Story

The story of Holyrood Palace

Holyrood Palace

In 1512 a lion, a civet, tigers, a lynx and bears lived in the gardens of this palace, in a menagerie built for the king. The Palace of Holyroodhouse stands at the bottom of the Royal Mile, at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle, and is the official residence of the monarch of the United Kingdom in Scotland.

Beside it rise the ruins of Holyrood Abbey, founded in 1128 on the orders of King David I. Its name comes either from a legendary vision of the cross seen by David I or from a relic of the True Cross, the Holy Rood, which had belonged to his mother, Saint Margaret. James IV built a Gothic palace here between 1501 and 1505, and James V added to it from 1528, beginning with James V's Tower, today the oldest surviving part.

Walk through the 16th-century apartments of Mary, Queen of Scots, open except when the royal family is in residence; King Charles III spends a week here at the beginning of summer.

This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗

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