Discover Edinburgh - Discover Scotland: Experience the Best of Scotland - page 156

from then until the 1920s it served as the British army's main base in Scotland. Today it is
one of Scotland's most atmospheric, most popular - and most expensive - tourist attrac-
tions.
The Entrance Gateway , flanked by statues of Robert the Bruce and William Wallace,
opens to a cobbled lane that leads up beneath the 16th-century Portcullis Gate to the can-
nons ranged along the Argyle and Mills Mount batteries. The battlements here have great
views over New Town to the Firth of Forth.
At the far end of Mills Mount Battery is the famous One O'Clock Gun , where crowds
gather to watch a gleaming WWII 25-pounder fire an ear-splitting time signal at exactly
1pm (every day except Sundays, Christmas Day and Good Friday).
South of Mills Mount, the road curls up leftwards through Foog's Gate to the highest
part of Castle Rock, crowned by the tiny, Romanesque St Margaret's Chapel , the oldest
surviving building in Edinburgh. It was probably built by David I or Alexander I in
memory of their mother, Queen Margaret, sometime around 1130 (she was canonised in
1250). Beside the chapel stands Mons Meg , a giant 15th-century siege gun built at Mons
(in what is now Belgium) in 1449.
The main group of buildings on the summit of Castle Rock are ranged around Crown
Sq, dominated by the shrine of the Scottish National War Memorial . Opposite is the
Great Hall , built for James IV (r 1488-1513) as a ceremonial hall and used as a meeting
place for the Scottish parliament until 1639. Its most remarkable feature is the original,
16th-century hammer-beam roof.
The Castle Vaults beneath the Great Hall (entered from Crown Sq via the Prisons of
War exhibit) were used variously as storerooms, bakeries and a prison. The vaults have
been renovated to resemble 18th- and early 19th-century prisons , where graffiti carved
by French and American prisoners can be seen on the ancient wooden doors.
On the eastern side of the square is the Royal Palace , built during the 15th and 16th
centuries, where a series of historical tableaux leads to the highlight of the castle - a stron-
groom housing the Honours of Scotland (the Scottish crown jewels), the oldest surviving
crown jewels in Europe. Locked away in a chest following the Act of Union in 1707, the
crown (made in 1540 from the gold of Robert the Bruce's 14th-century coronet), sword
and sceptre lay forgotten until they were unearthed at the instigation of the novelist Sir
Walter Scott in 1818. Also on display here is the Stone of Destiny .
Among the neighbouring Royal Apartments is the bedchamber where Mary, Queen of
Scots gave birth to her son James VI, who was to unite the crowns of Scotland and Eng-
land in 1603.