Key facts
- Mons Meg was probably first used in 1460 at Roxburgh Castle near the border with England. During this battle, James II was fatally wounded when another giant siege cannon exploded.
- In 1489, she was taken 80km (50 miles) west to Dumbarton Castle, to help subdue the Earl of Lennox.
- Mons Meg’s huge weight made her very difficult to move. Her average speed was just 5km (3 miles) per day. In the 1540s she was withdrawn from active service and kept in Edinburgh Castle for use as a saluting gun.
- She was fired in 1558 to celebrate the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to the French Dauphin; and again in 1681, as a birthday salute for the future King James VII. This time, the gun barrel burst. The fractured hoops can still be seen.
-·In 1754, Mons Meg was taken to the Tower of London, where she remained for 75 years. But eventually the novelist Sir Walter Scott and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland persuaded George IV to return her. Mons Meg was brought back to the castle in 1829.
- The royal flag was raised from the battlements and the crowds cheered. Mons Meg, one of the most powerful medieval guns, had come home.
