The Edinburgh Castle and Palace of Holyroodhouse bookend the Royal Mile in Old Town. No visit to Edinburgh, a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, is complete without a visit to both.
The Edinburgh Castle dates to the 12th century, and was used as a residential palace until the early 17th century. Thereafter it was primarily used by the military until its conversion to a monument.
Tickets to the castle, £18 each, are sold only online for a specific thirty minute entry window. After huffing and puffing up the hill to the castle, we arrived right on time for our 10:00 AM entry. Skipping the audio guide we grabbed a souvenir guide book instead.
The places to see within the castle complex are well marked. We started at the entry and worked our way up to Crown Square. The Argyle Battery overlooks Princes Street Gardens and offers the best view over New Town. From there we went to Hospital Square and the National War Museum, which is a pretty interesting look at Scotland at war over the centuries.
A walk past the Governor’s House leads to the Museum of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and Regimental Museum. A small museum focused on the regiment based in the castle, it is worth a quick walk through.
Drury’s Battery overlooks Edinburgh to the south and leads to the Prisons of War exhibition, the exit of which is at Crown Square at the top of the castle complex. It was about 11:30 AM when we arrived at Crown Square. Unfortunately by then the tour guides had caught up to us. For the first time in the castle we were dodging tour groups.
In booking our tickets to the castle we violated a cardinal rule. Either go first thing in the morning or at the end of the day. Late morning and early afternoon are the preferred times for tour groups.
Around Crown Square are the Queen Anne Building, Great Hall, the Royal Palace (home to the Scottish Crown Jewels), and the Scottish National War Memorial. A café is located in the Queen Anne Building. The Great Hall is a large room with a massive wooden ceiling. It contains medieval armor and weapons, and is a quick in and out to view.
Outside the Royal Palace are numerous poles, taking up a substantial portion of Crown Square, that can be configured for a long line to visit the Scottish Crown Jewels. Luckily the castle was not crowded during our visit and there was no waiting to see the jewels (the Crown of Scotland, a Sceptre, Sword of State, and the Stone of Destiny). Basically it was a one way, two minute walk through the display room.
Finally the Scottish National War Memorial is another short walk through with memorials dedicated to honor Scottish servicemen and women.
Outside Castle Square is St. Margaret’s Chapel, considered to be the oldest building in Edinburgh, dating to the early 12th century. It might also be one of the smallest buildings, consisting of one rather small room.
Our visit to the castle ended after a quick walk past Half Moon Battery, which overlooks the Royal Mile to the east. After about two hours exploring the castle complex, we were ready to go. It was a great visit.
The Palace of Holyroodhouse is a mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle, i.e. at the other end of the Royal Mile. It is the Queen’s official residence in Edinburgh and is still used for the occasional royal function.
We bought tickets in advance, £17.50 each, as a limited number are available. Luckily, as it turned out, we were in town before peak tourist season and the Palace was nowhere near capacity.
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon we were exploring Old Town and enjoying near perfect weather. Finding ourselves outside the Palace, we noticed that few visitors were present. Unfortunately our tickets were for the next day, when it was supposed to rain.
Stephanie insisted that we try to exchange our Palace tickets to that Sunday afternoon. I was a bit skeptical, but agreed. The ticket folks were more than happy to accommodate the change. Not only were there few visitors that afternoon, but apparently processing ticket cancellations because of rain is (1) quite a common problem and (2) a huge hassle for the ticket office.
We had a very enjoyable visit lasting about an hour. A one way walking tour leads through numerous ceremonial and historical rooms. We encountered maybe twenty other folks during our tour, and were usually in a room with no more than three or four others at a time, if that. The Palace felt mostly empty.
Surprisingly everyone was very quiet and respectful … except for one lady who took a phone call while in the King’s Bedchamber. She just stood there talking away. We are pretty good about turning off our ringers while in museums and churches. Otherwise, I’d at least decline any call until in a better location to talk.
Adjacent to the Palace of Holyroodhouse is the Queen’s Gallery, a small museum that displays artwork, on a rotating basis, from the Royal Collection. We saw the Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace exhibition. It was a fitting end to our visit.
Stephanie’s call to swap our Palace tickets turned out to be a genius masterstroke as it rained all day that Monday. It was the only day during our stay in Edinburgh that it rained literally all day.
It took us awhile, but we learned two key facts that are important to know when visiting Scotland. First, with the exception of breakfast cafés, restaurants do not open until noon. Unless you want fast food (McDonald’s and Subway are common) or a breakfast pastry, do not plan on eating in a restaurant until after noon.
Second, grocery stores do not sell beer after 10:00 PM. One night we had a couple of beers at The Wally Dug, a nearby pub. Upon leaving we decided to grab a few beers to take back to our Airbnb. We popped into Tesco at 10:05 PM and found the beer section closed off. The manager was apologetic and explained that we missed the cut off by just a few minutes. Oh well.
Our favorite restaurant in Edinburgh (of the admittedly few we went to) is Tiles Bar on St. Andrews Square. It is a small bar/restaurant in an art deco setting. We got an appetizer sampler with fried haggis bon bons, fried haddock sticks, fried mac and cheese bites, and cajun fries. You can’t go wrong with a couple of pints of Tennant’s and a tray of fried appetizers.
Runner up is Milnes Bar, a pub with surprisingly good food. We stumbled in there one night for dinner because every other restaurant on our go to list (Bread Street Kitchen and Bar, Tiles Bar, and Wahaca) had wait times exceeding one hour. When in Scotland, make reservations in advance if there are any restaurants you must visit, or have an early dinner.
With only a few days left in Edinburgh, inevitably we looked for potential day trips worth taking. Luckily ScotRail was having a 50% off sale for non-peak train tickets, and we quickly booked a day trip to the home of golf.
Garrett and Stephanie
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