General view from Esplanade

Description General view from Esplanade

Date c. 1880

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 747772

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of ED 2407

Scope and Content Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, from the Esplanade Edinburgh Castle, former fortress, royal residence of the kings of Scotland, military barracks, prison and ancient monument, stands high on a precipitous crag in a commanding and almost impregnable site overlooking the city. The oldest part of the castle dates from the 12th century, and most of the buildings within its walls date from the 16th century onwards. This photograph, taken c.1880 from the Esplanade, is by Erskine Beveridge. The castle is dominated on its east side by the massive semicircular retaining walls of the Half Moon Battery (centre), a great artillery defence built in 1574. Its great bulk is relieved by string-courses, and its parapet has a line of gun openings. Encapsulated within its walls are the remains of David's Tower, part of a substantial forework built by King David II (1329-71). Just visible peeping over the right-hand corner of the parapet, is the oldest part of the castle, the 12th-century chapel of St Margaret. To the left of the Half Moon Battery is the tall, rubble-built palace block, a late 15th- or early 16th-century building that housed the royal apartments. On its east face, the show face to the town, is a line of three 15th-century oriel windows, two corbelled out from the wall face and one on a stem rising from the rock below. In the foreground is the Esplanade, a military parade ground constructed in the 18th century, which forms the main approach to the castle from the east. It was widened in 1816 and given decorative railings and walls. St Margaret's Chapel occupies the highest part of the castle rock. From the early 14th century it was regarded as the chapel in which St Margaret, wife of King Malcolm III (Canmore), had worshipped. Margaret, who was deeply religious, used her influence as queen to bring certain customs of the Scottish church into line with the general discipline of the west. She is also credited with encouraging or imposing a strong infusion of Anglo-Norman manners and institutions into the rather isolated Scotland of the late 11th century. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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