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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 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.
