Our visit to Edinburgh Castle was a part of our Northern Europe tour in 2024-2025, and was the second castle that we visited (after Windsor Castle). The Castle can be found at the top end of The Royal Mile, on top of an extinct volcano.
Tickets to The Castle need to be bought online for £22 each before you get to the gate. The large car park area in front of the castle is the esplanade where they have the annual Tattoo. We then entered the castle and started the steep climb up the cobbled street to the first cannon area of the Argyle Battery. This position offers amazing views to the North, where you can look over the cannons to “New Town” Edinburgh, first constructed around 250 years ago.
Touring the castle
We then walked around to the Scottish National War Museum, where we saw the history of the Scottish military, and looked out on the Westerly view of Haymarket and the West End with their magnificent Georgian architecture.
We hiked up to the very top of the castle, through Foog’s Gare to see the ancient St Margaret’s Chapel. This Chapel is the oldest building in the castle, and sits on the highest part of the mount. Just outside this ancient chapel is Mons Meg, that contains the huge siege cannon of the same name. There is a small patch of grass in a very inaccessible part of the walls, set aside as a cemetery for the soldier’s dogs who dies whilst supporting the soldiers of the castle.
After a quick detour under the Half Moon Battery to see the older caverns and tunnels, we found ourselves in Crown Square. This is surrounded by magnificent buildings, including the Royal Palace with the magnificent royal rooms and enormous fireplaces.
Crown Square
To the South of the Crown Square, the Great Hall had a grand display of weapons around the cavernous room. In the Queen Anne Building, we were able to see the Scottish Crown Jewels, which we were not permitted to take photos of (photo below).
The castle has a free-roam approach where you are not constricted to a particular path. We looked through three different museums and then a further five historical displays.
The castle has a variety of buildings and rooms that are either set up to recognise a regiment or time period, or to reflect how the castle was used by the inhabitants. We were able to explore everything from opulent royal chambers, to the deep bowels of the castle caverns.
To the North of Crown Square, the Scottish National War Memorial, with its two large lion guards, looked old from the outside, but modern on the inside. In here, there are books that contain the military records of every Scotsman who has died in service of their country or kingdom.
Before leaving the castle, we visited the Military Prison, tucked below other buildings, with vaults that were used to contain prisoners, as recently as the second World War
We visited the New Barracks to see a display of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, and their proud history from the last few hundred years, up to and including what they do now.
