Home to all the Stewart kings and birthplace to Mary Queen of Scots, Linlithgow Palace is one of the most atmospheric ruins in Scotland. The palace sits above a tranquil loch with fine views.
In 1567, Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned at Lochleven after surrendering to her nobles at Carberry Hill. She suffered a miscarriage and was forced to abdicate, but escaped ten months later.
Mary Queen of Scots spent most of her childhood at Stirling before travelling to France for her education in 1548. She was crowned Queen in the Chapel Royal on September 9, 1543.
Inchmahome Priory was built 1238. Mary Queen of Scots, aged four, was sent here for protection with her four Maries, after the Scottish defeat by the English at the battle of Pinkie Cleuch in 1547.
Dumbarton Castle was sited on rock overlooking the Clyde. It had a well protected harbour and Mary Queen of Scots left from here in 1548 on a French galley to travel for her education to France.
Crichton Castle was the home of the Earls of Bothwell. When the 4th Earl married Jean Gordon, she acquired a jointure over it with her dowry, and remained there when he divorced her to marry Mary QoS.
Mary Queen of Scots was hosted here by the Bishop of Moray, a relative of Bothwell’s, and no saint: he had many mistresses and at least 13 illegitimate children.
Mary Queen of Scots visited Balvenie, and was the guest of John Stewart, 4th Earl of Atholl, who was able to accommodate her in his grand new Atholl Lodging, which still survives.
On her sole visit to Edzell Castle, Mary Queen of Scots presided over a legal hearing. The case she heard centred on petty fraud, so a royal audience must have lent unusual gravity to the proceedings.
Mary Queen of Scots attended a winter wedding here between her distant cousin James Stewart, Lord Doune and Margaret, sister of the 5th Earl of Argyll.
This was originally known as Ruthven Castle and James VI was brought here after being kidnapped by the Protestant Lords to remove him from the control of his favourite, Esme Stuart, Duke of Lennox.
Mary visited here during a long progress in summer 1563. Since the Protestant Reformation of 1560, pilgrimage was frowned upon, though Mary was by no means the only Scot still practising Catholicism.
Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her son James - future king of England and Scotland - at Edinburgh Castle in 1566.
In 1567, Lord Darnley, Mary Queen of Scots' husband, was recuperating here when an explosion destroyed the building. Although he escaped the blast, his body was found suffocated in a nearby garden.
Tantallon Castle was the seat of the Douglas Earls of Angus, one of the most powerful baronial families in Scotland. Mary Queen of Scots stayed at Tantallon in 1566.
In 1566, Mary Queen of Scots convalesced at Craigmillar after suffering an abdominal haemorrhage at Jedburgh. She now wanted to divorce Lord Darnley, but her nobles signed a bond to murder him.
The fortress home of the Earls of Bothwell which they used to control Liddesdale. In 1566, the 4th Earl was badly wounded while apprehending some local brigands and was visited by Mary Queen of Scots.
After her defeat at Langside, Mary retreated south, to throw herself on the mercy of Elizabeth I. Her last stop was here, where she wrote to Elizabeth before boarding a fishing boat to Cumbria.
Built in the style of a French chateau, Callendar House has long played a major role in Scotland's history. Mary Queen of Scots spent much of her early life here.
Built by James IV and James V between 1450 and 1541, Falkland Palace was favoured by Mary Queen of Scots as a place of retreat and leisure.
Holyrood is the Royal palace in Edinburgh. It was Mary Queen of Scots home, where she married both Lord Darnley and the Earl of Bothwell. Her secretary, David Riccio, was murdered in her rooms.
Mary Queen of Scots sought sanctuary here in June 1567 when she learned the Scottish nobles planned to capture her. She escaped through a window in the Great Hall dressed as a pageboy.
Originally known as Lethington, Lennoxlove House was the home of William Maitland (1525-73), Mary Queen of Scots' Secretary of State.
The centre holds several records relating to Mary Queen of Scots, including charters with her signature and seal.
Hailes Castle dates from the 13th century and is thought to contain some of the oldest standing stonework in Scotland. Mary Queen of Scots stayed here on many occasions throughout her life.
