A few steps from Scottish Whiskey Experience and Camera Obscura on the Royal Mile, was my next destination - Edinburgh Castle.
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The entrance has a huge space in front of it with seating arrangements all around where several events happen. Close to the entrance & ticket booth is the One o'clock gun.
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Further ahead on one side is the National War Museum which I skipped. On the other side is the passage called Foog's Gate to get into Chapel Area. This Chapel is called St.Margaret's Chapel. The garden here is just so beautiful, though tiny! Further ahead is a small passage that leads to the Crown Square.
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The Crown Square is where all the crowd is! This is where the queue for the entrance to Crown Jewels is located! I waited for sometime to see if the queue would go down, but unfortunately it didn't!!! So I stood in this queue. It took a solid 10-15 mins to get to the entrance. Similar to Tower of London, here too the Crown Jewels is a big deal where the original jewelry is kept in display, incl the crown, sceptre and even fan, though the number of jewelry was much lesser than London! These have been in use in 1494! This whole thing was in a tiny room with an even tinier passage to reach there!
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On either side of it in the Crown Square are the Great Hall & Scottish National War Memorial. The Great Hall was completed in 1511 for James IV. The ceiling looks spectacular. The entire wood work was completely remade using references from paintings of the originals. Today the whole place is filled with all weapons & armours and even the rifles of the yesteryear!!!
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The War memorial located opposite is almost like a Chapel and filled with stained glass windows and sculptures. There are books here that tell the name of each and every soldier who lost their lives in every military & civil war since 1945, incl Iraq & Afghan!!! Originally in this place was Church of St Mary which got demolished in 1755.
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Beside these were the original underground cellars which were used as Gun loop since 1546 which very had the old-ness in it!
P.S: Check out here to know what I wore.
To Get There:
Entrance ticket is £16.50 can be bought online on their website.
It is better to buy online as that gives a much quicker entry than the never ending queue to buy ticket there at the gate!
It is better to buy online as that gives a much quicker entry than the never ending queue to buy ticket there at the gate!
P.S: I was invited by VisitScotland to experience Edinburgh for review purpose, however the opinions are my own and this post does not to advertise the product/service.
Dedicated to Venkat