Linlithgow Palace: free audio guide
The story of Linlithgow Palace in Edinburgh, as the Votura app tells it on location. Read it here, or hear it on the spot with turn-by-turn walking directions.
Before you go
- Address
- Kirkgate, Linlithgow, West Lothian, EH49 7AL
- Opening hours
- Mon–Sun: 10:00 AM–4:00 PM
The story
Linlithgow Palace stands in the royal burgh of Linlithgow, West Lothian, as one of Scotland’s great surviving medieval palaces and the birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots, who is born here in 1542. Its story begins in 1424, when King James I orders the first substantial rebuilding of the royal residence after a fire, and the palace grows under later Stewart monarchs into a grand courtly showpiece beside Linlithgow Loch. James III and James IV both use it heavily, but it is James V who gives the palace much of its most impressive form, especially the sumptuous south front and the great courtyard arrangement that make the ruin so instantly recognisable today.
Walk through the site and you are looking at a building that once had at least four main ranges around a central courtyard, with a great hall, royal lodging, kitchens, chapels, and state apartments serving a court that could include kings, queens, nobles, servants, guards, musicians, and administrators. The site’s plan is unusually ambitious for Scotland, and its long, elegant façades still hint at a palace designed not just for defense but for ceremony, display, and royal hospitality. James V dies in 1542 at Falkland, but his daughter Mary’s birth here gives the palace enduring fame that no later damage can erase.
The palace remains closely tied to the drama of the Scottish monarchy. Mary, Queen of Scots, is brought here as an infant after her birth, and the building continues to host royal visits during the reigns of James VI and later Stuart rulers. James VI is born at Edinburgh Castle in 1566 and later becomes king of both Scotland and England in 1603, but Linlithgow stays part of the ceremonial landscape of his kingdom. The palace also stands near the route of the ancient Kings’ Way between Edinburgh and Stirling, which helps explain why so many monarchs stop here.
A devastating fire breaks out in 1746 during the aftermath of the Jacobite rising, when Hanoverian troops under the Duke of Cumberland use the palace, and the blaze leaves the royal residence effectively abandoned. After that date, the building no longer functions as a home of kings and queens, and the roofless shell slowly becomes the romantic ruin visitors see today. Even in ruin, the palace remains structurally impressive, with surviving walls, arched windows, stair towers, and fragments of carved stonework that reveal the richness of its original decoration.
One of the site’s most striking features is the Great Hall, which once hosted banquets and formal occasions on a scale fit for the Stewart court. The palace’s exterior is equally memorable, with long lines of masonry and classical-looking details unusual in a Scottish royal building of this period. The site also has a powerful setting above the loch, and that water was historically part of the royal landscape surrounding the palace, reflecting the building in a way that adds to its ceremonial effect.
Linlithgow Palace is protected as a major historic monument and is cared for by Historic Scotland, the successor to the body that took it into state care. Today it is one of the most important royal ruins in Scotland, drawing visitors who come for its links to Mary, Queen of Scots, its 15th- and 16th-century royal history, and the sheer scale of the surviving stonework. The place is not just a ruin; it is a royal statement frozen in masonry, with exact dates like 1424, 1542, 1603, and 1746 marking the rise, glory, birth, union, and fall of one of Scotland’s great palaces.
Written for the Votura audio tour and read aloud in the app. Opening hours change, so check with the venue before you go.
Self-guided tours that stop at Linlithgow Palace
- Edinburgh to the Heart of Scotland: Castles & Wallace in One Day
- Edinburgh to the Historic Heart of Scotland: Forth Bridge to Blackness
- From Edinburgh Airport to Glencoe: A Scenic Heritage Drive with Scottish Icons
More audio tours in Edinburgh →
Hear it on the spot
Votura plays this guide when you reach Linlithgow Palace, then walks you to the next stop. Works offline.