Ross McDowell / Tartan Compass
At the foot of the Royal Mile, Holyroodhouse brings abbey, palace and living monarchy onto the same historic site.
What interests me at Holyroodhouse is how many versions of royal Edinburgh occupy the same ground. The Abbey came first, then palace, Mary's rooms, later State Apartments and the working royal residence. Some of the best details are easy to walk past because the site looks more coherent than it really is. I like helping people separate those layers and then join them back together.
The royal story here grew beside Holyrood Abbey, founded by David I in 1128. Under James IV, royal lodgings developed into a palace in the early sixteenth century, and James V's heavily built north-west tower still survives. Mary, Queen of Scots later lived here after returning from France, while much of the palace visitors see today comes from the major seventeenth-century rebuilding for Charles II. Few places in Edinburgh allow medieval religious foundations, sixteenth-century monarchy, later State Apartments and present-day royal use to remain so visibly entangled.
The entrance front looks balanced, but its two towers are not the same age. The north-west tower is the older survivor; the matching tower belongs to the later rebuilding. Behind the formal palace, the ruined abbey changes the chronology of the whole site. Royal residence grew beside an institution that was already there.
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