Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
formidable and the western, where the rock rises in terraces, only marginally less so.
Would-be attackers, like modern tourists, were forced to approach the Castle from the
narrow ridge to the east on which the Royal Mile runs down to Holyrood.
he disparate styles of the fortifications reflect the change in its role from defensive
citadel to national monument, and today, as well as attracting more paying visitors
than anywhere else in the country, the Castle is still a
military barracks
and home to
Scotland's
Crown Jewels
.
1
Brief history
Although Castlehill has been a defensive settlement since the Bronze Age, the oldest
surviving part of the Castle complex is from the twelfth century. Nothing remains
from its period as a seat of the Scottish court in the reign of Malcolm Canmore,
having been lost to (and subsequently recaptured from) the English on several
occasions. he return of King David II from captivity introduced a modicum of
political stability and thereafter it gradually developed into Scotland's premier castle,
with the dual function of fortress and royal palace. It last saw action in 1745, when
Bonnie Prince Charlie's forces, fresh from their victory at Prestonpans, made a
half-hearted attempt to storm it. Subsequent advances in weapon technology
diminished the Castle's importance, but under the influence of the Romantic
movement it came to be seen as a great national monument.
The Esplanade
Castlehill, top end of the Royal Mile • Free
he Castle is entered via the
Esplanade
, a parade ground laid out in the eighteenth
century and enclosed a hundred years later by ornamental walls. For most of the year it
acts as a coach park, though in the summer months huge grandstands are erected for the
Edinburgh Military Tattoo (see p.103), which takes place every night during August,
coinciding with the Edinburgh Festival. A shameless and spectacular pageant of
swinging kilts and massed pipe bands, the tattoo makes full use of its dramatic setting.
Various memorials are dotted around the Esplanade, including an equestrian
statue of
Field Marshal Earl Haig
, the controversial Edinburgh-born commander of the British forces
in World War I, and the pretty Art Nouveau
Witches' Fountain
commemorating the three
hundred or more women burnt at this spot on charges of sorcery, the last of whom died in
1722. Rising up to one side of the Esplanade are the higgledy-piggledy pink-and-white
turrets and high gables of
Ramsay Gardens
, surely some of the most picturesque city-centre
apartment buildings in the world. Most date from the 1890s and are the vision of Patrick
Geddes, a pioneer of the modern town-planning movement.
The lower defences
Edinburgh Castle has a single entrance, a 10ft-wide opening in the
gatehouse
, one of
many Romantic-style additions made in the 1880s. Rearing up behind is the most
distinctive and impressive feature of the Castle's silhouette, the sixteenth-century
Half
Moon Battery
, which marks the outer limit of the actual defences. Once through the
gatehouse, you'll find the main ticket o
ce on your right, with an information centre
alongside. Continue uphill along Lower Ward, showing your ticket at the
Portcullis
Gate
, a handsome Renaissance gateway of the same period as the battery above, marred
by the addition of a nineteenth-century upper storey equipped with anachronistic arrow
slits. Beyond this the wide main path is known as Middle Ward, with the six-gun
Argyle
Battery
to the right. Further west on
Mill's Mount Battery
, a well-known Edinburgh
ritual takes place - the daily firing of the
one o'clock gun
. Originally designed for the
benefit of ships in the Firth of Forth, these days it's an enjoyable ceremony for visitors to
watch and a useful time signal for city-centre o
ce workers. here's an interesting little
exhibition about the history of the firing of the gun in a room immediately below Mill's
Mount Battery.
