Edinburgh Castle is an ancient fortress which, from its position atop Castle Rock, dominates the sky-line of the city of Edinburgh, and is Scotland's most famous (and most visited) landmark. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC. As it stands today though, few of the castle's structures pre-date the 16th century.

As with all castles Edinburgh's has had a long military association. More unusually, at least in Britain the Castle continued to be an active military garrison until relatively recently. Direct administration of the castle by the Ministry of Defence only came to an end in 1923 when the army moved to their new Edinburgh barracks at Redford. Nevertheless, the Castle continues to have a strong connection with the British Army and is in fact still guarded by serving soldiers every day between 6 pm and 9 am.

During the rest of the time the castle is now ran and administered, for the most part, by Historic Scotland. Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Executive and undertakes the dual (and sometimes mutually contradictory) tasks of operating the castle as a commercially viable tourist attraction whilst simultaneously having responsibility for conservation of the site.

[Source: Wikipedia]

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