soldiers killed in the First World War. After
the Second World War, another 50,000 names were inscribed on Rolls of Honour
held within the Hall, and further names continue to be added there. The
memorial is maintained by a charitable trust.
Present use
Edinburgh Castle is in the ownership of the Scottish
Ministers as heads of the devolved Scottish Government. The castle is run and
administered, for the most part, by Historic Environment Scotland, an executive
agency of the Scottish Government, although the Army remains responsible for
some areas, including the New Barracks block and the military museums. Both
Historic Environment Scotland and the Army share use of the Guardroom
immediately inside the castle entrance.
Tourist attraction
Historic Environment Scotland undertakes the dual tasks of
operating the castle as a commercially viable tourist attraction, while
simultaneously bearing responsibility for conservation of the site. Edinburgh
Castle remains the most popular paid visitor attraction in Scotland, with over
2.2 million visitors in 2019. Historic Environment Scotland maintains a number
of facilities within the castle, including two cafés/restaurants, several
shops, and numerous historical displays. An educational centre in the Queen
Anne Building runs events for schools and educational groups, and employs
re-enactors in costume and with period weaponry.
Military role
Direct administration of the castle by the War Office came
to an end in 1905, and in 1923 the Army formally moved to the city's new
Redford Barracks. Nevertheless, the castle continues to have a strong
connection with the Army, and is one of the few ancient castles in Britain that
still has a military garrison, albeit for largely ceremonial and administrative
purposes. Public duties performed by the garrison include guarding the Honours
of Scotland, and armed sentries stand watch at the Gatehouse outside opening
hours. The post of Governor of Edinburgh Castle is now a ceremonial post. The
New Barracks contain both the Governor's House, which serves as the Officers'
Mess, and the Regimental Headquarters of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The
Army retains responsibility for these and for the Royal Scots Museum and Royal
Scots Dragoon Guards Museum.
Military tattoo
A series of performances known as the Edinburgh Military
Tattoo (since 2010 the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo) takes place on the
Esplanade each year during August. The basis of each performance is a parade of
the massed pipes and drums of the Scottish regiments, and since its inception
in 1950 the tattoo has developed a complex format that includes a variety of
performers invited from around the world, although still with a largely
military focus. The climax of the evening is the lone piper on the castle
battlements, playing a pibroch in memory of dead comrades-in-arms, followed by
massed bands joining in a medley of traditional Scottish tunes. The tattoo
attracts an annual audience of around 217,000 people, and is broadcast in some
30 countries to a television audience estimated at 100 million.
One O'Clock Gun
The One O'Clock Gun is a time signal, fired every day at
precisely one p.m., excepting Sunday, Good Friday and Christmas Day. The 'Time
Gun' was established in 1861 as a time signal for ships in the harbor of Leith
and the Firth of Forth, 2 miles (3 km) away. It complemented the 'Time Ball', which was installed on the
Nelson Monument in 1852, but was useless as a visual signal in foggy weather.
Because sound travels relatively slowly (approximately 343 meters per second
(770 mph)), a map was produced in 1861 to show the actual time when the sound
of the gun would be heard at various locations across Edinburgh.
The original gun was an 18-pound muzzle-loading cannon,
which needed four men to load, and was fired from the Half Moon Battery. This
was replaced in 1913 by a 32-pound breech-loader and in May 1952 by a 25-pound
Howitzer. The present One O'Clock Gun is an L118 Light Gun, brought into service
on 30 November 2001.
On Sunday 2 April 1916, at an unknown time of day, the One
O'Clock Gun was fired in vain at a German Zeppelin during an air raid, the gun's
only known use in war.
The gun is now fired from Mill's Mount Battery, on the north
face of the castle, by the District Gunner from the 105th Regiment Royal
Artillery. Although the gun is no longer required for its original purpose, the
ceremony has become a popular tourist attraction. The longest-serving District
Gunner, Staff Sergeant Thomas McKay MBE, nicknamed "Tam the Gun", fired the One O'Clock Gun from 1979 until
his retirement in January 2005. McKay helped establish the One O'Clock Gun
Association, which opened a small exhibition at Mill's Mount, and published a
book entitled What Time Does Edinburgh's One O'clock Gun Fire? In 2006 Sergeant
Jamie Shannon, nicknamed "Shannon
the Cannon", became the 29th District Gunner, and in 2006 Bombardier
Allison Jones became the first woman to fire the gun.
Symbol of Edinburgh
The castle has become a recognizable symbol of Edinburgh,
and of Scotland. It appears, in stylized form, on the coats of arms of the City
of Edinburgh Council and the University of Edinburgh. It also features on the
badge of No. 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron which was based at RAF Turnhouse
(now Edinburgh Airport) during Second World War. Images of the castle are used
as a logo by organizations including Edinburgh Rugby, the Edinburgh Evening
News, Hibernian F.C. and the Edinburgh Marathon. It also appears on the "Castle series" of Royal Mail
postage stamps, and has been represented on various issues of banknotes issued
by Scottish clearing banks. In the 1960s the castle was illustrated on £5 notes
issued by the National Commercial Bank of Scotland, and since 1987 it has
featured on the reverse of £1 notes issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland. Since
2009 the castle, as part of Edinburgh's World Heritage Site, has appeared on
£10 notes issued by the Clydesdale Bank. The castle is a focal point for annual
fireworks displays which mark Edinburgh's Hogmanay (New Year) celebrations and
the end of the Edinburgh Festival in the summer.
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