Cannonball House, Castlehill, Edinburgh

Category

Library Item

Item no

2281

Title

Cannonball House, Castlehill, Edinburgh

Description

Along the cobblestone street of Castlehill, Edinburgh is Cannonball House. Also in the row of houses is a shop which advertises tea rooms. The house has small walls either side of steps. On another wall is a lamp post and a tower with signs on it.

Artist / maker

Balmain, James C. H.

Date

1900

Size

20.5 x 15.9 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Castlehill is the section of the Royal Mile running from Castle Esplanade to the Lawnmarket in Edinburgh.

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

Homes > Residential buildings > Houses

Places > Edinburgh areas > Old Town

Places > Edinburgh areas > Royal Mile

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

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