Detail of Archway in Canonball House, Castlehill

Category

Library Item

Item no

2273

Title

Detail of archway in Canonball House, Castlehill, Edinburgh

Description

An archway within Cannonball House on Castlehill. Light can be seen on the stonework near the entrance.

Artist / maker

Chrystal, Francis M.

Date

1912

Size

15.5 x 21 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Cannonball House is a tenement building located on Castlehill at the top of Edinburgh's Royal Mile. The building's name comes from the cannonball lodged in its wall. Legend has it that this projectile was fired from the Edinburgh Castle towards Holyrood Palace during the Jacobite siege of 1745. A more mundane , but more probable explanation is that the cannonball was used by engineers as a marker to indicate the height of the water source at Comiston from where Old Town's piped water supply was drawn.

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Related subjects

Architecture > Architectural features > Arches

Places > Edinburgh areas > Old Town

Places > Edinburgh areas > Royal Mile

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

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