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Scotland - Golden Oldies Rugby Festival September, 2008
Edinburgh Castle The early history is vague, but it's known that in the 11th century, Malcolm III (Canmore) and his Saxon queen, later venerated as St. Margaret, founded a castle on Castle Rock. The only fragment left of their original castle - in fact, the oldest structure in Edinburgh - is St. Margaret's Chapel, built in the Norman style and dating principally from the 12th century. The castle has been held over time by Scots and Englishmen, Catholics and Protestants, soldiers and royalty. In the 16th century Mary, Queen of Scots, gave birth here to the future James VI of Scotland (1566-1625), who was also to rule England as James I. In 1573 it was the last fortress to support Mary's claim as the rightful Catholic queen of Britain, causing the castle to be virtually destroyed by English artillery fire. After hundreds of years of demolitions and upheavals, the buildings that stand today are basically those that resulted from the castle's role as a military garrison during the past 2 or 3 centuries. Mary King's Close When the Royal Exchange (now the City Chambers) was constructed in 1753, the top floors of the buildings of the Close were torn down, although the lower sections were left standing and used as the foundations of the new building, leaving a number of dark and mysterious passages intact. So beneath the City Chambers on the Royal Mile lies the Old Town's deepest secret, a warren of hidden streets where people lived and worked for centuries. We traveled back to the 17th century, the turbulent days of plague-ridden Edinburgh and visited a number of underground "closes", originally very narrow walkways with houses on either side some dating back centuries. If the video doesn't automatically play, you may need to activate Active X on your tool bar above.
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