CANNONBALL HOUSE

Cannonball House, is situated on the right hand side as you walk from the Castle Esplanade down Castle Hill and at the top of the Castle Wynd steps.

The building takes its name from a cannonball, embedded in the wall about halfway up in the west gable.

There are two stories about why it is there, The first story, which gunners dismiss as impossible, is that the cannonball was fired from the castle in 1745 and that it was aimed at Holyrood Palace, where Bonnie Prince Charlie was in residence during his march south (Edinburgh's allegiances were divided on this attempt by the Stuarts to regain the British throne).

The second, more prosaic story is that the cannonball was carefully placed here by engineers to mark the precise height above sea-level of the fresh springs at Comiston, in the hills seven miles to the south, which provided Edinburgh with its first piped supply of fresh water, in about 1621.

Certainly the low building opposite on the north side of the street was until recently a large resevoir, serving the Old Town. Now, it is home to the The Tartan Weaving Mill.