Edinburgh Castle

Great Hall

The Great Hall was built in 1511 and intended as the chief place of ceremony in Edinburgh Castle. However, James IV, who ordered the building, was killed at Flodden two years later and his heirs preferred the Palace of Holyroodhouse to the castle so it saw little use.

When Cromwell captured the castle in 1650 he converted the hall into soldiers' barracks, which it remained as for the following 200 years. The blocked up doorway in the centre of the building was the entrance.

When the army vacated the building in 1886 work began on restoring the hall. Edinburgh architect Hippolyte Blanc was responsible for everything inside, apart from the hammerbeam roof, which is mostly original.

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