The interior of the diminutive St. Margaret's Chapel in Edinburgh Castle. It is indeed small having a nave of some 10 feet (3 metres) by 16 feet (5 metres), plus the apse at the east end
This page has some photographs from within two buildings inside the castle: the Great Hall and St. Margaret's Chapel. Most of the buildings are naturally concerned with military aspects of the Castle's life, these find it difficult to provoke this photographer's interest. But Edinburgh Castle has had many lives and was often the home of the governing royal family.
Lower down this page are photographs of the Grand Hall, a facility appropriate to such an establishment as this. The Christian nature of the culture has also meant that there has been a chapel on this hill from as far back as records exist. The present building dates from the middle of the twelfth century and offers a gentle counterpoint to the surrounding pageantry.
Details of historic sites in Scotland are gathered together by
Historic Environment Scotland
The chapel from the south side, with the curved reservoir at the left and, between, the open arms of the doors inviting you to enter the (unavoidable) whisky experience
Looking up through Foog's Gate at the Chapel. Foog it is (maybe flippantly) suggested, might come from the foggy outlook that the castle often offers
The north end of the Chapel which sits at the highest point of the Castle rock. That rock is seen here as the Chapel's sure foundation
The south end of the Chapel with the extensive reservoir buildings to the left
The apse at the east end of the Chapel
The Chapel door, of what (following the reformation) became an explosives store, it was reconstructed as a chapel in the 1800s
Mons Meg,
stands just outside the door
The Royal Palace appropriately fronts Crown Square, the Great Hall is to its right. The Scottish National War Museum is up steps, behind to the left
The narrow gap into Crown Square through which an average of 8,000 visitors squeeze daily in summer
The Queen Anne Building, on Crown Square, was constructed in 1708 and used as officers' quarters
The Great Hall, on Crown Square, links the Royal Palace (to the left) and the Queen Anne building (to the right)
The west end of the Great Hall. It was built as a show piece in 1511, and then converted by Cromwell to a barracks in 1650. What you see is an entirely Victorian idea of Gothic splendour which was the result of remodelling in 1890
The display of swords, pikes and armour on the north wall of the Great Hall and...
...at the east end the fireplace, very much
a Victorian conception
The fireplace seems to have been modelled on that in Borthwick Castle by the Victorian restorer of the Hall, the Edinburgh architect Hyppolyte Blanc. As Historic Scotland notes there is nothing in the Hall now that its creator James IV would recognise, except the roof beams
The hammer-beam roof and its supports are the only part of the Hall that is original
Armour suits as they were in use at the time the Hall was built
The coat of arms of James VI of Scotland and I of England
One of the eight windows on the south wall which had been added by 1885, and which were given this Gothic look in 1889
The Laich Hall was remodelled as a dining room for James IV in 1617 and so became known as the King's Dining Room. It has been thoroughly and carefully restored in recent years
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