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Entrance to the original farm steading area of Craigmillar, now private housing.
©M J Richardson
With high rise flats and the peak of Arthur's Seat in the background.
©jim and liz denham
The path leads past the ticket office, on the left, to the castle, once a hunting lodge for Mary I, Queen of Scots.
©jim and liz denham
Internal view of Craigmillar Castle. Additional information at [[345716]].
©Lisa Jarvis
Dist:0.1km<br/>The castle was attacked in 1544, during the 'Rough Wooing', when an English army invaded the Lothians after the Scots had repudiated a marriage agreement to betroth the infant Queen Mary to Henry VIII's 7-year-old son, Edward. The Earl of Hertford's troops burned and destroyed the castle. A contemporary records that "they gat grate spoyles" because Edinburgh merchants had deposited valuables there for safekeeping. The castle's owner, Sir Simon Preston [IV], was taken prisoner and made to walk to London before being released.
©kim traynor
Dist:0.1km<br/>A view from the southwest in Craigmillar Castle Park. The snow was about 35cm deep, and that was after a week or so of settling, but virtually no thawing.
©M J Richardson
Dist:0.1km<br/>Looking east from Craigmillar Castle Park
©M J Richardson
Dist:0.1km<br/>Craigmillar Castle is one of the best preserved castles in Scotland. It was the seat of the Preston family.
©JThomas
Dist:0.1km<br/>Note the circular dooocot at the corner nearest to the camera.
©kim traynor
Dist:0.1km<br/>The ruins of one of Scotland's best-preserved, late-mediaeval castles, consisting of an early 15th-century tower-house, expanded by additional ranges built in the 15th and 16th centuries.
©kim traynor
Dist:0.1km<br/>In 1374 Robert II (1371-1390) granted the lands of 'Cragmelor', within sight of Edinburgh Castle, to Sir Simon Preston, Sheriff of Edinburgh (Midlothian) in return for providing on request an archer for service in the royal army.
©kim traynor
Dist:0.1km<br/>The castle is a prime example of mediaeval military architecture. This view shows the massive 5-feet thick 'barmkin' wall, built in the 15th century to provide the original tower-house with additional protection.
©kim traynor
Dist:0.1km<br/>This view shows the earliest part of the castle which was an L-shaped tower house built on the edge of a rocky outcrop where a thirty-foot high cliff provided a natural defence on the castle's southern side.
©kim traynor
Dist:0.1km<br/>In 1566, following the murder of her court favourite, David Riccio, by a band of assassins, including her husband Darnley, Mary, Queen of Scots, moved to Craigmillar to escape the influence of the court at Holyrood. She was also here to convalesce after the birth of her son, later James VI. And it was here that Bothwell and four other nobles signed the 'Craigmillar Band', pledging themselves to murder Darnley. He was killed in the following year when a gunpowder explosion wrecked the house in which he had lain ill in Edinburgh. His body was found in the garden with signs of strangulation. See the link at [[1629058]]
©kim traynor
Dist:0.1km<br/>For more information on this fine castle see other descriptions, e.g. those of Kim Traynor [[1340384]] and Lisa Jarvis [[345716]].
©M J Richardson

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