Queen Mary's Bath House: A Legend in Wine
Why is it significant?
Squeezed against the old palace wall at the corner of Abbeyhill, there is a tiny two-storey building of rough grey stone with a steep roof, like a doll's house built for a medieval queen. It is barely bigger than a garden shed, and yet it carries one of the most delicious legends in Edinburgh.
Key Facts
| Place | Queen Mary's Bath House: A Legend in Wine |
|---|---|
| Address | Abbeyhill, Edinburgh EH8, UK |
| Geo Coordinates | 55.95350, -3.17420 |
| Part of Walk | Crowns, Kirks and Sanctuary: Edinburgh's Canongate and the Palace of Holyroodhouse |
| Generated | Generated |
Squeezed against the old palace wall at the corner of Abbeyhill, there is a tiny two-storey building of rough grey stone with a steep roof, like a doll's house built for a medieval queen. It is barely bigger than a garden shed, and yet it carries one of the most delicious legends in Edinburgh.
The story goes that Mary Queen of Scots came here to bathe, and not in water. She bathed, they say, in sweet white wine, to keep her famously pale and luminous complexion. Some versions swap the wine for goat's milk. Victorian visitors were shown the spot with great solemnity. There is not a scrap of evidence that any of it ever happened.
Historians think the little building, which dates from the sixteenth century, was a pavilion or summer house at the corner of the palace gardens, perhaps a lookout over the road, perhaps a doocot, perhaps simply somewhere pleasant to sit. In Mary's time the palace was wrapped in gardens, orchards and courtyards, with a hunting park beyond, and small buildings like this were part of the pleasures of court life.
Why do legends cling to Mary? Because her real life already sounds invented. Queen at six days old, sent to France at five, queen of France at sixteen and a widow at eighteen, she ruled in Scotland for barely six years, then spent nineteen years as a captive in England before the axe fell at Fotheringhay in 1587. Beside that, a bath of wine sounds almost reasonable. Legends fill the silences of a woman whose own letters were later used against her.
Now for the longest stretch of the walk. Head back past the foot of the Canongate and follow Horse Wynd along the side of the palace, south into Holyrood Park. On the Queen's Drive, at the foot of the slope, look for a small stone well-house sunk into the grassy bank.