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.
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