Edinburgh castle

While in Edinburgh it was vital I visit Edinburgh Castle (admittedly it wasn’t actually in my plan for TODAY but i jetlagged through my alarm and missed the walking tour) I slept until nearly noon today so at around 1 I set forth on a journey to find something to eat…and found myself at the castle. I climbed the hill and I was in front of an extraordinarily large and old building. I bought my ticket and set out to explore.

Once inside it was like a small city in itself. Many of the buildings were set up like a museum with multiple exhibits from The Scottish War museum to a whiskey shop to the Crown jewels. that even gave out samples. Several of the exhibits had gift shops of their own and the whole castle had one as well.

Things I learned today along my sojourn:

Edinburgh Castle is built on Castle Rock. Castle Rock is an extinct volcano, the volcanic rock of the hill prevented one side of the hill from being erroded over time by wind and rain and glaciers.
People lived on Castle Rock as early as second century CE though probably in tents or huts not the magnificent castle that resides there now.
The oldest building in Edinbugh Castle (and Edinburgh itself) is St Margaret’s Chapel which was built in the 12th century. A castle has existed on that hill since that point but not the same castle the whole time.
Scotland has been crucial to many war efforts and Edinburgh Castle one of the most important locations to that effort.
It has been attacked (according to some research ) 26 times making it one of the most attacked places in the world.
Most of what is standing today did not exist prior to Lang’s Seige in the 16th century which to put it in perspective STILL makes it nearly twice as old as the United states as an independent nation.

The people who recorded the dialog in the prison exhibit were NOT Americans and the accents they used were funny.
There is a cemetary within the fortress for the dogs of military officers and mascot dogs of the military. This has existed since the reign of Queen Victoria. The best boys and girls of Scotland have been taken care of.

Well… That was quite a lot of information. I learned more things but I think that should suffice for now. It’s quite late and I don’t want to miss the walking tour again tomorrow. Have some views from on the castle in the meantime