Elegant Edinburgh Castle

The lights on the Castle at dusk

One good thing about coming to Edinburgh at this time of year is that the city is wonderfully absent of tourists.  Now I know how important tourism is to a city such as Edinburgh, but to a traveller such as myself, I am not a big fan of high tourist season.  There are just too many of them and they have a certain way about them that makes me want to stay away.

A different view of the Castle from the back

Good luck in scaling these rocks and getting over the walls

However, here I am, in one of my favourite cities and yes, I have seen the Castle before, but the last time I saw it was back in 2006 and the place was just crawling with people so that I did not really get a chance to enjoy it.  So this time I took my time.

Entrance to the Castle

Since it is 14 pounds to get in, I decided to get the most out of my admission charge and check out every nook and cranny.  I still think the Castle is pretty amazing and its history as well, although I have been told that Leeds Castle near London is better so I will just have to go there too and compare.

Portcullus Gate from 1574 - following the first one.

But I digress.  Back to the Castle.  As it sits right on the top of the rocky protrusion in the middle of the city, you can see why it was chosen as the seat of a great castle.  You don’t need a moat when you have cliffs on all sides.

Through a cannon hole - Arthur's Seat in the distance

The earliest building still standing on the Castle grounds is St. Mary’s Chapel from the 1100’s.  After that most of the building are from the 1500’s.  I believe the great siege in 1546 or thereabouts, laid waste to much of the original castle and thus the oldest dates of the buildings.

In the caves below the gate area where they hid the Crown Jewels during World War II

It is still actively used however.  The army barracks that is.  So I could not look in there.  They were built in the 1700 or 1800’s so are modern compared to other buildings.  Unfortunately visiting at this time of year, there were some areas being blocked off from being able to explore but still, I managed to spend a good 3 hours there.

The Royal Residences - built around 1560's or something - nice that I know the dates eh? Well James was born here in 1566 so obviously built before then

The room James was born in

I was quite impressed by the royal residences that had been built in the 1500’s and were the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scot’s son, James, born in 1566.  So exactly 400 years later I was born.  It is all about me afterall. Actually the royal residence what pretty cool. From the outside it looks like this cold stone building but when you go inside it is bright cheerful and full of colour and decoration.  You could forget you are in a stone castle high upon a rocky hill.

Big ornate fireplaces

I also was quite fascinated by the prisons down deep in the ground.  Some of these cavernous holes have been there since the 1200’s and were built upon after the siege in the 1500’s.  There is the story of the killing of the Black Douglases when they were lured into one of the chambers for a lovely dinner.  Then a bull’s head was brought out on a platter – which is usually not a good sign.  Two Black Douglas men were quickly arrested and charged on some over pumped up charges of treason or something and executed on the spot.  This happened in on of these cavernous chambers in the 1300s.  Needless to say, beware of someone brings in a bull’s head on a platter at a dinner you are attending.

The oldest building on the Castle grounds - St. Mary's Chapel built in the 1100s

The One O’Clock Cannon … wait for it … wait for it!

Anyway, I stayed until the 1 o’clock cannon and headed off back to my Aunt Vi’s to see Aunt Ella and Uncle Andrew who were visiting.  Glad I went to the Castle again.  Now I should be good for at least a decade!

No post is complete without a picture of me!