The Palace of Holyroodhouse has welcomed visitors for hundreds of years. Today, almost half a million people visit the Palace each year, enjoying the Palace's history and the great works of art from the Royal Collection.

In Edinburgh, it was Holyrood Abbey, rather than the Palace, that first became a visitor attraction. In 1758, the Abbey's wooden roof had been replaced with stone, its weight causing it to collapse ten years later. The ruined church became a popular and romantic sightseeing spot, and it was particularly fashionable to visit the atmospheric ruins by moonlight.

By the end of the 18th century, both locals and foreign visitors had developed a fascination with the apartments that had once been home to Mary, Queen of Scots. In a guided tour led by a housekeeper, visitors learnt about the dramatic murder of the Queen’s Italian secretary, David Rizzio, who had been violently murdered by her jealous husband Lord Darnley and his accomplices. The climax of the tour was a view of the ‘bloodstains’ on the floorboards in the Outer Chamber of the Queen’s apartments, where Rizzio was stabbed over 50 times. 

Many visitors to the Palace in the 18th century reported that they had seen the thigh bones of Lord Darnley and a mummified corpse said to be that of a countess of Roxburghe. Visitors seem to have felt a mixture of revulsion and fascination at these displays - in 1785 one gentleman wrote that the 'exhibition was the most indelicate I ever beheld.'

The Apartments were formally opened to the public in January 1854, following growing curiosity and interest in the Palace thanks to repeated visits by Queen Victoria. It proved hugely successful. In the first year of opening, The Scotsman reported that 67,000 people had come to see the Apartments for themselves. 

By this time, the bones and mummy were no longer part of the tour at Holyrood, but each year visitors still come in their hundreds of thousands to see Mary, Queen of Scots' apartments and try to spot the bloodstains where Rizzio met his violent end.

Plan your visit and find out more about what there is to see and do at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.