Rooins

You walk out of the palace through the ruins of Holyrood Abbey. The palace is on the right, the ruins on the left, just walls and some arches with no roof.

Getting Rood

One day is not enough to see all of Edinburgh, and certainly doesn't touch any of Scotland's surrounding treasures, so this might be a place we return to someday. For today however, our final stop was the royal palace Holyrood.

An Augustin church called Holyrood Abbey was built on these grounds in 1128. The name Holyrood is based on a relic called the Holy Rood, which supposedly was made from a piece of the True Cross Jesus was crucified on. For once this place was not the victim of war or religious persecution, but bad design. In 1760 the architect John Douglas was brought in to replace much of the aging wood structure with stone, however he designed it poorly and in 1768 the roof collapsed. The Abbey was abandoned as unsafe and never rebuilt.

Meanwhile they started building a palace right next to it in 1501. This palace was built upon and updated until 1671 when it became the official royal living quarters, moving out of the castle. It's still used as such today with the Queen spending one week a year at Holyrood during the summer.

You aren't allowed to take any pictures inside but I have to say after you've seen a few of these, they all start to look the same. Still, it was interesting to see.

Hold Music

While we waited for our bus to swing by we got to listen to another piper busk his trade.

Outbound

We had a little lunch and watched the artillery piece be fired at precisely 1pm, something they do every day. No good pictures of it because by the time we got there a huge crowd had gathered and even the best shots we got were mostly of people's heads. The castle was an excellent stop but we'd seen it all and it was time to go.

The Hall Mom Wanted

Up to this point Mom had been a little disappointed at the grand halls of the castles we'd been to because they were all very sparse and functional. Here we finally got the Great Hall she was looking for.

Scottish Gems

This is the Royal Palace in Crown Square at Edinburgh Castle, not to be confused with the royal palace we would be seeing later. It was built around 1450 and was the residence of many Stewart monarchs. Now it holds the Scottish Crown Jewels, the Great Hall, and the Queen Anne Building. We went through the crown jewels first and they were much less gaudy than the British version, but you weren't allowed to take pictures. The Queen Anne Building is reserved for special events so we couldn't go in there.

Eventually another royal palace, known as Holyrood Palace was built in 1671 and is where the royalty to this day now stay.

Pet Cemetery

One surprise in the upper portion of the castle grounds, or the Upper Ward as it is called, was this little cemetery dedicated to soldier's dogs. It was started in 1840 for the beloved companions of officers, and was used all the way up until 1980.