Linlithgow has had royal associations from at least the 12th century when David I founded the burgh and granted the parish church to St. Andrews Cathedral Priory. Before James I began building the Palace in 1425, the site was that of a royal manor house and later an English garrison fort. Both were built of earth and wood and neither survives today. James V substantially remodelled it in the 1530s. James VI rebuilt the collapsed north quarter in 1618-20. The result is one of the finest Renaissance façades in Scotland.

Linlithgow has had many other regal connections. King Edward I camped at Linlithgow before the Battle of Falkirk against William Wallace in 1298, and in 1302 erected a tower around which Linlithgow Palace was built. It was here Queen Margaret awaited the return of James IV from Flodden Field in 1513. Mary Queen of Scots were born there. King Charles I was the last monarch to stay in the palace in 1633, though Prince Charles Edward Stewart visited twice during the 1745 Rising and King George V held court there in 1914.

• Historic Scotland link