Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle sits on a plug of volcanic rock at the head of the Royal Mile, and it is the reason the city grew where it did. Historic Environment Scotland, which runs the site, calls it one of the oldest fortified places in Europe: Iron Age people built a hill fort on the rock, early medieval poetry describes a war band feasting here before riding to its death in battle, and the fortress that followed served in turn as royal residence, treasury, prison and military garrison. Parts of it remain in military use today, and the whole rock stands inside the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site.

The route runs uphill from the esplanade through the Portcullis Gate and ends at Crown Square, the level paved heart of the site, and most of what a visitor comes for stands on or under that square. The Royal Palace holds the Honours of Scotland: the crown, sceptre and sword of state, the oldest crown jewels in Britain, made for James V, first used together at the coronation of Mary Queen of Scots in 1543, hidden from Cromwell's army between 1651 and 1660 and rediscovered by Sir Walter Scott in 1818.

Historic Environment Scotland's own advice is to set aside at least two hours to see the main attractions, and that is the figure recorded for this place. It is a floor rather than a comfortable average. The castle's published itineraries bear that out: the shortest, an hour long, covers the Portcullis Gate, the Lang Stairs and St Margaret's Chapel and little else; the Royal Route runs about ninety minutes; the morning and afternoon routes are each two to three hours, and the family route three. Add to whichever route is chosen the time the site itself imposes.

1 April–30 September: daily 09:30–18:00, last entry 17:00. 1 October–23 December: daily 09:30–17:00, last entry 16:00. 24 December: 09:30–16:00, last entry 14:30. 25–26 December: closed. 27–31 December: 09:30–17:00, last entry 16:00. 1 January: 11:00–17:00, last entry 16:00. 2 January–31 March: daily 09:30–17:00, last entry 16:00. The castle was open on the checked date, but the Prisons of War exhibition area was closed. The castle’s scheduled annual closure days are 25 and 26 December. The castle opens at 9. 30am every day of the year except 25 and 26 December, when it is closed, and 1 January, when it opens at 11am.

Standard adult admission for ages 16–64 is £23. 50 when booked online or £26. 00 when purchased in person. Admission is charged per person and costs less booked online than paid at the gate. The published prices are £23. 50 online or £26. 00 walk-up for an adult aged 16 to 64, £19. 00 or £21. 00 for a concession, meaning visitors aged 65 and over or unemployed, with proof, but explicitly not students, and £14. 00 or £15. 50 for a child aged 7 to 15. Family tickets run from £48. 50 online for one adult with two children to £80. 00 for two adults with three children.

Lothian Buses serve the Old Town; use stops at the Mound or George IV Bridge. Airport trams run to Princes Street about every seven minutes, with a journey of roughly 30 minutes. Airlink 100 runs from Edinburgh Airport to Waverley Bridge in about 25 minutes. Edinburgh Waverley station is a short but continuously uphill walk from the castle. There is no public parking at the castle; Castle Terrace NCP is the nearest public car park. A small number of accessibility parking spaces are available on the Castle Esplanade and may be booked in advance.

Access involves steep and uneven cobbled surfaces; the approximately 350 m route to Crown Square reaches a maximum gradient of 15 degrees. A mobility vehicle serving Crown Square is available on request at the entrance and can carry a wheelchair up to 73. 5 cm wide, 100 cm long, 103 cm high and 150 kg. The mobility vehicle does not operate from 12:15 to 13:15 because of the One o’Clock Gun. Manual wheelchairs are available on a first-come, first-served basis. The Great Hall and Scottish National War Memorial have ramped access; the Palace Apartments, Prisons of War vaults and Battlement Walk require steps. An adapted toilet is available in Crown Square.

The castle photographs best from outside itself. The classic elevations are from Princes Street Gardens below the north face, from the Grassmarket and the Vennel steps to the south-west, and from Calton Hill for the whole rock set against the Old Town skyline. Late afternoon light in summer lands on the west and north walls, and in winter the low sun does the same work by mid-afternoon. Inside the walls the useful pictures point outward rather than inward: the Argyle Battery and the Half Moon Battery give clean views over the New Town and, on a clear day, the Firth of Forth, and the Battlement Walk adds height at the cost of several flights of steps. Interiors are dark.