The castle is currently closed due to Storm Erik.

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Top 10 Highlights

3 June 2014

Are you coming to see us over the next couple of months? There really is a lot to fit in to a visit; 3000 years of history to be precise. Get the most out of your trip to our mighty fortress, with our top 10 highlights.

Guided tour of Edinburgh Castle

The Crown Room and Royal Palace

Visitors in the Great Hall

Deep beneath the Great Hall and Queen Anne Building are two tiers of cavernous stone vaults used as food stores, military supplies, soldiers’ barracks, a bakery and military prison. One of the earliest ‘Stars and Stripes’ is carved into a prison door and is visible to this day.

In 1457 Mons Meg arrived in Edinburgh, a gift to James II from his wife’s uncle, Duke Philip of Burgundy. It is now one of Europe’s oldest siege guns and in its prime fired stones weighing 150kg over 2 miles. After the 1745 Jacobite rising she was sent to the Tower of London until Sir Walter Scott secured her return in 1829.

Edinburgh's one o'clock gun has been fired almost every day since 1861. The present gun is a 105mm field gun, installed in 2001.

The Scottish National War Memorial

National War Museum of Scotland

Views of Edinburgh from the castle