Edinburgh Castle

From its origins as a Bronze Age settlement, to a battleground for Robert the Bruce’s men during the Wars of Independence, and a refuge for Mary, Queen of Scots, this castle has stood witness to thousands of years of Scottish history. Dan joins Senior Guide Mhairi Summers at Edinburgh Castle to tell the tales of the kings, queens, rebels, and prisoners who have passed through its gates over the centuries, revealing how the castle shaped and was shaped by Scottish history. This is part of Dan's 'Guide to Europe' travel series. Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore You can find out more about visiting Edinburgh Castle here: https://www.edinburghcastle.scot/ Join Dan and the team for a special LIVE recording of Dan Snow's History Hit on Friday, 12th September 2025! To celebrate 10 years of the podcast, Dan is putting on a special show of signature storytelling, never-before-heard anecdotes from his often stranger-than-fiction career, as well as answering the burning questions you've always wanted to ask! Get tickets here, before they sell out: https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/words/dan-snows-history-hit/. We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on. You can also email the podcast directly at [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Dan Snow?

  Hey friends, if you love this podcast and want to decide what history we cover, then you need to become a Dan Snow's History Hit subscriber. Pitch your topic and if I like it, we'll make it into a subscriber exclusive episode. So far, we've covered the English Reformation, the Hudson Bay Company, the Trail of Tears, all of which have been decided by dedicated subscribers. So take the reins of your favorite podcast by heading over to historyhit.com/subscribe or sign up in your podcast player.

• 0:32Speaker 01

  This is a paid partnership with Apple Card. The coolest flex at brunch these days is not the Bloody Mary with the bottomless gold flake caviar topping. It's not whipping out your wallet to pay. It's not having a wallet at all. Jack's been an Apple Card user since 2019. That's the same year he tossed his wallet in the trash. Because Apple Card holders earn 2% daily cash back on purchases made using Apple Pay. It's the only credit card designed for the iPhone. I tap to pay with Apple Card at the grocery store, at the gas station, at restaurants. And yes, I use it at my second home, the farmer's market. Jack tapping to pay with his Apple Card with Apple Pay is his favorite thing to do. And the pleasant vibration and chime sound means I just got 2% daily cash back on my latest purchase. Apply in the Wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval.

• 1:15Speaker 01

  Apple Card, issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch. Terms and more at applecard.com.

• 1:21Speaker 02

  Hi everyone, it's Katie Couric. And on my podcast, Next Question, we love stories about how women are taking control of their lives. They are increasingly leading financial decisions in their households, yet many say they don't feel fully prepared for the long-term financial choices ahead. Real confidence comes from knowing your financial future is protected, whatever happens. Pacific Life has helped generations protect what matters today and prepare for tomorrow with life insurance and lifetime income solutions. It's a promise Pacific Life has kept for nearly 160 years, so its customers can keep theirs.

• 2:03Speaker 02

  Ask a financial professional about how Pacific Life can help you create a more confident financial future. Pacific Life Insurance Company, Omaha, Nebraska, and in New York, Pacific Life and Annuity, Phoenix, Arizona.

• 2:24Dan Snow?

  Edinburgh is a city where there's no shortage of myth and legend, but also thankfully, a vast reservoir of actual history as well. Beyond the tales of Arthur's Court and fearsome dragons, we have Angles and Picts, Jacobites, body snatchers and artists. It feels as though every street in Edinburgh has a story to tell. Built between seven hills, much like Rome, Edinburgh's been a place of human settlement, we think, for 10,000 years at least. Around 2,000 years ago, we think, a small fort called Dunedin was built by the Celtic Gortin people on what is now Castle Rock.

• 3:05Dan Snow?

  It was later captured by the English-speaking Angles and renamed Edwin's Borough.

• 3:16Dan Snow?

  Today, Edinburgh is Scotland's famously vibrant capital city. It's one of the great cities of the world. And right now, it's particularly vibrant because it is the Edinburgh Festival, including the Fringe Festival, so these streets are chock-full of creative people, up-and-coming, young hopefuls, students handing out flyers, flashing QR codes, trying to get everyone to come to their shows. There are street performers, musicians, acrobats, comedians, magicians. And collectively, that just turns this into a city-wide party of comedy and street performance and cabaret and theatre and culture. It's fantastic, I love it!

• 3:57Dan Snow?

  In every corner of this place, every basement, every pub, every garret, every inch is turned into a venue. And as I walk these colourful Georgian and medieval streets with their quaint cafes and their tourist shops and their lovely houses, I'm always mindful that beneath my feet there's a network of eerie tunnels and vaults. Which through the previous centuries have been used for all sorts of purposes. Sometimes squalid housing for the city's poorest. Other times a place for stashing smuggled goods out of the way of the excisemen. Whisky distilleries, prostitution, and they have hosted all sorts of crimes as well. I tell you all this, folks, because if you are even thinking of visiting the UK or Europe,

• 4:39Dan Snow?

  then Edinburgh should be right at the top of your list. I've been here a number of times to make history shows. I've looked at the story of the 1745 Jacobin uprising when Bonnie Prince Charlie held court here. I've been to the festival, loads. But one thing I have never, ever done is visit Edinburgh's iconic, and it's nice to be able to use that word, it's magnificent, Hilltop Castle. And that is a major source of shame and embarrassment to me. It is quite simply one of the world's finest castles nestled atop the medieval core to the city. And I'm walking up to that castle now. It's the only major castle in Britain that I have never visited. So this is a red letter day for me, folks.

• 5:23Dan Snow?

