Edinburgh Castle is a historic fortress on the Castle Rock in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. While archaeologists have established human occupation of the rock since at least the Iron Age (2nd century AD), the nature of the early settlement is unclear.
The site, one of the most important strongholds in the Kingdom of Scotland, was a royal castle since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and continued at times to be a royal residence until 1633. By the 17th century it was principally used as military barracks.
Edinburgh Castle was involved in many historical conflicts from the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 14th century to the Jacobite rising of 1745. Its 26 sieges in 1100 years give it a claim to having been “the most besieged place in Great Britain and one of the most attacked in the world“.