May 13, 2022 - Day 44 - The castle in Edinburgh

Not wanting to eat breakfast in the hotel again we went in search of something else. We ended up at a Costa Coffee, the British coffee chain, and had breakfast sandwiches and real coffee. We then bought our tickets to Edinburgh castle on-line and walked about four - five blocks, all uphill, to get in line and wait for the castle to open.

The view from the wall before you enter the castle.

"Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age, although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. There has been a royal castle on the rock since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and the site continued to be a royal residence until 1633. From the 15th century, the castle's residential role declined, and by the 17th century it was principally used as military barracks with a large garrison. Its importance as a part of Scotland's national heritage was recognised increasingly from the early 19th century onwards, and various restoration programmes have been carried out over the past century and a half. " Wikipedia

You can see this castle for miles around, it's huge and it's on a huge rock. There were lots of pictures of the place from my previous post when we were on the bus, it would be a pretty hard place to miss if you're in the city.

Here I am, listening to the audio guide. I got it mainly to cover my ears, it's cold and windy.

Cannon balls with a stranger's legs for scale.

My favorite part of the castle was St. Margaret's Chapel, the oldest building. The castle was invaded and sacked many times but the chapel was left alone.
 

Founding of the chapel

It was originally thought that St Margaret herself worshipped in this small chapel, but the style of the architecture indicates that it was built during the reign of David I, her fourth son, who ruled from 1124–1153.^[3] The chapel formed part of a larger building, located to the north, which contained the castle's royal lodgings.^[4]

On the night of 14 March 1314 the castle was captured by Robert the Bruce. He destroyed all the buildings in the castle, except for the little chapel. On his death bed in 1329, Bruce spoke of the story of Queen Margaret and issued orders for the chapel's repair, with some forty pounds Scots being put aside for that purpose. For many years afterwards the building was known as the "Royal Chapel in the Castle". There is a fairly frequent record of services held in the chapel, though another and larger chapel was also in use within the castle.

It's not a large space at all.

Disuse and restoration

The chapel fell into disuse at the Protestant Reformation, and was used as a gunpowder store from the 16th century. By 1845 the chapel formed a store room at the western end of the 18th century garrison chapel, when the antiquarian Sir Daniel Wilson realised the significance of the chapel and publicised the building. The garrison chapel was demolished and St Margaret's Chapel restored in 1851–1852 with the support of Queen Victoria. The barrel-vault over the nave was added at this time, in keeping with the architectural style of the earlier fabric.^[2] The architect Hippolyte Blanc proposed an enlargement later in the 19th century, but this was rejected.^[2] The stained glass was installed in 1922. In 1929 further work was carried out to bring the chapel back into use, and the restored and refurnished chapel was dedicated on 16 March 1934. 

 Other areas of the castle:

This is a dog cemetery.

The King James bible.

And now for some cellars where a horrible murder was committed. Known as "The Black Dinner" and said to have inspired "The Red Wedding" in Game of Thrones.

"In AD 1440, Crichton, Livingston, and James Douglas conspired to break the power of the late Archibald Douglas’s family and invited the 16-year-old William Douglas, 6th Earl of Douglas, and his younger brother to dine with the boy king at Edinburgh Castle.

According to legend, whilst they ate, a black bulls head was placed before William and his entourage which symbolised death. The two brothers were then dragged out to Castle Hill and given a mock trial with trumped-up charges, claiming they had protested against the king and were named as traitors to the crown and beheaded. In another account, the king pleaded for their lives, but the pleas were ignored, and they were beheaded in the castle yard."

Next up is the dungeons:

"Pirates and prisoners of war were once held in the vaults below Crown Square. In the 1700s and 1800s hundreds of prisoners of war were held in these dark, cramped spaces. Today, a recreation of the vaults as they would have looked around 1800 offers a glimpse into the grim way of life.

The first prisoners were French privateers caught in 1758, soon after the Seven Years’ War began. The youngest held was a five-year-old drummer boy captured at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Prisoners of war came from France, America, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Denmark and Poland. Most were sailors, many of them Americans fighting in the War of Independence. An early depiction of the ‘Stars and Stripes’ flag is scratched into a door. Many tried to escape. In 1811, 49 prisoners escaped through a hole in the defences that is still visible today. All but one made it safely down Castle Rock, but were recaptured.

Caribbean pirates were held in the vaults before they became a prison of war. In 1720, 21 members of Black Bart’s crew were captured off Argyll. They had come to Scotland to retire. Instead, most were hanged."

 

 

There is a lot more to see and we took many pictures but I can't post them all here. After we left the castle we had lunch at a place called The World's End Pub.

Then we went to the National Museum of Scotland where we saw the Millennium Clock do it's think on the hour.

We went up to the top floor to check out the views and the herb garden.

Back inside to look at more stuff.

The picture below shows the lantern from a lighthouse

We walked to Baba's for dinner which was pretty good except for the roasted Turkish peppers.

Hummus with crispy shwarma, pine nuts, and raisins, pita bread is served on the side.

Tasty marinated olives.

The Rosita cocktail, we liked them so much we had two each.

The infamous roasted Turkish peppers in a white cheese sauce. Don got a mild pepper but I only ate part of one because it was hot enough to actually hurt my mouth and throat! Then Don's second pepper was also hot enough to bring tears to his eyes. I complained to the server and her answer was "sometimes they're like that and sometimes they're okay". There should be some kind of warning on the menu or they shouldn't be served at all if they can't know if they're going to be mild or atomic.

Sweet potato with saffron cream. Very good.