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| The above room is the Lord's Hall, the first room one steps into as one enters the castle. There is a spiral staircase in the right corner of this hall, leading to this little room (above right), which must have been a sort of dungeon as it features a pit prison with trap door. From the other corner of the hall, a wider and straight later staircase leads to the Great Hall above, which was converted in the 17th century. |
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| The Great Hall is an attractive, bright room decorated with tapestries against the walls, and contains display cabinets with historical artefacts found nearby. One of them is a letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots. It says underneath that she visited the castle on 27th August 1563, when she was in her twenty-second year. At that time, the lord was the 5th Baron, Lord William Hay of Yester, who succeeded to the title in 1553 and died of illness in 1586. He was a staunch supporter of the queen. He also entertained her son King James VI when he visited in 1586. This sizeable fireplace now finds itself on the other side of the partition pictured above. |
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| The original Great Hall (before the changes made in the middle of the 17th century) was about 44 feet long and 26 feet high, occupying the space of four present rooms; namely the two rooms on this level and the two rooms above: its floor was on this level and its peak, under the mid-vault of the castle, about 26 feet above that. |
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