Edinburgh Castle stands on Castle Rock, the remains of a volcanic pipe of hard dolerite that rises 427 feet (130 m) above sea level. St. Margaret's Chapel, built in the reign of David I as a private chapel for his mother, is the oldest building in the castle and in Edinburgh. The Great Hall, 95 by 41 feet (29 by 12.5 m), is usually ascribed to James IV. It is one of only two medieval halls in Scotland with an original hammerbeam roof.
The Half Moon Battery was built from 1573 to 1588 after the Lang Siege. Walter Scott rediscovered the Honours of Scotland in 1818, and the Stone of Scone has been in the Crown Room since 1996. The One O'Clock Gun has fired since 1861.
Sir Robert Lorimer designed the Scottish National War Memorial, opened on July 14, 1927. UNESCO listed the Old and New Towns in 1995, and the castle had 2,044,963 visitors in 2025.
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