  I might be slightly out of breath, as you can hear, because it sits right on top of Castle Rock, a prominent volcanic crag in the heart of the city. It's what really defines, makes Edinburgh so unusual and so unique. And before you panics, that volcano, that is now extinct, do not worry. But it was the defensive feature, it was the prominent feature that attracted people to settle here and defend themselves here in the first place. The so-called Old Town with its more medieval layout that formed around the castle. The New Town, people saw early modern, the Georgian New Town stretches out below me now, which adds a very different and equally magical character. I'm walking up now to the main gate. Really, it's the only gate because you can only approach this castle from one side, up

• 6:08Dan Snow?

  this volcanic crag. And this is where Mary, Queen of Scots, came seeking refuge. This is where her son, James VI, was born. And he was the man who would eventually unite the crowns of England and Scotland, become James I of England. It has been the site of countless sieges. It was captured by the English at one point, it was taken back by Robert the Bruce's nephew. In the wars of independence, its vaults have held prisoners of both Napoleon's wars and the American Revolutionary Wars. It's been one of my lifelong ambitions to explore this castle and I'm glad I'm bringing you along on this podcast to do it. I'm just coming up to the drawbridge now and here is Maureen Summers, she's the senior castle guide. How are you Maureen? Good to meet you.

• 6:46Speaker 03

  Hi, good to meet you as well.

• 6:47Dan Snow?

  And you are going to show me around what is, well, rightfully and obviously called the best castle in the UK.

• 6:55Dan Snow?

  So folks, for this episode of my summer guide to Europe, let's get on with our tour of Edinburgh Castle.

• 7:07Speaker 03

  So this castle originally started as an early Bronze Age settlement, so there have been people living here for 3,000 years. We have archaeological evidence going back that far. We know that it is also the longest continuously occupied site, certainly in Scotland, most likely in the UK.

• 7:23Dan Snow?

  Yeah, take that Dover Castle.

• 7:26Speaker 03

  So we have early Bronze Age, absolutely. Early Bronze Age hearths, we have Iron Age roundhouses, and then it was all the way through we have got evidence of Roman trading.

• 7:36Dan Snow?

  Really?

• 7:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, as far north as Edinburgh, which people didn't really expect to see.

• 7:40Dan Snow?

  The Romans got beyond Hadrian's Wall, but certainly their traders and merchants and, and I guess Roman objects and ideas would have travelled even further than the legions, yeah.

• 7:47Speaker 03

  They did, absolutely. We're all good, we get to skip the queue.

• 7:49Dan Snow?

  Okay, so we're coming up to our first layer of defence, well, the first layer of defence is the geography of course, but then we, as we get to this point now, is this a moat? Is this a ditch that's been dug?

• 7:58Speaker 03

  So this is a dry ditch. We have never had a moat here at Edinburgh Castle. Yep, well, at the top of a hill the water doesn't say here either, but it's a 40-foot drop into the ditch, so it's not particularly fun for anybody to try and climb back out of on the other side.

• 8:12Dan Snow?

  And humans dug this out?

• 8:13Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 8:14Dan Snow?

  So first things first, we've got this huge ditch.

• 8:16Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 8:17Dan Snow?

  And then we come to this massive gatehouse. You come here and you're looking up at the main castle, the main medieval castle ahead of you, and you've got, again, almost, you've got cliffs here, or even once you're in the lower ward, you couldn't scale up there and it's... Hewn from the living rock and then walls built on top of those, it's just astonishingly strong, isn't it?

• 8:34Speaker 03

  Oh, it really is. We are the most besieged site in British history.

• 8:38Dan Snow?

  Yeah.

• 8:38Speaker 03

  With at least 26 sieges to our name.

• 8:40Dan Snow?

  Wow.

• 8:42Speaker 03

  And not once were we taken by force.

• 8:44Dan Snow?

  Is that right?

• 8:45Speaker 03

  Yes. We have been taken in many different ways. It's been surrendered to the enemy, it's been hoodwinked and so on, but it's never been taken by force.

• 8:52Dan Snow?

  Unlike Tower of London, where a bunch of random peasants ran in and sacked it.

• 8:56Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 8:57Dan Snow?

  This is a proper castle.

• 8:59Speaker 03

  On a good day up here, your visibility is about 40 miles.

• 9:02Dan Snow?

  Amazing.

• 9:03Speaker 03

  It's amazing. We can see all the way out to the Isle of May, going out towards the North Sea, if it's a really good day. But we quite regularly can see as far as North Berwick and over into Fife as well. There is no way to creep up on Edinburgh Castle.

• 9:16Dan Snow?

  No.

• 9:16Speaker 03

  That's for sure. Particularly not when it was first being occupied. All of the towns, city that you see now around you, it was all open field land. So there was no cover for people to be able to sneak in and attack the castle.

• 9:28Dan Snow?

  That was as important in the early medieval period, what people used to call the Dark Ages, as it remains all the way through history. Because the English have always been poking their little noses up here, haven't they?

• 9:37Speaker 03

  Yes, it has rather handed over from Scottish English control several times throughout our history.

• 9:43Dan Snow?

  So, but talk me through, so that post-Roman world, that world that's so fascinating, when the nature and the complexion of these isles was really up for grabs. There were Viking armies, English armies marching deep into Scotland, there were Scottish armies marching to what's now Northern England. What was the state of Edinburgh during that period?

• 10:00Speaker 03

  So Edinburgh was the royal centre of Scotland. And indeed, as you're saying, quite a lot of Northern England at times as well. So one of our strongest monarchies, Malcolm III and his wife Margaret, who went on to become Saint Margaret, they ruled from Edinburgh Castle.

• 10:19Dan Snow?

  Now, the 11th century in Britain is politically a pretty confusing time. And as a result of that political and military upheaval, you get a web of dynastic marriages.

• 10:32Dan Snow?

  As families seek diplomatic and political advantage or conquest, there were shifting borders. If you aren't super familiar with the history of what's going on, don't worry. In fact, I've got an episode in the 11th century coming out on the podcast soon. But for the purposes of this podcast, this is the context you need. When the Normans conquered England from 1066 onwards, the last heir of Alfred and Athelstan, so that line of Wessex, those Anglo-Saxons, the last heir to that, the last man who could claim the English throne from that family, was called Edgar the Ethling, and he'd fled to Scotland where King Malcolm III welcomed him and gave him shelter. As a result, Malcolm, the Scottish king, married Edgar's sister Margaret, the Anglo-Saxon princess. It's said that this highly political arranged marriage was also, in fact,

• 11:17Dan Snow?

  a real romance, one for the ages. There were eight children, and their union gave Malcolm a decent stake in English politics, and he took the opportunity to raid northern England on several occasions, which turned out to be an error because on the other side of things was William the Conqueror. And a few times, the conqueror marched north into Scotland, forcing Malcolm to swear oaths of allegiance to him. When Malcolm died in 1093, his crown was seized by his brother Donald, who sort of rejected the English, the Anglo-Saxon blood that ran in his nephews and nieces' veins, and they were exiled to England, where they grew up, in the Norman court. One of them, Malcolm and Margaret's youngest son David,

• 12:00Dan Snow?

  eventually returned to Scotland, becoming king in 1124. He returned to Edinburgh Castle, which at that stage was more a royal residence than a military fortress. And it's David I that really turns the castle into a sort of fortress that we recognise today.

