Craigmillar Castle

Craigmillar Castle is a medieval castle approximately three miles south-east of central Edinburgh. Its oldest surviving section is a large tower house built for the Preston family in the late 14th century. During the 15th and 16th centuries it developed into a substantial fortified residence with curtain walls, corner towers, courtyards, domestic ranges, a private chapel and extensive gardens. The central tower rises around 17 metres and has walls approaching three metres thick in places.

The castle was attacked during the Rough Wooing, the series of conflicts between Scotland and England in the 1540s. English forces under the Earl of Hertford captured and burned Craigmillar in 1544, after which the Preston family carried out extensive rebuilding. The surviving complex also includes a prison chamber, gun loops and some of the earliest artillery defences found in a Scottish castle.

Craigmillar Castle is particularly associated with Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary visited the castle in 1563 and returned in November 1566, when she stayed there while recovering from a serious illness. Although a chamber in the tower is traditionally called Queen Mary’s Room, she probably occupied larger apartments in the east range. The castle belonged at the time to Sir Simon Preston, Provost of Edinburgh and one of Mary’s supporters.

It was during Mary’s stay in 1566 that the castle became associated with one of the most notorious political conspiracies of her reign. Several Scottish nobles discussed how to remove Mary’s estranged husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, in what became known as the Craigmillar Bond. Those connected with the discussions included James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, the Earl of Argyll, the Earl of Huntly, Sir James Balfour and William Maitland of Lethington. Darnley had become deeply unpopular among the Scottish nobility, and the discussions at Craigmillar concerned finding a way to end his marriage to Mary without compromising the legitimacy of their son, the future James VI.

Darnley was murdered less than three months later. On the night of 9–10 February 1567, gunpowder exploded beneath the house at Kirk o’ Field in Edinburgh where he was staying. Darnley and his servant were found dead outside the ruined building, apparently having survived the explosion before being killed. The extent to which the discussions at Craigmillar directly determined the murder, and Mary’s knowledge of the conspiracy, have remained subjects of historical debate, but the Craigmillar Bond permanently linked the castle with the events leading to Darnley’s death and the political crisis that followed.

The Preston family sold Craigmillar in 1660 to Sir John Gilmour, who added a new west range. The castle was gradually abandoned as a residence during the 18th century and subsequently preserved as a ruin. It is now managed by Historic Environment Scotland. Craigmillar Castle has also been used as a filming location, including as Ardsmuir Prison in the third season of Outlander.