Craigmillar Castle

This guide to Craigmillar Castle in Edinburgh opens in 1660 as judge Sir John Gilmour buys the five-hundred-year-old tower and its neighbouring estate. It traces the building's rise across generations, from the Preston family who raised the first tower around 1400 and hosted Mary, Queen of Scots, to Gilmour's own remodelling of the west range with a judge's fortune. Provost Sir Simon Preston weighed his loyalty to that same queen against his own survival in these same courtyards.