600–1699

A QUEEN RETURNS

EDINBURGH CASTLE, c. 6TH CENTURY

James Grant

Like all cities, Edinburgh is inchoate, though its citizens, conservative by nature, are rarely inclined to embrace change. What is permanent, however, is the Castle and the great lump of basalt rock on which it stands. Exactly who built it and how still intrigues historians. We do know, though, that in the 11th century it became a royal residence. St Margaret, wife of Malcolm III, aka Malcolm Canmore, died there not long after her husband’s death at the Battle of Alnwick (1093). Over the centuries the site was developed, and new buildings, monuments and apartments were added, including David’s Tower (begun in 1367), the Great Hall ( c.1500–11) and the Scottish United Services Museum (opened in 1927). More recently, its Esplanade has been the venue for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and rock concerts.

After the departure of the Romans the inhabitants of Northern Britain bore the designation of Picti, or Picts; and historians are now agreed that these were not a new race, but only the ancient Caledonians under a new name.

The most remote date assigned for the origin of the Castle of Edinburgh is that astounding announcement made in Stow’sSummarie of Englyshe Chronicles, in which he tells us that ‘Ebranke, the sonne of Mempricius, was made ruler of Britayne; he had, as testifieth Policronica, Ganfride, and others, twenty-one wiyves, of whom he receyved twenty sonnes and thirty daughters, which he sent into Italye, there to be maryed to the blood of the Trojans. In Albanye (now called Scotland) he edified the Castell of Alclude, which is Dumbreyton; he made the Castell of Maydens, now called Edinburgh; he also made the Castell of Banburgh, in the twenty-third year of his reign.’ All these events occurred, according to Stow, in the year 989 before Christ; and the information is quite as veracious as much else that has been written concerning the remote history of Scotland.

From sources that can scarcely be doubted, a fortress of some kind upon the rock would seem to have been occupied by the Picts, from whom it was captured in 452 by the Saxons of Northumbria under Octa and Ebusa; and from that time down to the reign of Malcolm II. Its history exhibits but a constant struggle for its possession between them and the Picts, each being victorious in turn; and Edwin, one of these Northumbrian invaders, is said to have rebuilt it in 626. Territories seemed so easily overrun in those times, that the latter, with the Scots, in the year 638, under the reign of Valentinian I, penetrated as far as London, but were repulsed by Theodosius, father of the Emperor of the same name. This is the Edwin whose pagan high-priest Coifi was converted to Christianity by Paulinus, in 627, and who, according to Bede, destroyed the heathen temples and altars. A curious and very old tradition still exists in Midlothian, that the stones used in the construction of the castle were taken from a quarry near Craigmillar, the Craig-moilard of antiquity.

Camden says, ‘The Britons called it Castel Mynedh Agnedh – the maidens’ or virgins’ castle – because certain young maidens of the royal blood were kept there in old times.’ The source of this oft-repeated story has probably been the assertion of Conchubhranus, that an Irish saint, or recluse, named Monena, late in the fifth century, founded seven churches in Scotland, on the heights of Dun Edin, Dumbarton, and elsewhere. This may have been the St Monena of Sliabh-Cuillin, who died in 518. The site of her edifice is supposed to be that now occupied by the present chapel of St Margaret – the most ancient piece of masonry in the Scottish capital; and it is a curious circumstance, with