Visitors to Edinburgh Castle up 10%

VISITOR numbers at Edinburgh Castle have shot up 10 per cent this year, boosted by a bumper weekend during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

More than 1.3 million people visited the Castle in 2011-12, with 30,769 over the Jubilee weekend, up on last year’s May bank holiday weekend.

At Linlithgow Palace, which is also managed by Historic Scotland, visitor numbers were up over the year by 18 per cent to 62,733.

Historic Scotland’s director of tourism and commercial Stephen Duncan said: “We had one of our most successful weekends last week with the Diamond Jubilee. Visitor numbers were up considerably on other bank holiday weekends and even the royal wedding, so we definitely had a good Jubilee.

“In addition, Edinburgh Castle’s three retail outlets performed well, with the whisky and fine foods shop seeing its best trading day yet, which is great news as every penny we make goes into looking after and maintaining Scotland’s historic environment”.

“Edinburgh Castle continues to benefit from the buoyancy of Edinburgh tourism.”