Written by Eleanor Whitehead
“Of cool poetic joy, I bent my way
Tow’rd a majestic Castle’s ruins wide;
Within whose gates once royalty bore sway,
And for a season laid its cares aside.”
Craigmillar: An Elegy, John Pinkerton
If you head to the northeastern corner of Edinburgh, working your way through the maze of houses, you will happen upon a leafy park hidden in the shadow of Arthur’s Seat. Sitting on top of a rocky outcrop in the centre of this park lies Craigmillar Castle. Home to only two families in its six-hundred-year history, it has welcomed royalty and inspired poets. It now stands watch over the surrounding area, partially ruined, but nonetheless charming…
Building a Castle
In 1374, the lands of Craigmillar were granted to the Preston family by King Robert II. Completed in around 1420, the main stone tower house is the oldest part and heart of the castle. Originally consisting of a cellar, a great hall, a kitchen and bedrooms, a curtain wall was added later in the fifteenth century, creating a unique courtyard framed by two yew trees.
The Castle is a patchwork of architecture from centuries past. The east wing was added in the 1560s. By the sixteenth century the Preston’s had grown in influence and were looking to impress, the extension was the height of Renaissance fashion. Positioned in front of the castle is an impressive ‘P’ shaped garden feature, representing the Preston family. Despite what the interpretation board may say, this feature is more likely to be a sunken garden than a pond.
In 1660, the Preston family passed on the castle to Sir John Gilmour. The Gilmour’s added their own mark on the castle, renovating the rooms in the West Wing, adding a wine cellar, large windows, and a formal garden. The castle remained in the hands of the Gilmour’s until 1946 when it was taken into the care of Historic Environment Scotland.
A Royal Retreat
Since its creation, Craigmillar Castle had close links with royalty. Being just outside of Edinburgh, approximately a day’s ride from Holyrood, it was a perfect haven for Scotland’s royals. In 1514, plague broke out in Edinburgh. This caused young James V to take refuge at Craigmillar Castle and wait out the crisis. In 1589, James VI was staying at the castle awaiting the arrival of his bride, Anne of Denmark. It was from Craigmillar Castle that he decided to sail to collect her from Norway. This journey was made difficult by storms, which were later attributed to the work of witches at North Berwick and kickstarted the Scottish witch hunts.
Most notably, Mary Queen of Scots stayed at the castle twice in 1566. Mary, sick and frail, fled to the castle four months after the birth of her son, James VI, and seven after the murder of her closest advisor, David Rizzio. She is recorded to be suffering from depressive melancholy, which, with hindsight, was most likely to be post-natal depression or PTSD.
Mary returned to the castle once more, where her trusted advisors Sir Simon Preston of Craigmillar, the Earls of Bothwell, Argyll, and Huntly, met along with William Maitland of Lethington to discuss the matter of Mary’s unpopular husband: Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. It was out of this meeting that the infamous ‘Craigmillar Bond’ was sealed.
Mystery, Murder and Magic
The Craigmillar Bond was to be a pivotal moment in the history of Scotland. It led to the murder of Lord Darnley in Kirk o’ Field, on 10 February 1567. He was found naked and strangled in the garden of his house. Whether or not Mary knew about this plot is still up for debate. There are two rooms in the castle where Mary is alleged to have stayed – the first floor in the east wing and the second floor in the original tower. From one of them, the sound from the Great Hall carries up and from the other, you can hear nothing. Depending on which room she actually stayed in, her innocence or complicity in the murder of her husband could be discovered.
The Craigmillar Bond isn’t the only mystery that surrounds the castle. In 1477, the Earl of Mar was held prisoner at Craigmillar after being accused of using witchcraft to conspire against his brother, James III. The Earl of Mar never left Craigmillar alive. The cause of his death remains a secret to this day. It is often said that the King looked upon his brother with pity and asked him to choose the means of his execution. The Earl of Mar is said to have chosen to be bled to death in a warm bath. However, in 1813, a human skeleton was found walled up in the dungeon of the Castle. Perhaps, the Earl of Mar had met a similar fate.
Craigmillar’s connection to witchcraft persisted into the seventeenth century. The Preston’s were involved in witchcraft trials which occurred around the surrounding areas of Niddrie and Liberton. John Preston was a commissioner on several cases of witchcraft, as panic gripped the local community between the years of 1661 and 1662.
Craigmillar castle is a site of interest to those who love history, appreciate a good mystery, or who want to get lost in a rabbit warren of old stone rooms. I highly recommend a visit, and a chat to staff who can tell you about their own mysteries from within the castle.
Bibliography:
Craigmillar Castle, Historic Environment Scotland Website, https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/craigmillar-castle/history/
‘Craigmillar Castle’, Site Specific Guidebook, Historic Environment Scotland
Pinkerton, J. Craigmillar Castle: An elegy, Edinburgh: printed for the author, 1776.
Speedy, T. Craigmillar and Its Environs: with Notices of the Topography, Natural History, and Antiquities of the District, (Selkirk: G. Lewis, 1892)
‘John Preston’ in Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin, Joyce Miller and Louise Yeoman, The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft 1563-1736, January 2003, https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/persons/?lastname=Preston&firstname=&placename=
Featured image credit: Craigmillar Castle Illustration. (Thomas Hearne, accessed via Wikimedia Commons)
Retrospect Journal 