Today we are going to visit Edinburgh Castle. Perched high atop Castle Rock there are few castles, if any, that dominate the skyline of a major European city quite the way that this one does.
Archeology tells us that there has been some form of a stronghold built
on Castle Rock dating back to the 2nd Century and it has been the site
of the Scottish Royal fortification since the early 12th Century.
Most of the castle as we see it today was rebuilt after a horrific bombardment during the 16th Century Lang Siege which destroyed most of the original medieval buildings with the exception of the St. Margaret's Chapel which dates back to the 12th Century.
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| The inner gate and the raised Portcullis. Looking up as you pass under you can see the numerous "Murder Holes" designed to allow rocks, arrows, scalding water, hot sand, quicklime, tar, or boiling oil, to be thrown down on attackers. |
As you walk through the parade grounds towards the castle gates you realize the sheer size of it.
When you're down below looking up at the stone towers and fighting walls you can't get a true perspective of how imposing Edinburgh Castle truly is, but as you cross over the drawbridge high above the dry moat and then walk under the inner gates Portcullis, you start to realize what a feat of courage it would take to assault such a structure.
The cobbled road that leads from the outer gate to the inner gates leads you directly below the upper fighting wall exposing any army that breached the first gate to the defenders above.
Now this wasn't a weekend, and although it was a beautiful sunny day the fact was that it was still late March, not June, and still the castle was packed with tourists. We always try to do a good job of framing our photo's to give the impression that we are all alone when we visit a site, and often times
we are by design, but NOT this time.
This time there were hoards of people and huge groups of children everywhere. Here it wasn't even April yet and already the huge castle grounds seemed close to bursting with humanity. The idea of trying to take in any of these European sites during the summer is unimaginable. We just don't see how you could fight the crowds and have any sort of connection to the places you visited.
Once we got over the shock of just how many people we had to share the castle with (in all actuality I'm completely spoiled and I NEVER get over the shock of having to share) we settled in and just tried to keep as much distance as we could from the groups of 40 sixth graders.
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| Mons Meg |
The 13,000 pound bombard known as "Mons Meg" is on display on the castle
grounds. Next to it are the 330 pound stone shots fired by the cannon.
The gun has been defunct since her barrel burst while firing a salute
to greet the Duke of Albany, the future King James VII, on his arrival
in Edinburgh on October 30th, 1681.
The views of Edinburgh from Castle Rock are amazing. This castle has
almost 360 degree views of the entire region and you couldn't ask for a
better vantage point to look for enemy forces. No wonder it has been
used for just such a purpose all of these many years.
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| Looking down towards the cemetery and the church where we took the pictures from just the day before looking back up at the castle ramparts. |
We went over to check out the Half Moon Battery which protected the more modern cannon emplacements. The battery was constructed in the 16th century and it's distinctly curved wall is a prominent feature of the castle.
From inside the castle looking through the massive gun ports you realize just what a fantastic line of fire the battery had.
As you walk down and peer out through each port you can view a different part of the city far below.
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| Looking down the barrel of this cannon at the Grassmarket Square, we could fire upon our "Wee Palace" vacation rental far below. It's the top floor apartment of the building with the red door. |
We walked a steepening cobbled road which led us to one of the the barracks buildings and a small informative museum with information on Scotland's Royal Dragoons Military past.
We ducked inside not only to have a look at the exhibits but also to dodge one extremely obnoxious group of teenagers that were part of a school tour. These groups are by far the WORST! Loud, pushy, uninterested packs of sixteen year old children all trying to talk over each other except for when they're blocking your path as they stare at their smart phones or pose for cheesy selfies. These groups should be OUTLAWED! Anyway, I regress...
The little museum was actually pretty informative, and to top it off it had some excellent dummies in period garb that our nephew would have very much enjoyed.
Having successfully dodged the group of braying teens we exited the museum and headed up a cobbled road which wound through another fighting gate up towards the Castles Citadel and St. Margaret's Chapel.
It really cool to see how the stone buildings rise right out of rock which made up Castle Rock. It's all very organic looking and the use of the original stone as part of the overall structure is quite remarkable.
As we passed through the gateway arch we came out at an even higher set of fighting walls and gun ports with even more amazing views of Edinburgh and the surrounding countryside. You could have seen opposing army's coming for miles in any direction from this vantage point.
The oldest surviving buildings on the castle grounds is St. Margaret's Chapel. Built in the early 12th Century and dating to the reign of King David I the tiny chapel is built on a high rock outcropping.
After peeking inside the small white washed chapel we walked along the upper ramparts and spied a most unusual site hidden on a small ledge below the wall. It was a pet cemetery where the remains of the beloved regiment animal mascots were interred.
This special little observance to animals in such a cold and foreboding place gave a fresh insight into the military men who walked these walls. It really helped to humanize the soldiers of the past.
We walked through another arched gateway and entered Crown Square which houses the former Royal Palace which housed the royal apartments and the Great Hall.
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| The Crown Square as it really on the day of our visit with the large crowds of tourists |
The square was packed but as always we manipulated our photos in such a way as to make it seem that we had the place all to ourselves. No small feat on a gorgeous day at Edinburgh's number one tourist destination.
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| This is a picture we took cropping out the crowds and making our visit seem much more intimate |
We entered the Royal Palace and went down into the Royal Apartments and then toured the Grand Hall with it's fantastic collection of medieval armament.
The royal living quarters looked much the same as they did in the 16th century.
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| The small room, known as the Birth Chamber or "Mary's Room", where James VI was born to Mary, Queen of Scots, in June 1566 |
One photo inside the Royal Hall helps to give you a glimpse as to the crush of humanity inside at the time of our visit and you can see in some of the others how we have cropped out the unpleasing elements of humanity to make it seem as if we had the hall all to ourselves.
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| With people |
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| Without people, see the difference? |
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| A view of the amazing oak rafters high above the Grand Hall |
We exited out onto the Crown Square and took in a little of the detail that they built into these incredible structures.
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| A thistle finial on a random fence post. |
We are always blown away with the amount of imagination and craftsmanship that were put into what into today's world be classified as frivolous decoration, but in truth are exactly the things that set old world construction apart from the humdrum unimaginative crap that we build today.
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| A pretty classic gutter spout. You don't really see these on buildings these days. |
All of these fantastic architectural details were present in this one small square at the upper reaches of a castle in Scotland. The amount of forgotten works of art hanging off random buildings in Europe is truly one of our favorite things to take in when we travel here.
After leaving Crown Square we retraced our steps through the high gate and down the cobbled road to where the castle prisoners were held.
During the 18th and 19th Century Edinburgh Castle held a great deal
of military prisoners taken during the Seven Year War, America's War of
independence and the Napoleonic Wars.
Many of the castle's prisoners were held for years before being returned to their country of origin. During that time several of the men held here worked on some really extraordinary pieces of prison art.
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| Ship made from bits and pieces from around the prison by some inmates. |
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After touring the older prison barracks we walked across to the more modern prison facilities.
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| Once again somewhat life like dummies were used in the displays. |
We
walked down to the larger Scottish Military Museum housed in one of the
buildings below the citadel. It told the story of Scotland's Military
from past to present and was highlighted by some great displays of
historical military regalia.
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| Germany surrenders on my (David's) Birthday in 1945 |
The museum also had some very detailed and lifelike paintings depicting Scottish conflicts.
We exited the museum to bright blue skies and sunny weather and before leaving the castle we took in one last view of the city from high upon the parapets.
After touring the older prison barracks we walked across to the more modern prison facilities.
