Holyrood House

Royal residence in Edinburgh, Scotland. The palace was built from 1498 to 1503, on the site of a 12th-century abbey, by James IV. It has associations with Mary Queen of Scots, and Charles Edward, the Young Pretender. Holyrood was the royal palace of the Scottish kings until the Union, and is now a palace of the British monarchy, used during state visits but otherwise open to the public.

One wing remains from the original building begun by James IV, but everything else was burnt in 1544. The main part of the palace was built between 1671 and 1679 for Charles II, to the designs of William Bruce (c. 1630–1710).

Visitors can still see the rooms of Mary Queen of Scots where her French secretary David Rizzio was murdered.

Holyrood Abbey Adjoining the palace are the ruins of Holyrood Abbey, founded in 1128 by David I. The monastery, which was built in the Norman and early Gothic styles, was dissolved at the Reformation, when the chapel became a parish church until James II (of England) made it a chapel royal (1687). Since 1768 it has been in ruins.