Craigmillar Castle

This renowned castle, whose fame and form are familiar to Scotsmen all the world over, is forever associated with some of the darkest and most tragic episodes in the career of Queen Mary. Its great central fourteenth century tower, built by the Prestons, was enclosed in the early part of the next century by an embattled curtain wall, and within this are stately ranges of apartments dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The castle was burned  by Hereford in 1544. Within its walls, in 1567, and while the Queen herself was in residence, the "Craigmillar band", as the plot to murder Darnley was called, was signed by some of her nobles. The outbuildings of the castle include an interesting chapel. Located two and a half miles south-east of central Edinburgh.