---
node: edinburgh_castle
type: art
slug: edinburgh_castle
title: "Edinburgh Castle"
lead: "Edinburgh Castle crowns the volcanic Castle Rock above Scotland's capital, with buildings ranging from St Margaret's Chapel of about 1130 to the great defences rebuilt into the 18th century. Fortress, royal residence and prison in turn, it is said to be among the most besieged places in Britain."
published: 2026-07-12
updated: 2026-07-12
image_file: edinburgh_castle.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edinburgh_Castle_from_Princes_Street_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3188294.jpg"
image_author: "kim traynor"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 2.0"
---

## Overview

Edinburgh Castle rises on a plug of volcanic rock that has been fortified since the Iron Age and served as a royal castle of the Scottish kings from the 12th century. Its oldest surviving building, St Margaret's Chapel, was raised around 1130 by David I in memory of his mother; the defences around it were remade again and again down to the batteries of the 18th century.

## Description

The castle is a layered ensemble climbing the rock: the Great Hall completed under James IV in 1511 with its hammerbeam roof, the Royal Palace where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to James VI in 1566, the Half Moon Battery thrown up after the siege of 1573, and the vaults that held prisoners of war in the 18th and 19th centuries. It houses the Honours of Scotland — the oldest crown jewels in Britain — and the Stone of Destiny, returned to Scotland in 1996, while the huge medieval gun Mons Meg and the One O'Clock Gun mark its artillery tradition.

## History and legacy

Captured and recaptured through the Wars of Scottish Independence — most famously by Thomas Randolph's night climb in 1314 — and last besieged in the Jacobite rising of 1745, the castle passed from royal residence to garrison and prison. It remains an active army headquarters alongside its role as Scotland's most visited monument, the stage of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and the keeper of the nation's regalia.