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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.
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