Mary, Queen of Scots’ Chambers are accessed via a steep spiral staircase consisting of 25 steps.
Lighting
On dull weather days the light levels in the Palace can be very low.
Flooring and surfaces
The floors inside the State Apartments are either wooden or carpeted with thick pile carpet.
The floor in Holyrood Abbey has gravel chippings.
As the Palace is an historic building, the floors may be uneven so please take care.
Audio Tour
A pre-recorded Audio Descriptive guide is available for self-led visits around the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
Non-descriptive multimedia tours, on touch-screen devices, are available for free in:
- English
- Gaelic
- French
- German
- Spanish
- Italian
- Japanese
- Chinese
- Brazilian Portuguese
- Russian
- British Sign Language
Devices are wiped down before use and cleaned on return. Visitors who require headphones are encouraged to bring their own where possible.
We also offer monthly short talks - Guided Looking: An Artwork Audio Described.
For visitors who would like to enjoy the Royal Collection from home you can find a number of audio descriptive clips about the Palace on our website, and you can join our monthly Descriptive Zoom sessions.
Assistance animals
Assistance animals are welcome. We recommend that if possible animals wear a jacket or lead slip to identify them as working.
Staff reserve the right to ask visitors to remove their animal if it is deemed not to be behaving appropriately. Arrangements will then be made for the visitor to return without their animal. Please contact [email protected] for more information.
Shops
The shop is located opposite the Café and next to the entrance to The King’s Gallery. The shop is on one level with wooden flooring. There is a one-way route in operation through the shop and capacity will be limited. There is a hand sanitiser station at the entrance point and the shop is operating cashless.
Toilets
Accessible toilets are located in the Café. Once you have a ticket there are further toilets in the Mews Courtyard.