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Publication Account
Date 1951
Event ID 1097866
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1097866
78. “Palace of Mary of Guise”, Castle Hill.
Among the notable buildings that stood on Castle Hill may be mentioned the house traditionally associated with the Queen Regent. According to Drummond (1) the house stood on the N. side of the street behind a fore-land on the W. side of Blyth's Close, but returned E. so that its N. windows commanded an extensive view of the Forth. It may also have extended along the E. side of the Close in awing abutting on the back wall of Somerville's Land ([RCAHMS 1951] p. lxx), as indicated on the map issued with volume xi of The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club. Drummond records that “the entrance from the Close was by a spiral stair, to an indifferently lit lobby, leading to a series of what had been large and lofty apartments, well-lighted, and having beautifully designed ceilings…Remains also existed of stone mantel pieces and elaborately carved niches; some of the apartments had plain and ornate oak linings and doors, others were provided with fixings for tapestry. There were also two halls with wagon-shaped timber roofs…” The house was demolished in 1861 to make way for the Free Church General Assembly Hall; one of its doors and portions of a painted ceiling are preserved in the National Museum (K L 38 and K L 45-47), and panels from another door (2) are preserved at Darnick Tower, near Melrose [NT53SW 14].
RCAHMS 1951
(1) Old Edinburgh, Pl. I. (2) Illustrated in the Transactions of the Hawick Archaeological Society, 1928, opp. p. 27.