The 4th Laird of Traquair, John Stuart, became Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard to Mary Queen of Scots and she visited the house in 1566 with her infant son James.
Mary Queen of Scots came to this house in Jedburgh for an assize in 1566. She suffered an abdominal haemorrhage there. which threatened her life, but eventually returned to Edinburgh by easy stages.
Mary Queen of Scots was held at Chatsworth on various occasions between 1569 and 1584. Her lodgings were on the east side of the house where the rooms are still called the Queen of Scots Apartments.
This mound is all that remains of the Castle of Fotheringhay, where Mary Queen of Scots was executed. As it fell into disrepair, local people helped themselves to bits of materials for their own use.
Of her many prisons, Tutbury Castle was the one Mary Queen of Scots hated most. She wrote of its miseries in winter that ‘mechante vieille charpenterie’ caused the wind to whistle through her chamber.
In the 1570s, during the reign of Elizabeth I, George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury and his wife Bess of Hardwick used the lodge to house Mary Queen of Scots, when they became her custodians.
After her execution at nearby Fotheringhay Castle, Mary Queen of Scots was buried here on 30 July 1587 by order of Elizabeth I. However, in 1612, James I had her remains brought to Westminster Abbey.
Anthony Babington's family lived in nearby Dethick, and he became the Earl of Shrewsbury's ward. While acting as page, he met Mary and later led the Babington Plot to place her on Elizabeth's throne.
The magnificent marble tomb of Mary Queen of Scots, erected by her son James I, is located in the south aisle of the Lady Chapel. It features a fine white marble effigy under an elaborate canopy.
In January 1544, Sir George Douglas took Musselburgh for the English Party. The 3rd Earl of Bothwell forced him out, ending hopes that the infant Mary Queen of Scots would marry Prince Edward (VI).
At the end of 'the Rough Wooings', Protector Somerset brought 15,000 English troops to meet 12,000 hastily gathered Scots at Pinkie Cleuch on 10 September 1547. 10,000 Scots were massacred.
Mary Queen of Scots stayed here to attend an assize in 1566, but fell dangerously ill from an abdominal haemorrhage. She recovered slowly but made her way back to Edinburgh by easy stages.
An objective of the Northern Rising, in 1571,was to free Mary Queen of Scots from Tutbury. Elizabeth moved her to Coventry Castle, not realising that it was uninhabitable. Mary stayed at the Bull Inn.
The original 1569 letter from Queen Elizabeth I, requesting the assistance of the mayor and bailiffs of Coventry in detaining Mary Queen of Scots survives here in the city archives.
Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here for 2 weeks in 1586, after the English authorities decided to act on the Babington plot. From here she was taken to Fotheringhay Castle where she was executed.
It was here on 24 April 1558 that Mary Queen of Scots (aged 16) married her first husband, the sickly Francis of Valois (aged 14), the Dauphin of France (later Francis II of France).
This memorial commemorates the site of the Battle of Langside and the defeat of Mary Queen of Scots by the Regent Moray in 1568.
After escaping from Lochleven Castle, where she'd been imprisoned and deposed from the crown, Mary Queen of Scots forces clashed with those of the Earl of Moray, now Regent for her son James VI. Read more.
After an unsuccessful cavalry charge, Mary's foot soldiers approached Langside Hill up the Lang Loan, now Battlefield Road. The two armies clashed in the area where Battlefield Memorial now stands.
An estimated 300 were killed on the Queen's side, with only a handful of fatalities in the Regent's army. After the battle Mary fled south spending her last night on Scottish soil at Dundrennan Abbey.
Mary Queen of Scots was allowed certain privileges under guard, such as promenade outside the walls. The stretch between the SE postern to the southern great gatehouse was known as "The Lady's Walk".
Queen Mary's Tower, where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned, was one the oldest parts of the castle. Records show it was the original Norman entrance into the castle.
Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here from 18 May to 13 July 1568. She had fled to England to seek help from Elizabeth I in regaining her throne, but instead was arrested and imprisoned.
Francis Knollys was Mary Queen of Scots reluctant custodian. He came to like and respect his prisoner, who lacking the comforts she was accustomed too, continued to plead to Elizabeth I for help.
