Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle crowns Castle Rock, a volcanic plug at the top of the Royal Mile in the centre of Edinburgh. It forms part of the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site and is run by Historic Environment Scotland.

People have lived on the rock since at least the Iron Age. A royal castle stood here from the reign of Malcolm III in the eleventh century, and the castle remained a royal residence until 1633. From the fifteenth century its role became mainly military, and it was besieged many times. Restoration work began in the nineteenth century as interest in Scottish heritage grew.

St Margaret's Chapel, from the early twelfth century, is the oldest building in Edinburgh. The Crown Room in the Royal Palace holds the Honours of Scotland, the oldest crown jewels in Britain. The Stone of Destiny, the ancient coronation stone kept here after its return to Scotland in 1996, moved to the new Perth Museum in March 2024. The Great Hall, built for James IV, has an original hammerbeam roof.

Other sights include Mons Meg, a fifteenth-century siege gun, the prisons of war, the Scottish National War Memorial and the National War Museum. The One O'Clock Gun is fired from the battlements every day except Sunday, Good Friday and Christmas Day. In August the esplanade hosts the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

Tickets are timed and are best booked online, as the castle often sells out in summer. Adult tickets cost £23.50 online or £26 on the day, concessions (65 and over) £19 online, and children aged 7 to 15 £11.50 online; the castle opens daily from 9.30 am. Allow two to three hours, and wear comfortable shoes for the steep cobbled slopes.

The castle's position explains its long military story. The summit of Castle Rock stands 130 metres above sea level, with cliffs dropping about 80 metres on the south, west and north sides. Research in 2014 counted 26 sieges in some 1,100 years of history, giving it a claim to be the most besieged place in Great Britain. Water was always the weak point: a 34-metre well often ran dry during droughts and sieges.

The Lang Siege of 1571 to 1573 reshaped the site. Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange held the castle for Mary, Queen of Scots, until English gunners fired about 3,000 shots over 12 days in May 1573 and brought down the south wall of David's Tower, the fourteenth-century keep where the Black Dinner took place in 1440. Regent Morton then built the Half Moon Battery and the Portcullis Gate. A few years earlier, on 19 June 1566, Mary had given birth to the future James VI and I in a small room of the Royal Palace, which visitors can still see.

The castle is still a working military base. It is the regimental headquarters of the Royal Regiment of Scotland and the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, whose museums sit beside the Royal Scots museum. The Argyle Battery looks straight down on Princes Street. With 2,044,963 visitors in 2025 it was the second most visited attraction in Scotland, so morning slots are quieter.