• 12:16Speaker 03

  He was the one that truly fortified Edinburgh Castle. So he was the one who built a tower keep, which was the new royal residence, which St Margaret's Chapel was also a part of, and is now the only surviving building from.

• 12:30Dan Snow?

  And he was the guy who grew up in the Norman court in England and so he brought lots of Norman ideas, engineers, so he's building kind of French-style castles of which Edinburgh is just a classic example.

• 12:39Speaker 03

  Oh absolutely, he brought that feudal system with him. He took a lot of French inspiration, he took a lot of Norman inspiration and a lot of Anglo-Saxon inspiration and brought it all up to us here in Scotland. And that time as well was so tumultuous throughout Europe. So it's one of the reasons why we were also so heavily fortified is because he was aware he could not turn this into any sort of palace. It had to be his fortified royal centre to make sure that he could actually shore up his defences and continue to rule.

• 13:07Dan Snow?

  Because I'll tell you what, those Plantagenets down south, land-hungry folk, aren't they?

• 13:12Speaker 03

  Just a little.

• 13:13Dan Snow?

  So the English crown invading Ireland in this period, Wales and always pushing into Scotland as well.

• 13:18Speaker 03

  Yes, but we did like to push back. I mean, there are several times where that border kept creeping a little bit further south. Also, David had the in as it was with the English court because his sister was Queen Matilda. So that connection there kind of kept a little bit more peace between Scotland and England than it did for Wales and Ireland.

• 13:37Dan Snow?

  So we're now in the middle ward. I'm seeing to my left, further up the hill, more walls. Are you telling me that there's a whole nother layer of defences you've got to get through to get to the heart of the castle?

• 13:46Speaker 03

  There is, yes. It's actually one of the most mysterious of our defences. Right at the top of the hill, there is a gate we call Fug's Gate. And Fug's Gate, well, we don't know why it's called that. There are several different theories as to why it got that name. One is the weather. Scottish weather is well-known for being temperamental and quite foggy. So an old translation perhaps has gone awry, so it's become Fug's Gate instead of Foggy Gate. There's also a Dutch architect around the same time by the name of Fug, but we have no record of him ever working in the UK, so that one's quite unlikely. Our personal favourite though is, in Scots, we can sometimes call older folk old fogies.

• 14:29Speaker 03

  And at that time, in the defences of the castle, the oldest soldiers would have been the ones to have been posted at the last of the gates. So it could have been that it was the old fogies' gate.

• 14:41Dan Snow?

  Oh, I love that.

• 14:42Speaker 03

  So that's the one we quite like here on site as well.

• 14:45Dan Snow?

  Mahari is very fit because we've basically been walking uphill throughout this entire interview and you're not breathless at all but you've got a steep section here now. We're approaching the summit now.

• 14:54Speaker 03

  Yes, we're approaching the summit. So through the gate you find the ancient castle, you find the royal castle.

• 14:59Dan Snow?

  There's a lot of masonry up here, isn't there? I mean, how are you bringing supplies? It just must be a huge effort to bring everything up this hill.

• 15:04Speaker 03

  It really is. It required a lot of manpower but also horse and cart. And that actually is one of the most interesting parts of our roadway that we have. We have two separate types of cobbles, thicker cobbles for wheels and humans, but in the middle there are smaller cobbles and that is to allow horses' hoofs to actually gain traction so they can get themselves up the hill as well. So it means that it's not all humans having to carry large lumps of rock up to the top of the castle.

• 15:28Dan Snow?

  Wow. We're passing this gate now. These are the inner walls, are they?

• 15:32Speaker 03

  Yes, these truly are the inner defence walls. You can still see though, even up here, we have got gun loops available so that we could defend from here. But as we come up, we actually on our left have a water tower. Because funnily enough, being at the top of a hill, water doesn't want to stay here.

• 15:51Speaker 03

  So the soldiers used to have to go down to one of the wells with buckets of water and come up and fill.

• 15:57Dan Snow?

  You're joking?

• 15:58Speaker 03

  Nope.

• 15:58Dan Snow?

  Wow. I bet that's, if you go to sleep on guard duty, I bet that's your job.

• 16:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't think that's one people we're volunteering for quickly.

• 16:05Dan Snow?

  And we're now right, well, we're on top. I think we've reached the top, haven't we?

• 16:07Speaker 03

  We have, thankfully, yes. No more climbing today. But this is our royal heart and it is also home to the oldest building, not just in the castle but also in the entirety of the city. This is St Margaret's Chapel.

• 16:21Dan Snow?

  So that is a thousand years old, approaching. That is magical. You can tell straight away by looking, very, very tiny little rounded Norman windows with a whole wonderful mosaic of different types of masonry and things that have been put in there.

• 16:34Speaker 03

  Keeps our conservation unit very busy, that's for sure. This building actually though did not used to sit separately, as was mentioned earlier. It used to be part of a much larger building. There used to be a tower keep sat to the left of the building. So it used to be the small chapel which was meant for the royals to use when they were staying in the castle. We actually used to have a second church here called St Mary's Church, which used to sit where our war memorial now sits. So the chapel itself, it's the oldest building on site by over 300 years because after Thomas Randolph came in and stole the castle in 1314... Unfortunately, Robert the Bruce did have a scorched earth policy as they were pushing down through Scotland.

