What to See in Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle would be my first recommendation. This wonderful castle is perched on a mighty rock which is an extinct volcano and is very evidently the perfect location for a fortress in the area as far as your eyes will be able to see around it. It is a powerful national symbol and the history of the country is almost completely inextricably linked with it in every era since it was built.

There are however a number of random interesting facts about the building that dominates the backdrop of Edinburgh city which you may not know about. They are the sort of facts you might want to show off with at dinner tables, or to your friends when visiting the city in a group. For example, almost two miles away from where it was fired, the stone expelled from the cannon at the castle to celebrate the marriage of Mary Queen of the Scots to the French Dauphin Francoise in 1558 was discovered. It was found on Wardie Muir where the Royal Botanic Garden is today.

A more recent random fact happened in 1984 when the KGB asked that the ‘lug’ be bricked before Mikhail Gorbachev’s visit to the castle. In the end Gorbachev never made it to the castle. The very morning he was supposed to visit, he received news that his predecessor as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Konstantin Chernenko was on his dying bed.

Another fact is one about King James lV who spent a lot of time at the castle. He used to spy on his subjects in the Great Hall by peering through a tiny barred window – one of the so-called lugs.

In 1830, the bones of a child and bits of cloth and pieces of wood were discovered in a wall in the Royal Palace. The child is rumoured to be the real son of Mary the Queen of Scot, James who it is claimed it is, died at birth and was replaced by one of Erskine, Lord of Mar’s child.

The story is very unlikely to be true however, given Mary the Queen of Scot’s son’s resemblance to his father, Darnley. It is however an old gossip worth indulging in if you end up staying at the Edinburgh Castle Hotel. You will no doubt be visiting the castle if you are. In fact it would be a crime not to if you are staying so close. Any luxury Edinburgh hotel has worth its salt will have some information about the castle and the tours on offer.