Life Inside Edinburgh Castle: Feasts, Filth, and Feudal Hierarchy

Edinburgh Castle wasn't a home—it was a fortress, palace, prison, and garrison stacked on a volcanic plug. Daily life depended entirely on your rank.

At the Top: Royal Court

• Food: Venison, beef, lamb, swan, peacock, spiced dishes, imported wine, ale, mead. Banquets in Great Hall — political theater.
• Lodging: Royal apartments — tapestries, feather beds, private garderobes (toilets).
• Hygiene: Bathing rare (portable tubs). Perfumes, pomanders. Chamber pots emptied by servants.
• Entertainment: Musicians, poets, jugglers, hunters, jousters. Diplomats, nobles, petitioners.

The Working Castle

• Garrison: Soldiers in barracks. Training, guard duty, artillery drill (Mons Meg, 15th-c cannon).
• Servants: Cooks, brewers, bakers, laundresses, stable hands. Shared dormitories. Porridge, bread, cheese, pottage, small beer.
• Artisans: Blacksmiths, fletchers, bowyers, masons — maintaining war machine.
• Prisoners: Vaults/dungeons. War captives, political detainees, criminals. Dark, damp, minimal rations.

Infrastructure

• Water: Well (Fore Well, 33m deep) + rainwater cisterns. Carried by hand.
• Sanitation: Garderobes (chutes to exterior/moat). "Privy gardens" = designated latrine areas.
• Food production: Kitchen gardens (kale, onions, herbs). Brewhouse (ale = hydration + nutrition).
• Defense: Portcullis, murder holes, caponiers, half-moon battery. Always ready.

Social Reality

Feudal pyramid in stone. King at apex. Soldiers, servants, prisoners at base. Mobility: nearly zero. The castle consumed resources from surrounding lands (feudal dues, purveyance) to sustain its population.

Transition

Royal residence → military barracks (1603 Union of Crowns) → tourist site (19th c. romanticism) → Historic Environment Scotland (present). The ghosts of hierarchy linger in every close stair.