22/05/2023
Edinburgh Castle 1886/87🧐
This marvellous view of Edinburgh Castle can be dated to around 1886/87 when works commenced to replace the seventeenth-century gatehouse and to build the Argyle Tower atop the old Portcullis Gate.
The derrick used for the tower is visible and what may have been the wooden scaffolding is still lying on the esplanade. The new stonework of the tower is still bright and clean in the photo compared to the rest of the castle.
Note also the far simpler entrance which is much more modest than the one we see today.
All in all a spectacular photograph courtesy of George Washington Wilson who has given us so many fascinating glimpses into our city's past.
If you are wondering where the word "derrick" comes from, apparently a 17th century English hangman named Derrick led to a gallows being called a derrick. From there, a crane with a moveable arm came to be called a derrick because it resembled a gallows.