• 17:16Speaker 03

  So from 1307 onwards, every castle, keep stately home that they captured, they destroyed. So Edinburgh Castle was razed to the ground.

• 17:25Dan Snow?

  Was it really?

• 17:26Speaker 03

  It was.

• 17:26Dan Snow?

  Wow. In telling this story, I can understand why some people find British history a little bit complicated. It can be hard to understand why the famous patriot king of Scotland, Robert the Bruce, destroyed Edinburgh Castle, but hopefully this makes it a bit clearer. In the late 13th century, Scotland had a succession crisis. There were no obvious Scottish heirs from the royal line to the throne, and so 13 candidates stepped forward to take the throne. Thirteen aristocrats all thought they'd give it a go. Eventually, it came down to just two: Robert Bruce, grandfather of the more famous Robert the Bruce that you'll have heard of, and John Balliol. The Scots decided to invite King Edward I of England to arbitrate over the final decision, which proved to be a terrible mistake.

• 18:07Dan Snow?

  He supported John Balliol, but also demanded that his claim to be overlord of Scotland be recognised. Having got that agreed to, it didn't take long for Edward to invade to make it real to lock in that overlordship. He sacked Berwick, he defeated Balliol, the Scottish king, he removed the Stone of Destiny to England, the ancient symbol of Scottish kingship and sovereignty. And the Scots fought back, and from this mire, from this situation, well, the first hero of the Scottish Wars of Independence emerges, William Wallace. He wins the Battle of Stirling Bridge, he becomes the guardian of Scotland, but his regime did not last. In 1297, less than a year later, he was captured by Edward's men and he was taken to London for a trial.

• 18:49Dan Snow?

  He was found guilty of treason, although he denied it because he said he'd never been a subject of King Edward. It's impossible to be a traitor when you've never been subjugated by someone. And then he was sentenced to death, one of the most brutal forms of execution in the medieval era. He was dragged naked behind a horse to Smithfield. He was then hanged till the point he was almost dead, then he was cut down, his insides were removed while he was still conscious, and burned, then his head was chopped off, and his body was cut into quarters. His head was dipped in tar and placed on a pike on London Bridge to dissuade others of rebellion. And even more grisly, his four limbs were then sent to be displayed in Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling and Perth. He obviously never then received a Christian burial. But this grisly warning did not work.

• 19:32Dan Snow?

  The lords and the people of Scotland were determined to fight the English. So the fighting rumbles on and a new leader emerges, Robert the Bruce. He crowns himself King Robert the First of Scots in 1306. He and his men sweep through Scotland, reclaiming important strongholds, castles, lands. And it's during this time that Bruce's men arrive in Edinburgh and snatch the castle from the English in a daring raid led by his nephew.

• 19:55Speaker 03

  King Robert the Bruce, he never visited the castle, but his nephew, Sir Thomas Randolph, he did. He was the man who recaptured the castle. And he actually did so with only 30 men. So he was in the town and he met a man called William Francis, who had been garrisoned here at Edinburgh Castle. And he told them that he knew a route in over the castle walls. The reason he knew the route was because he apparently had climbed out several times before to go into town to meet his love.

• 20:24Dan Snow?

  Ah, that's the Achilles heel of all these castles. People sneaking in out for the fairest purposes.

• 20:30Speaker 03

  Always is. So William Francis, he leads Thomas Randolph and these 30 men up the back cliff face.

• 20:37Dan Snow?

  Up the cliffs?

• 20:38Speaker 03

  Up the cliffs. There is routes, supposedly. Maybe not these days, but there was back then. And they managed to climb over the castle defences, surprise the English garrison inside, and they then unlock the doors, allowing the rest of the Scottish force in.

• 20:53Dan Snow?

  That's an audacious commander of raids, because anything in World War II, that's an extraordinary thing.

• 20:57Speaker 03

  Absolutely, and it's one of those stories people don't really know about. But unfortunately, it did have a little bit of a downside for Edinburgh Castle itself. Because King Robert the Bruce, during the Wars of Independence, he had a scorched earth policy. So every castle they recaptured as they travelled south through Scotland, they destroyed. It was to try and stop an English force from coming in behind them and catching them in a pincer movement, as it was. And when he got to Edinburgh Castle, it was no different. At Edinburgh Castle, they also destroyed the entire site, with the exception of St. Margaret's Chapel.

• 21:35Dan Snow?

  Let's just quickly finish up the story of Scotland's fight for its sovereignty. Robert the Bruce won a decisive victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, and from that point Scotland really regained control of its own affairs. There was a peace treaty signed between Robert the Bruce and Edward III, in which England recognises Scotland as an independent kingdom and Bruce as its rightful king. Only a year after that, though, in 1329, Robert the Bruce dies, his son David II takes over and faces lots of English-backed invasions. He's actually captured by the English and held for 11 years until the enormous ransom is paid and another treaty is signed. But Scotland did remain sovereign until the Act of Union in 1707.

• 22:20Dan Snow?

  We're going to spill forward now on our tour of Edinburgh Castle to the 16th century. We'll be looking at the Stuarts after this short break.

• 22:29Dan Snow?

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• 23:13Dan Snow?

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• 23:40Dan Snow?

  This episode is brought to you by TikTok. I never thought about the history of coffee. You make it, you drink it, nothing more to it. Then I've had a TikTok video about how people in the 1700s would pour their coffee into saucers to let it cool before drinking it. I love that sort of discovery, a detail. But suddenly you're imagining how people lived and drank and socialized. Now I wonder what all baffled historians about us. Mugs. It's a ceramic vessel, but crucially, it has a handle. Well, that's the joy of TikTok, folks. You look for one thing and find yourself somewhere completely different. Your next discovery is waiting on TikTok. Learn more at tiktok.com/discovermore.

• 24:24Speaker 01

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• 25:07Speaker 01

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• 25:13Speaker 02

  Hi, everyone. It's Katie Couric. And on my podcast, Next Question, we love stories about how women are taking control of their lives. They are increasingly leading financial decisions in their households. Yet, many say they don't feel fully prepared for the long-term financial choices ahead. Real confidence comes from knowing your financial future is protected, whatever happens. Pacific Life has helped generations protect what matters today and prepare for tomorrow with life insurance and lifetime income solutions. It's a promise Pacific Life has kept for nearly 160 years, so its customers can keep theirs.

