Fountain, Palace Yard,Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh is a Grade A listed building in the City of Edinburgh local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 14 December 1970. Fountain.

Fountain, Palace Yard,Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh

WRENN ID
crooked-joist-frost
Grade
A
Local Planning Authority
City of Edinburgh
Constituency
Edinburgh East and Musselburgh MP: Chris Murray (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
14 December 1970
Type
Fountain
Address
Fountain, Palace Yard,Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, EH8 8DX
OS grid reference
NT 268 739
Coordinates
55.9526, -3.17293
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The fountain at Palace Yard, Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, was designed by Robert Matheson in 1859. It is a large, elaborately carved sandstone structure that features a triple crown and is set in a sunken circular basin on an octagonal plinth, located at the center of the Palace forecourt.

The fountain has a tall, tiered base course that is buttressed at the edges. Each face of the base has a carved lion's head faucet. Above this, there is an intricately carved three-tier octagonal sculpture that includes flying buttresses, pedestals, statues, and heraldic emblems and shields, which feature sejant erect lions and unicorns. The carvings also depict portrait heads, floral details, animals, and decorative medallions. At the top, the fountain is surmounted by four figures that support a crown, which has the Scottish Royal Crest as a finial.

Local climate

Fountain, Palace Yard,Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 970 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 76% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 53% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 43 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 81% of listed buildings. Of these, 25 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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