Old Town - Edinburgh - page 52

of the chapel and you'll see a charming little garden that was used as a pet cemetery for
officers' dogs.
Great Hall
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.
Prisons of War Exhibition
The Castle Vaults beneath the Great Hall (entered on the west side of Crown Sq) were
used variously as storerooms, bakeries and prisons. The vaults have been restored to how
they were in the 18th and early 19th centuries, when they were used as a prison for sol-
diers captured during the American War of Independence and the Napoleonic Wars. Ori-
ginal graffiti carved by French and American prisoners can be seen on the ancient wooden
doors.