• 25:55Speaker 02

  Ask a financial professional about how Pacific Life can help you create a more confident financial future. Pacific Life Insurance Company, Omaha, Nebraska, and in New York, Pacific Life and Annuity, Phoenix, Arizona.

• 26:19Speaker 03

  So, we've now arrived in Crowne Square, which is the heart of the castle these days, and we're going to be making our way over to the Great Hall, which is our royal banqueting hall here at the castle.

• 26:30Dan Snow?

  So, after Robert the Bruce smashed it down, it reemerges as a sort of military site or as a centre of royal power administration, government, domestic? How's the castle adapt?

• 26:42Speaker 03

  We return to being a royal site again. We are rebuilt, this time by David II. So, he builds what we call David's Tower. David's Tower was another large tower keep, and it stood all the way through until 1573, when it was destroyed in the Lion's Siege. And realistically, 1573 was the end of the royal power here at the castle.

• 27:03Dan Snow?

  Wow. We've entered now this astonishing hall where there's medieval suits of armour around. Picture, friends, picture in your minds' eye what you would love a medieval hall to look like, and that is what this one looks like. Wood panelling, stained glass windows, howlbirds, swords, spears, vaulted ceiling. Unbelievable.

• 27:27Speaker 03

  Well, what you see is also a Victorian.

• 27:30Dan Snow?

  Oh, darn it, that's classic.

• 27:31Speaker 03

  A dream, isn't it just? So, the Great Hall has actually itself seen several renovations over the years, but the one original feature in the room is our roof. Our ceiling is called a hammerbeam roof. That means there's absolutely no metal in it whatsoever. It is all wooden pegs, and it was constructed by shipbuilders rather than carpenters back in the early 1500s. And it's meant to represent the upturned hull of a ship.

• 27:57Dan Snow?

  It looks exactly like that, yeah. It's amazing.

• 28:00Speaker 03

  So, it was built for James IV, who at the time had one of the largest armadas in the world.

• 28:05Dan Snow?

  Oh, yes, Henry VIII was very jealous of that, wasn't he?

• 28:07Speaker 03

  He was indeed, so much so that he decided to steal a couple of his ships at one point.

• 28:10Dan Snow?

  So, the story of British naval greatness, people don't realise, it actually begins in Scotland, not England. That's what's fascinating, yeah.

• 28:17Speaker 03

  Yes, it really does. So... Our hammerbeam roof is original, it's from the early 1500s. It is one of only two surviving hammerbeam roofs left.

• 28:27Dan Snow?

  So you would eat in here, the king would receive diplomatic visitors?

• 28:31Speaker 03

  All of the above, yes, this was a banqueting hall when it was designed. The first use was in approximately 1511, 1512. James IV unfortunately didn't get much use out of it because he died in 1513 in battle. But it was actually designed not just for him, but also for his wife. So he married Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's older sister. And it was to attempt to bring a treaty of peace between Scotland and England.

• 28:55Dan Snow?

  But then awkwardly, he died fighting Henry VIII's army in northern England.

• 28:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, it didn't last very long.

• 29:00Dan Snow?

  Brattonmore.

• 29:02Speaker 03

  Very complicated families at this point.

• 29:06Dan Snow?

  So we're now into the famous Stuart dynasty that people have heard of.

• 29:09Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 29:10Dan Snow?

  And then many of them came to sticky ends. I won't test you because they're impossible to remember, but they're all weird and wonderful ends, aren't they?

• 29:16Speaker 03

  Oh, absolutely, yes. I don't think one of them had a nice, natural end to their life.

• 29:20Dan Snow?

  And it's the Stuart family that give us the tragic and dramatic story of Mary, Queen of Scots. She was heir to Stuart Scotland.

• 29:28Speaker 03

  She was indeed, yes. And Mary actually did spend several months living here at the castle. It wasn't her main residence in Edinburgh, that was the Palace of Holyrood House. But she did live here, and very importantly to us, she gave birth to her son and heir, James VI, here.

• 29:43Dan Snow?

  In 1542, the long line of Stuart kings comes to an end. King James V of Scotland died whilst campaigning. He left no male heirs behind, he did leave a baby girl, Mary, who was just six days old. The reign of Mary, Queen of Scots, had begun, and it was fraught, to say the least. She spent much of her youth in France at the court of Catherine the Medici because she married the heir to the French throne. But then he died and she returned to Scotland at age 18. Scotland was a tumultuous country, and it was the beginning of a very difficult period of personal rule. Scotland was in the grip of a Protestant reformation led by zealots like John Knox. And John Knox and others were pretty misogynist.

• 30:27Dan Snow?

  They did not like the Queen, they took all opportunities they could to preach against her. She was a Catholic, she was a woman, she was everything he despised. And her life was one of scandal and murder and assault and abuse.

• 30:41Dan Snow?

  In 1565, she married her cousin, Henry Stuart, known as Lord Darnley. He was descended through his mum from the Tudor family, so that strengthened her claim to the English throne, which she already had a good claim to through her great-grandfather, Henry VII. Their marriage was unhappy. He was a drunk and a lethario. He flew into a violent rage. He felt threatened by Mary's close relationship with her secretary, David Rizzio. And on the 9th of March, the 9th, 1566, he burst into Mary's private chambers at the palace at Holyrood, where she was dining with Rizzio. He and his men dragged him out of the room, stabbed him multiple times. He died in the outer chamber. Mary then fled for her own safety to Edinburgh Castle, which was more defensible. And it was a while she was at Edinburgh Castle

• 31:24Dan Snow?

  that she gave birth to her only child, James, on the 19th of June, 1566.

• 31:31Speaker 03

  So we are now in the royal apartments of Edinburgh Castle. This is where Mary would have lived when she was here in the castle. But this is also home to a very small room, but that is where she gave birth to James.

• 31:42Dan Snow?

  Right, so a big moment for the future of Scotland and Britain.

