Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

EDINBURGH CASTLE, GREAT HALLLB48220

Status: Removed

Documents

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Summary

Category
A
Group Category Details
100000019 - see notes
Date Added
14/12/1970
Date Removed:
15/11/2019
Local Authority
Edinburgh
Planning Authority
Edinburgh
Burgh
Edinburgh
NGR
NT 25165 73421
Coordinates
325165, 673421

Removal Reason

The listing of this building has been removed as part of the Dual Designation project. It will continue to be recognised as a monument of national importance through its designation as a scheduled monument.

Description

Circa 1503, built on 15th century undercrofts (separately listed) and incorporating earlier fabric (circa 1445), with later alterations and additions, including Hippolyte Jean Blanc, 1887-91. Random rubble with polished dressings. Pitch-roofed 4-bay rectangular-plan hall. Machicolation to eaves; coped crenellated parapet with half canon spouts. Moulded mullioned and transomed windows.

N ELEVATION: moulded cill course. Doors in roll-moulded surrounds to outer right and left, that to right in ogee-arched surround and flanked by columns. Gothic carved frames to decorative iron lights flanking W door. 4 mullioned and transomed windows with stained leaded glass; relieving arches to windows. Carved panel to centre with royal arms. Fragment of blocked original segmental-arched entrance to centre.

Greenish slates. Triangular coping to crowstepped skews. Cast-iron down pipes with decorative hoppers and fixings (fleurs-de-lys, roses and thistles). Pyramidally-coped end stacks.

INTERIOR: open hammer-beam timber roof with carved stone corbels. Hooded chimneypiece with statues (see Notes) to E. Gothic carved timber panelling, gallery, W screen, seats in S window embrasures and shutters to lower parts of windows. Decorative gothic copper pendant lamps with enamelled decoration.

Statement of Special Interest

The A Group comprises Batteries, Foog's Gate, Gatehouse, Governor's House, Great Hall, Lang Stairs, Military Prison, National War Museum, New Barracks, Old Guardhouse, Palace Block, Portcullis Gate, St Margaret's Chapel, Scottish National War Memorial, Telephone Kiosks, United Services Museum and Vaults, all within Edinburgh Castle, and in the Care of Historic Scotland. Timber dating of the roof beams has confirmed that the Great Hall was completed during the reign of James IV, probably at the time of the King's marriage to Margaret Tudor. The precocious Renaissance carved ornament to the corbels of the hammerbeam roof includes a vase containing thistles and a rose, and the monogram IR4. The exterior of the building shows French influence, the hammerbeam roof reflects English example. During Cromwell's occupation the Great Hall was used as a barracks, with timber galleries built round the walls. In 1737, intermediate floors were built, providing accommodation for 310 men in 6 barrack rooms on 3 floors. A Board of Ordnance survey drawing of 1754 shows the exterior of the building at this time (MacIvor ill 25). After the building of the New Barracks in 1799 the Hall became a military hospital. Blanc's radical restoration (financed by the publisher William Nelson) included removing dividing floors and partitions, grderobe 'excrescences' to S, rebuilding the parapet, the Gothic door to NW and the mullioned and transomed windows. Apart form the hammerbeam roof (which was altered at this time) the interior is entirely Blanc's. The statues on Blanc's hooded chimneypiece (based on an example at Borthwick Castle), by John Rhind, represent May, Flora, Aurora and Venus, a reference to Dunbar's poem THE THISTLE AND THE ROSE written to celebrate the marriage of James IV and Margaret Tudor. The carving of the panelling is based on that of the choir stalls at King's College, Aberdeen. The Great Hall now houses a collection of weapons on loan from the Tower of London Armouries.

References

Bibliography

Grant OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH (1885) p76. MacGibbon and Ross CASTELLATED AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF SCOTLAND (1887) pp445-463, figs 396-7. BUILDER 8 JAN 1887. RCAHMS INVENTORY EDINBURGH (1951) No1 pp1-25. Gifford, McWilliam and Walker EDINBURGH (1984) p95-8. MacIvor EDINBURGH CASTLE (1993).

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Edinburgh Castle

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Related Designations

  1. THE NEW TOWN GARDENSGDL00367

    Designation Type
    Garden & Designed Landscape
    Status
    Designated
  2. Statue of Earl Haig, Hospital Square, Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh LB27860

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (B)
    Status
    Designated
  3. Memorial to the 78th Highlanders, Edinburgh Castle Esplanade, EdinburghLB48238

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (B)
    Status
    Designated
  4. Memorial to the 72nd Highlanders, Edinburgh Castle Esplanade, Edinburgh LB48237

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (C)
    Status
    Designated
  5. Edinburgh Castle/Caisteal Dhùn ÈideannSM90130

    Designation Type
    Scheduled Monument
    Status
    Designated
  6. EDINBURGH CASTLE, FOOG'S GATELB48217

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (A)
    Status
    Removed
  7. EDINBURGH CASTLE, MILITARY PRISONLB48222

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (B)
    Status
    Removed
  8. EDINBURGH CASTLE, NEW BARRACKSLB48224

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (A)
    Status
    Removed
  9. EDINBURGH CASTLE, ST MARGARET'S CHAPELLB48228

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (A)
    Status
    Removed
  10. EDINBURGH CASTLE, UNITED SERVICES MUSEUMLB48231

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (A)
    Status
    Removed
  11. EDINBURGH CASTLE, VAULTSLB48232

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (A)
    Status
    Removed
  12. EDINBURGH CASTLE, GOVERNOR'S HOUSELB48219

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (A)
    Status
    Removed
  13. EDINBURGH CASTLE, LANG STAIRSLB48221

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (B)
    Status
    Removed
  14. EDINBURGH CASTLE, PALACE BLOCKLB48226

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (A)
    Status
    Removed
  15. Two K6 Telephone Kiosks, Lower Ward, Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh LB28012

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (B)
    Status
    Designated
  16. EDINBURGH CASTLE, NATIONAL WAR MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND (FORMER HOSPITAL AND ORDNANCE STORE), INCLUDING SENTRY BOXES AND URNSLB48223

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (B)
    Status
    Removed
  17. EDINBURGH CASTLE, BATTERIES, INCLUDING ARGYLE, DURY'S, FOREWALL, HALF-MOON, AND WESTERN DEFENCESLB28010

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (A)
    Status
    Removed
  18. EDINBURGH CASTLE, ESPLANADELB28011

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (A)
    Status
    Removed
  19. EDINBURGH CASTLE, OLD GUARDHOUSE, INCLUDING INNER BARRIERLB48225

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (B)
    Status
    Removed
  20. EDINBURGH CASTLE, SCOTTISH NATIONAL WAR MEMORIALLB48229

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (A)
    Status
    Removed
  21. Duke of York Statue, Edinburgh Castle Esplanade, EdinburghLB27883

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (B)
    Status
    Designated
  22. Monument to Colonel Mackenzie, Edinburgh Castle Esplanade, EdinburghLB48257

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (B)
    Status
    Designated
  23. Memorial to the Scottish Horse, Edinburgh Castle Esplanade, EdinburghLB48239

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (C)
    Status
    Designated
  24. EDINBURGH CASTLE, GATEHOUSELB48218

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (A)
    Status
    Removed
  25. EDINBURGH CASTLE, PORTCULLIS GATE AND ARGYLE TOWERLB48227

    Designation Type
    Listed Building (A)
    Status
    Removed

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

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Printed: 28/03/2024 22:31