Edinburgh castle is one of the most prominent edifices from Scotland. This famous castle is considered as an important national heritage of Scotland. This is situated at the heart of the Edinburgh city. This castle is built atop of a rock which is known as Castle rock (which is about 130 meter high from the sea level and formed due to the volcanic eruption). Although the area was occupied since the late bronze age, but most of the buildings from the castle are dated from the 12th century to modern time.
This Edinburgh castle is huge and offers lot of things to the visitors to explore. There are several galleries displaying different historical items. It should take around 3 hours to explore the castle. As most of the displays are indoor, that’s why even in a rainy day or in bad weather the castle could be a nice place to spend time with history. This castle requires an entry fee which is around 17 pound per adult. There uses to be a huge queue around the ticketing counters (which cost around 20-30 minutes). It is always better if you book the ticket from online so that you can beat the crowd.
We have seen the Edinburgh castle several times from distance in last couple of days. But today we wanted to explore this magnificent castle. We started walking towards the castle from our hotel. It was a nice 10/15 minutes of walking around 11am in the morning. Then we had to wait in the ticket counter queue before entering the castle premise.
Despite of having a storm yesterday the sky was very bright and shiny. From the top of the castle the surrounding looked very beautiful, specially the Edinburgh city and the Scottish ocean. After having some pictures we’ve gone inside to explore the galleries. The galleries were having plenty of historical items like weapons, artefacts used by the soldiers, royal crown, diction of coronation, depiction of several wars, depiction of sandpipers and many mores.
There are two sections for prisoners (one for the officers may be). I liked the normal prison where you could find how prisoners have spent their prison days in past. I could see the hammocks which used for sleeping. Also there were several artefacts which were used by the prisoners such as gaming dices, cards, etc. There was always an audio playing in background which was demonstrating the conversations of the prisoners (few were in French as well).
From the top of the Edinburgh castle you’d be able to see the Aurther’s seat, Monuments of Calton hills, and the beautiful other edifices from Edinburgh. There is a cannon fire event happens at one o’clock everyday (except Sunday, good Friday, and Christmas day). We had a chance to observe the cannon firing. During that time all the visitors from the Edinburgh castle put their attention to that cannon fire event. But the event lasts only few seconds after the firing.
Best time to visit Edinburgh Castle:
The good thing about the Edinburgh castle is that you don’t need any season for that as most of the activities would be indoor. Castle remains open for the visitors from 9:30am to 6:00pm everyday. If you buy the ticket from online then you’d save lot of time for the ticket counter queueing. Entry fee is 17 pound per person.
Where to Stay in Edinburgh:
There are plenty of options around the Edinburgh city as a lot of tourists use to visit this city everyday. Look here for list of hotels from Edinburgh. I’ve stayed at the Ibis budget hotel for the first night, and Leonardo hotel for the next two nights.
Where to eat:
There is a nice restaurant available inside the Edinburgh castle. You could try that restaurant if you want. Also there are lot of other restaurants available outside the castle premise. I’ve tried some Indian spicy food from the outside as my lunch.
Edinburgh Castle,
Edinburgh,
Scotland,
United Kingdom,
GPS coordinate (55°56’55.0″N, 3°12’01.0″W)
This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://alonelytraveler.com/
Tuesday, 17 October 2017