• 31:49Dan Snow?

  Oh my goodness, we've just entered a very, very small wood-paneled room with some beautiful painting onto that wood and an astonishing view over Edinburgh. And we're all alone in this room. This is extraordinary. So this, Mary was in here?

• 32:02Speaker 03

  Yes, well, that is what we currently believe, although historical documentation is being discovered as we speak and we don't quite know these days. But this is certainly the room that is now considered the shrine to her giving birth.

• 32:15Dan Snow?

  Wow.

• 32:15Speaker 03

  So James would then go on to become James VI of Scotland and first of England. But at the time, very soon after his birth, his mother was forced to abdicate in his favour.

• 32:27Dan Snow?

  This was because of yet more scandals surrounding Mary. In 1567, the year after Rizzio's murder, Darnley himself, well, his house was blown up and he was found in the gardens, having been strangled. It's a real mystery that's never been solved. Many believe Mary was involved, perhaps with a man called James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell, but to this day, no one can say for certain. After the murder of Lord Darnley, Bothwell took Mary Dunbar Castle, claiming it was for her own safety. It was there that he was believed to have sexually assaulted her and then forced her to marry him. This marriage outraged Scottish nobles. Mary was captured by rebel lords at Carberry Hill and imprisoned at Lochleaven Castle. She was then forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son, James VI.

• 33:08Dan Snow?

  As I said, this was not an easy life and it was one that only got worse from this point on. And she went on to a very tragic life. She escaped to England, was a prisoner of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth of England, and then eventually executed by Elizabeth.

• 33:21Speaker 03

  Yes, she'd met a very unfortunate end. Nineteen years imprisoned in England before she was eventually executed.

• 33:27Dan Snow?

  She should never have left these walls.

• 33:29Speaker 03

  No, she really shouldn't have.

• 33:31Dan Snow?

  So her son, James VI of Scotland, the boy king, he grows up, he plays his cards right. Elizabeth Tudor dies with no heirs. And all thanks to that fact that Henry VIII married his sister to the King of Scotland. Through that line, the Stuarts, James VI, he's the closest male relative.

• 33:48Speaker 03

  Yes, he is. So that was actually something that Mary had set in motion herself. She had spoken in correspondence with Elizabeth and had begged her to make James her heir. Because by this point, Elizabeth had already claimed to be the Virgin Queen and that she would never marry. So Mary saw her opportunity to get her son on the throne, even if she never would. So James was always there lurking all the way through the end of Elizabeth's reign. And when she died, eventually, he was given the monarchy.

• 34:20Dan Snow?

  And James VI, via a few jumps from one branch of the family tree, next. The current kings and queens of Great Britain are directly descended from James VI.

• 34:29Speaker 03

  Yes, it's come all the way down that Stuart line.

• 34:31Dan Snow?

  And here we are, in the room which she was born.

• 34:34Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 34:34Dan Snow?

  Very special.

• 34:35Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:38Speaker 03

  So we're now going to make our way up to see the crown jewels of Scotland.

• 34:42Dan Snow?

  Really?

• 34:43Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 34:43Dan Snow?

  Nice.

• 34:45Speaker 03

  So these are what we call the honours of the kingdom. And they are a very small collection in comparison to the ones you'll see in the Tower of London. But they are very special to us.

• 34:59Speaker 03

  So, the Scottish honours, the honours of the kingdom, they're made up of three pieces. We have the sceptre, the sword of state, and the crown of Scotland. The sceptre was gifted in fourteen ninety-four, the sword in fifteen oh seven. They're both Italian papal gifts to King James the fourth of Scotland.

• 35:20Dan Snow?

  So much older than the English crown jewels, which are all hastily reconstructed after the civil wars?

• 35:25Speaker 03

  Absolutely. So, our jewels, our crown from fifteen forty is Scottish, and it's actually possibly a little bit older, it's got bits of an old Scottish crown in it. But when Oliver Cromwell came along in sixteen fifty, he tried to steal our jewels, much like he destroyed the English jewels. But we had heard what had happened in England and in London, and so we were very canny and we actually hid our crown jewels in a castle in the very north of Scotland called the Notter Castle.

• 35:52Dan Snow?

  Nice.

• 35:53Speaker 03

  Yes. So they were there, Cromwell worked out where they were, and an army was sent to go and retrieve them. But two very impressive local women went in under the guise of delivering supplies to those inside the castle, and left with their skirts a little fuller than before.

• 36:11Dan Snow?

  No.

• 36:12Speaker 03

  Yes. So as it turns out, actually, everything's quite collapsible in our collection. The sceptre comes apart in the middle, they actually unscrews.

• 36:19Dan Snow?

  That's clever.

• 36:20Speaker 03

  Yes, it was built, they added a section in the middle and made sure it could unscrew in the middle at that point, which was good foresight.

• 36:25Dan Snow?

  Collapsible?

• 36:26Speaker 03

  Yep. The crown actually splits into two, so again, very easy to hide. Swords are not meant to be destroyed, unfortunately, so they did have to cut it in half, and to this day you can actually see the markings on the blade of the sword. But they stuck them in their skirts and their baskets, and they carried them out. They were actually escorted through the camp by the commander. So he escorted the crown jewels that he was there for away. One of the women, her husband, was the local minister. So they were buried in the floorboards of Keneff Church nearby.

• 36:58Dan Snow?

  No way, what a story.

• 36:59Speaker 03

  Oh yeah. And they were kept there for eight years until the restoration of Charles the second, and at that point, they were then returned to Edinburgh Castle.

• 37:07Dan Snow?

  I've always read about one of the most famous novelists in Scottish and British history, Sir Walter Scott. He was involved with the crown jewels, so what's going on there?

• 37:15Speaker 03

  Yes, so our crown jewels were actually retired in seventeen oh seven in favour of the British crown jewels that were made after sixteen sixty. And at that point, they were put in an oak chest that we still have to this day. And it was put into our crown room and the doors were bricked up.

• 37:30Dan Snow?

  Really?

