Edinburgh Castle & Esplanade

Welcome to Edinburgh — and there's no better place to begin than here, on the Castle Esplanade. The fortress above you sits on Castle Rock, the plug of an extinct volcano that last erupted some 350 million years ago. People have lived on this rock since the Iron Age, and the castle itself has been fought over more than almost any other place in Britain — besieged 26 times in its long history. Inside its walls you'll find the Scottish Crown Jewels, the Stone of Destiny on which Scottish kings were crowned, and St Margaret's Chapel, the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh, dating from around 1130. Every day except Sunday, listen for the One O'Clock Gun — a tradition from 1861 that once helped ships in the Firth of Forth set their clocks. And if you're here in August, this esplanade transforms into the grandstand of the world-famous Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Take a moment to enjoy the view before we head down the Royal Mile — the historic spine of the Old Town, stretching exactly one Scots mile from the castle gates to a royal palace.