Publication Account

Date 1981

Event ID 1018050

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018050

There has been some kind of fortress atop the Castle Rock since early times. Queen Margaret, widow of Malcolm III, died here in 1093, while the fortress was under siege, and her body was transported through a pastern gate on the western side to be buried in Dunfermline Church (Shephard, 1969, 49). The structure in which she died was loosely defined in a chronicle as the 'Maidens' Castle (in castrum puellarum) (RCAM, 1951, xxxviii), but as the Norman type castle was not introduced until the twelfth century it is impossible to know exactly to what type of fortress the chronicler was referring. The only remains of the eleventh century Maidens Castle, is the humble chapel of St. Margaret which consists of a nave with a chancel arch and a chancel which has a rounded apse. (MacGi bbon and Ross, 1896, i, 225). The genuine surviving Norman masonry begins below the line of the south windows (MacGibbon, 1896, i, 225). Standing on the extreme summit of the Castle Rock, the chapel has had a chequered history, for in the sixteenth century it was employed as the gunnery storehouse (Richardson and Wood, 1953, 6), and in the late nineteenth century as 'a shop for the sale of nick nacks to tourists' (MacGibbon, 1896, i, 205).

The castle itself had a very chequered career. First mentioned in a c.1127 charter of David I (ESC, 1905, 59), by 1174 an English garrison was stationed by terms of an agreement worked out following William the Lion's capture at Alnwick (Barrow, 1971, 8). The castle was restored to the Scots following William's marriage to the cousin of the English monarch, Henry II (Shepard, 1969, 50). During the early phase of the Wars of Independence, the fortress was held by the English, but was recaptured for Bruce in 1313 who gave orders for its demolition, excepting non-essential buildings. For the next twenty years the castle lay in ruins, but between 1335 .and 1341 when the fortress was once again in English hands, efforts were made to reconstruct it (RCAM, 1951, 2). On release from English captivity in 1346, David II added greatly to the existing structure including the erection of a large keep, known as David's Tower. The castle was almost entirely destroyed during a siege in 1573 and the existing buildings and layout of the fortress date mainly from that period when the Regent Morton had the castle rebuilt.

The main group consists of buildings which surround the palace yard and occupy a high position on the southeast corner of the hill. This area is known as the citadel of the castle. The ruin of David II's keep forms the core of the Half Moon Battery, a fact revealed in 1912 (Richardson, 1953, 1). On the south side of the palace yard is the Great Hall which dates from the early sixteenth century and which has been variously used as a barracks, a hospital and now houses an armour collection (Richardson, 1953, 11, 13). On the north side of the square stands the impressive Scottish National War Memorial which appears to occupy the site of. St. Mary's Church first mentioned in the fourteenth century (CAM, 1951, 18). On the west is a block dating from the mid eighteenth century now adapted as a military museum (RCAM, 1951, 18). The Palace Block, basically a sixteenth-century structure, completes the quadrangle.

Information from ‘Historic Edinburgh, Canongate and Leith: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1981).