• 37:31Speaker 03

  Yes, and they were left for 111 years. And this is where Walter Scott comes in. He has been doing research for his novels and he's been researching the castle. And on old maps, he finds note of a crown room or an inventory room. And when he does so, he realizes that it's not there now. So he asked for permission from his friend, who just so happens to be the future King George IV, if he can go in and investigate. So they knocked down the wall, opened the doors and there are the crown jewels.

• 38:06Dan Snow?

  I mean, I'm sorry, but that's the most exciting thing I've ever heard.

• 38:09Speaker 03

  Absolutely. 111 years, nobody has seen them, but Walter Scott finds them.

• 38:14Dan Snow?

  I mean, that's full on Indiana Jones style, but real.

• 38:18Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. And of all the men to do it, it would be Walter Scott.

• 38:21Dan Snow?

  Exactly. Wow. And so that's why they're now on display here, looking magnificent.

• 38:26Speaker 03

  Yes, so his discovery turned them into one of the earliest tourist attractions. So the public could come and visit them from 1820 onwards. So people could come into the site because at that time we were still a major military garrison. So they had to come in in very small numbers, but they could come and visit the crown jewels then.

• 38:44Dan Snow?

  But it's obviously a highlight of the trip to the castle.

• 38:47Speaker 03

  Oh, it really is. Everyone coming up wants to come and see the crown jewels.

• 38:53Dan Snow?

  You're listening to Dan Snow's History here. There's more to come.

• 39:02Speaker 01

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• 39:45Speaker 01

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• 39:51Speaker 02

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• 40:33Speaker 02

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• 40:56Dan Snow?

  Okay, so we're back on the battlements here and we've got, well, it's a battery, got more of these cannon. Yes. And we're looking out over, wow, look at that view. What a beautiful view over the Old Town and bits of the New Town as well. And we should probably skip forward. I mean, this, we are basically telling the whole story of the history of Scotland here, but the Stuart family all fall out with each other dramatically over who should be the rightful kings of Britain. And we get to the Jacobite rebellions. 1715 is a very famous one. 1745 is one people might have heard of, which is Bonnie Prince Charlie. Prince Charles Edward Stuart, who's seeking to get the throne back for his branch of the Stuart family over the German branch, who were ruling Britain at that point.

• 41:38Dan Snow?

  And Edinburgh's a really interesting case, isn't it, because Bonnie Prince Charlie takes Edinburgh, but not quite.

• 41:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, he never gets the castle. So he's another one of those amazing Scottish figures in our history that has never set foot within our grounds.

• 41:49Dan Snow?

  Really, is that right?

• 41:51Speaker 03

  So he did manage to take the whole of Edinburgh City. And he besieged the front door of the castle, but he could never get in through force or through any sort of wily nature. And instead, we just occasionally would take potshots down into the city atom.

• 42:05Dan Snow?

  And presumably this is the battery where that happened from, right?

• 42:08Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 42:08Dan Snow?

  Because you've got a great vantage point here.

• 42:10Speaker 03

  Yes, it is. And in fact, actually, one of our cannonballs from the castle does still exist in one of the buildings in the old town. Yes, it's a restaurant we now call Cannonball.

• 42:20Dan Snow?

  But I love those stories because Bonnie Prince Charlie was sort of holding court, having balls, acting like a monarch. And occasionally a cannonball from the castle would come sort of crashing through and try and ruin the party.

• 42:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, absolutely. We love trying to stop a wee party every now and again.

• 42:33Dan Snow?

  It's an amazing story. And then Bonnie Prince Charlie eventually driven north and defeated by his cousin, the Duke of England, the famous, infamous Battle of Culloden in 1746.

• 42:42Speaker 03

  Yes, which was an absolute whitewash against the Scots who supported Charlie. Because that is one thing we always struggle with in our history is differentiating because at that point it was very much, so many folk see it to be the Scots versus the English. But it was very much a civil war.

• 42:58Dan Snow?

  Civil war, yeah, yeah. So you'd have had Scottish defenders of the castle up here backing King George. You'd have had actually some English supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie down there with his army.

• 43:07Speaker 03

  Absolutely, yes. It was very much down to which branch of the family you felt was more suited to you.

• 43:12Dan Snow?

  And was that the last time the castle saw a shot fired in anger?

• 43:17Speaker 03

  World War One, we had a singular shot.

• 43:21Dan Snow?

  Really?

• 43:21Speaker 03

  Yes, and it was from our one o'clock gun, funnily enough. There was a Zeppelin flying over the city. And they attempted to fire the one o'clock gun to either scare it off or shoot it out of the sky.

• 43:34Dan Snow?

  So a huge German airship is over the city and you're using what had been a sort of signal cannon.

• 43:39Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 43:40Dan Snow?

  Which had been for show all through the years before. And now you're actually trying to take potshots at an airship. That's an amazing story.

• 43:45Speaker 03

  Only time the one o'clock gun has ever been fired in anger.

• 43:48Dan Snow?

  Wow. And is the one o'clock gun still fire at one o'clock?

• 43:50Speaker 03

  It does indeed, yes, it does today.

• 43:51Dan Snow?

  And that's the same gun that once fired at the...

• 43:53Speaker 03

  Not anymore, no, thankfully not. No, I think that might give our gunner a little bit of a heart attack. The gun we've got now, we've had since 2001. It's a newbie in comparison, yes.

• 44:02Dan Snow?

  Wow, that is amazing. So it saw action during the First World War?

• 44:05Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 44:06Dan Snow?

  So with that exception, first of all, Edinburgh Castle not really on the front line from the 18th century onwards, but I guess it had a military purpose.

• 44:13Speaker 03

  We did, yes, we were a fully functioning military garrison, indeed, we actually still are to this day, but we at one point could have over a thousand men stationed in the castle. One other side of that though was we also had prisons here.

• 44:27Dan Snow?

  Oh, really?

• 44:28Speaker 03

  Yes, so we did have prisons for our own soldiers who may have misbehaved, shall we say, but we actually had prisons of war for international soldiers as well.

• 44:38Dan Snow?

  Isn't that fascinating? So we're talking Napoleonic wars, that kind of thing?

