Qualla: Dalkeith Palace

Dalkeith Palace: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Renata (talk), Public domain. The graffiti on the third-floor wallpaper at Dalkeith Palace is in Polish, drawn in 1942. It remained legible as late as 2008. The soldiers who left it were from the 3rd Flanders Rifle Brigade, part of the 1st Polish Armoured Division, billeted in a Midlothian palace whose owners had not lived there since 1914. Before them came George IV, who slept here in 1822 because the Palace of Holyroodhouse was in too poor a state for a king. Before George came Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745. Before the Bonnie Prince came Mary, Queen of Scots, in October 1565. Before any of them, in the twelfth century, Clan Graham built a castle on a bend in the River North Esk and held it for two hundred years.

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Image: Renata (talk) | Public domain

Dalkeith Palace: The Castle on the Bend

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tom Parnell from Scottish Borders, Scotland, CC BY-SA 2.0. Dalkeith Castle stood on the same ground as the present palace, on a defensible bluff above a loop of the River North Esk. The site dated from the twelfth century, when it belonged to Clan Graham, Lords of Dalkeith. When John de Graham died in 1341 or 1342, the castle and the bar...

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Image: Tom Parnell from Scottish Borders, Scotland | CC BY-SA 2.0

Dalkeith Palace: James VI and the King Who Wanted It

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Renata (talk), Public domain. When James VI reached his majority in October 1579, Morton entertained the young king at Dalkeith. The Stuart kings became regular guests. James VI and Anne of Denmark frequently stayed at the castle, with a peculiar incident in August 1592 when the prisoner John Wemyss of Logie ...

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Image: Renata (talk) | Public domain

Dalkeith Palace: The Duchess and the Dutch Palace

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ben Bilgri at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1642 the castle was sold to the Earl of Buccleuch. His granddaughter Anne, Duchess of Buccleuch, married James, Duke of Monmouth, in 1663 - Monmouth was Charles II's eldest illegitimate son. After Monmouth was executed for treason in 1685 following his failed rebellion, his wi...

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Image: Ben Bilgri at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Dalkeith Palace: Guests, Soldiers, Students

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0. Bonnie Prince Charlie spent two nights at Dalkeith in 1745 during his march toward Edinburgh. King George IV slept here in 1822 during his royal visit, in preference to Holyroodhouse which was in poor condition. Queen Victoria stayed in 1842. Edward VII visited in 1899 and 1903; ...

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Image: Richard Webb | CC BY-SA 2.0

Dalkeith Palace: Fly Past

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit kim traynor, CC BY-SA 2.0. Dalkeith Palace sits at 55.8996 degrees north, 3.0679 degrees west, on the north edge of the town of Dalkeith in Midlothian, about 6 nautical miles south-east of central Edinburgh. The palace is a long, three-storey sandstone block on a wooded bluff above the River North Esk, wit...

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Image: kim traynor | CC BY-SA 2.0