History of Melville Castle
The earliest records show that 1155 in the reign of King Malcolm IV Malleville was an estate owned by an Anglo-Norman baron named Galfrid de Malle, the sheriff of Edinburgh and governor of Edinburgh Castle.
It stayed in his family until the time of King Robert II. In 1371, when he passed by marriage to Sir John Ross of Halkhead. The castle continued for many generations as the seat of this branch of the Ross family.
In 1542, due to the death of their father, King James V. Mary Stuart became Queen of Scotland when she was only six days old. Because of the political and religious unrest in Scotland she was to spend her early years in France with her mother Marie de Guise and to take much of French culture and disputed the Roman Catholic faith.
In 1561, after the death of her husband King Francis II, Marie Stuart exchanged the culture and splendor of the French court and returned to Scotland, a 19-year-old widow. Although the Scottish Royal Court was established at the Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, the Queen left her French entourage a few miles south, in an area known as Little France.
In 1565, after four years of widowhood, and against the serious writings of her advisors, she chose to marry her Catholic cousin, Lord Darnley, a disaster from which her later problems arose. Your future life should be etched in the blood.
Bedroom at Melville Castle
The Melville Castle offers a comfortable choice of rooms and suites in the elegance of an 18th century castle. As one of the most beautiful destinations in Edinburgh, you will soon discover why so many of our guests return again and again. Home to 32 rooms and suites, from classic double rooms to grand-four poster suites, the Melville Castle is the perfect place to escape reality - even for a night.