• 44:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, we're talking Napoleonic wars and we're talking the American wars of independence.

• 44:45Dan Snow?

  So they're going Americans up, or French sailors captured particularly, I guess.

• 44:48Speaker 03

  French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish.

• 44:51Dan Snow?

  Yeah, no, we were fighting everyone in that one.

• 44:52Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, we really were, we were having fun. But our American prisoners, because a lot of folk don't realise, that American ships did actually attack British ports to try and stop supplies making their way to America to support the troops there. And if they were captured in our waters, that was when they were kept here, and they were often sent to Edinburgh Castle because it was seen as the back end of nowhere. And they were almost forgotten about. Some of the Americans were here for seven years.

• 45:15Dan Snow?

  Wow. And then were there German prisoners during the First World War and Second World?

• 45:18Speaker 03

  We did have some injured prisoners during World War Two who were kept here in our hospital, actually.

• 45:24Dan Snow?

  Okay, downed airmen, things like that.

• 45:25Speaker 03

  Yes, that's exactly what we had here. But World War One, we did have a very interesting gentleman who ended up staying here. His nickname is the Red Clyde Sider, and he was actually a trade union man over in Glasgow originally, and he then had been exiled from Glasgow.

• 45:43Dan Snow?

  Sent all the way to Edinburgh?

• 45:45Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 45:46Dan Snow?

  Poor thing.

• 45:47Speaker 03

  Indeed, and he was here, and he got himself in so much trouble that he ended up spending a night imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle.

• 45:54Dan Snow?

  And he was regarded, what, as such a threat to national security?

• 45:57Speaker 03

  I think they were more trying to scare the living daylights out of him, and they put him in one of the darkest of the cellars, and he was said to have remarked afterwards that he thought he was going to be left there to die. No, the police just put him there for one night to scare him, hopefully, right.

• 46:11Dan Snow?

  Because he was, what, I guess, a radical socialist or communist?

• 46:15Speaker 03

  He was a radical socialist, and he was also very opposed to the war, and that was the main reason why, was because he was seen to be affecting wartime morale.

• 46:24Dan Snow?

  Really?

• 46:25Speaker 03

  The gentleman was called Davy Kirkwood, and to this day, we actually know his cell as Davy Kirkwood's Hole. So it's still named after him, even a hundred years later.

• 46:33Dan Snow?

  His name lives on.

• 46:34Speaker 03

  Indeed.

• 46:36Dan Snow?

  Well, Maori, thank you so much. We've galloped through thousands of years of history up here. I thank you for all the insights you've brought. When people come to the castle today, what... Because it's been through so many different iterations and periods. What do people ask you? What's the number one thing?

• 46:50Speaker 03

  Well, funnily enough, one of our number one questions is a rather entertaining one for the staff, and that is, what time is the one o'clock gun?

• 46:59Dan Snow?

  That's too good. Why? Is that an institution?

• 47:01Speaker 03

  Oh, it really is, yes. People come and will wait for an hour to see the gun fired. And actually, today, we are very lucky that we're going to be able to be right beside the gun as it is being fired.

• 47:12Dan Snow?

  That is amazing. And I obviously was not going to ask what time it was fired, but it had crossed my mind. You never know in Britain, in Scotland, because we've got a lot of weird traditions, which aren't actually what they say on the tin.

• 47:25Speaker 03

  Oh, they really are, yes.

• 47:26Dan Snow?

  But this is one that is exactly as advertised.

• 47:28Speaker 03

  Right. So you need to put your earplugs in.

• 47:30Dan Snow?

  Thank you very much.

• 47:34Dan Snow?

  The gun has been loaded. The blank shell, you'll be glad to hear, because the gun's pointed directly at the lower town in Edinburgh. It'd do some damage, this gun. Oh, he's elevating the gun, so it's no longer aiming... It's aiming at Fife now.

• 47:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:52Speaker 03

  It's their daily wake-up call.

• 47:53Dan Snow?

  It's a classic 105mm gun used by the British Army since the 70s.

• 48:02Dan Snow?

  And we're just getting ready to fire it now.

• 48:05Dan Snow?

  The gunner's just checking his watch. We've got 10 seconds to go.

• 48:15Dan Snow?

  It's one o'clock, folks. Well, that's the most spectacular end to a podcast I've ever done. Maori, thank you so much.

• 48:21Speaker 03

  Thank you. So if anyone is interested in coming to visit Edinburgh Castle, you can visit our website, which is edinburghcastle.scot, and you can buy your tickets there.

• 48:30Dan Snow?

  Do it, folks.

• 48:34Dan Snow?

  Thank you again to my excellent guide at Edinburgh Castle and centuries of Scottish history, Mahari Summa, senior castle guide, and to all the folks also at Edinburgh Castle who organised our visit. Thank you very much. You can find out more about the castle and how to visit in the link in our show notes. You've got to go, folks. Make sure you join me at the next stop on our summer tour of Europe as I tell you everything you need to know about the ancient ruins of Pompeii. Make sure you hit follow in your podcast player so you don't miss it. Check it out on Friday.

• 49:20Speaker 01

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• 50:02Speaker 01

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• 50:10Speaker 02

  Hi everyone, it's Katie Couric. And on my podcast, Next Question, we love stories about how women are taking control of their lives. They are increasingly leading financial decisions in their households. Yet, many say they don't feel fully prepared for the long-term financial choices ahead. Real confidence comes from knowing your financial future is protected, whatever happens. Pacific Life has helped generations protect what matters today and prepare for tomorrow with life insurance and lifetime income solutions. It's a promise Pacific Life has kept for nearly 160 years, so its customers can keep

• 50:50Speaker 02

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• 50:59Speaker 02

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• 51:10Dan Snow?

  Have you been enjoying my podcast and now want even more history? Sign up to History and watch the world's best history documentaries on subjects like how William conquered England, what it was like to live in the Georgian era, and you can even hear the voice of Richard III. We've got hundreds of hours of original documentaries, plus new releases every week, and there's always something more to discover. Sign up to join us in historic locations around the world and explore the past. Just visit historyhit.com/subscribe.