Craigmillar Castle
The late medieval castle of Craigmillar overlooking Edinburgh was once a favoured neighbour and refuge of Mary Queen of Scots and played a key role in her troubled reign.
Craigmillar Castle stands on a hilltop just outside Holyrood Park, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. The castle commands wide views out towards the Forth and the border lands and would have been a keen lookout post in the protection of Edinburgh. It was built in the early 15th Century by the Preston family who were lairds of Craigmillar for almost 300 years. The Prestons were well connected and highly respected in Edinburgh providing generations of high ranking official such as sherrifs and provosts to the town.
The laird of Craigmillar during Mary Queen of Scots time, Sir Simon Preston, also earned the favour and friendship of the Queen and it was at Craigmillar that the plot to murder her violent husband the Earl of Darnley was hatched. Her marriage to the Earl of Darnley was a stormy and violent affair and in 1566 Darnley together with a group of conspirators murdered the Queen's secretary David Riccio before her very eyes. During the commotion the loyal provost Sir Simon Preston arrived quickly on the scene with some 400 armed men to protect the Queen. The plot to kill Darnley known as the Craigmillar Bond included several high ranking aristocrats such as the Earls of Argyll, Huntly and Bothwell. In February 1567, Darnleys lodgings at Kirk o' Fields were blown up and his body found strangled in the garden.
Craigmillar Castle today is a handsome ruin take the form of an attractive medieval tower house, with surrounding lodgings, encased in a wide curtain wall allowing for an outer courtyard probably used as a pasture area. The inner courtyard is one of the most beautiful you will see, lined with trees whose branches droop down to its cobble stoned floor and the gateway to the courtyard is equally charming.
This attraction is included in the Great British Heritage Pass.
