Photographs from Scotland (8)

These photographs all show aspects of the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the remains of the Abbey to which it is attached.

The Abbey was founded around 1128 and from an early date contained chambers for the specific use of the kings of Scotland, who found its surroundings more pleasant than Edinburgh Castle on its rock a mile to the west; by the second half of the 15th century, the royal lodgings had become larger and more important than the abbey. James IV took the decision to convert the lodgings into a palace on his marriage to Mary Tudor in 1503; any remains of this work will now lie below the rectangular tower built by James V in 1528 at the northwest corner of the palace, which was originally surrounded by a small moat. (The tower is now most famously associated with Mary Queen of Scots and the murder of her Italian secretary David Rizzio by her then husband, Lord Darnley, in 1566.) The palace was extended by James VI (James I of England) and Charles I in the early 17th century but damaged by Cromwellian forces (and then fire) in 1651. The present design of the palace dates largely from the reign of Charles II: a quadrangle surrounded by three-storey wings on the north, east and south sides, with a two-storey facade pierced by an elaborate triumphal gateway surmounted by the arms of Scotland on the west.

The photographs below show, in order, a view of the palace from Salisbury Crags to the south; part of the western facade with the gate to the right of centre and (on the left) the west face of the rectangular tower built by James V; the sole remaining tower of the western front of the abbey church, attached to the northern side of the palace; part of the nave of the abbey church, which projects beyond the eastern line of the palace (it is also visible in the first photograph); and a closer view of the elaborate triumphal gateway in the western facade of the palace.