Edinburgh Castle - Timeline

A historical timeline of one of Scotland's most important castles. Its story is Scotland's story.

Est 340million BC to around AD 600
AD 638 to around 1130
1296 to 1341
1356 to 1371
1457 to 1511
1494 to 1573
1574 to 1578
1650 to 1660
1689 to 1745
1757 to 1814
1818 to 1822
1829 to 1861
1887 to 1927
1945 to 1950
1996 to present day

Interior view of the French prisoner’s vault in the recreated prisons of war exhibition in Edinburgh Castle © Historic Scotland

Gallery

A prison of war

1757 to 1814
Thousands of prisoners of war – captured during the Seven Years War, the War of American Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars – are held in the castle.