Edinburgh Castle

There is no doubt that the dominant feature in the Edinburgh landscape and primary tourist attraction is the Edinburgh castle. It sits on a volcanic rock and the city is built around it. Being the dedicated tourists that we are, we headed to the castle first thing in the morning. It is quite spectacular.


Parts of it are very old. The oldest parts were built about 1130 and included a chapel to Saint Margaret. That chapel still stands. The altar

and stained glass windows are clearly later additions, but the structure itself is nearly 900 years old. St. Margaret died in 1093 and the chapel was built in her memory by her son David I who was king of Scotland at the time.


The views from walls were spectacular. It is too bad that it was cloudy, but it was still impressive. You can certainly see how it would be a natural site for a fortified castle and would be easy to defend.

In the distance in the picture above you can see the Firth of Forth. Edinburgh is a port city so they had to protect themselves from naval attack as well as land attack. I image this cannon

could shoot its huge (the size of a big pumpkin) cannon balls into the harbor and go after hostile ships.


We saw an exhibit about the Royal Scottish regiments and where they have fought over the centuries. We saw the Honours, essentially the Crown Jewels of Scotland. They date from the mid 1500s. Scotland has not had their own royalty since the 1600s, but the Honours are the oldest surviving set in Europe thanks to a couple of women who hid them from Cromwell's armies. No pictures were allowed so if you want to see them, click the underlined Honours in the second sentence.


The Great Hall is still in use for functions. The most interesting thing about the great hall is the ceiling.

It is made from wooden beams with not metal fasteners. It is essentially an upside down boat hull. It was in fact made by ship builders in the early 1500s so the roof is nearly 500 years old. Here is some detail of the woodwork.

It was amazing. The walls were lined with swords.

The castle area is quite large and has many buildings and some small garden areas. This is a pictures

of a memorial to the Scots who have died in service to their country in war time. It is quite beautiful outside and inside. They have books with the names of the dead available for viewing. I suppose it is the Scottish equivalent of the Vietnam War Memorial for all wars.



It was a good time for lunch so we found a nice cafe near the Great Hall. I decided to try the Scottish national food--Haggis.

They had a starter course version so I decided to give it a shot. The Haggis is on the right. It is essentially a layer of turnips on top of a layer of potatoes on top of a layer of haggis. It didn't taste bad at all, but I'm not going to find a recipe so I can make it at home.

© Charles Eklund 2012