Mons Meg, the hulking 15th century siege cannon, designed to demolish the castle walls of the king’s enemies, has suffered the medieval equivalent of a flat tyre.
As it has stood immobile on the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle for some years, the pressure of the six-ton barrel and the two-ton carriage has distorted the metal band round one of its wooden wheels.
Historic Scotland conservation and maintenance experts today used two mini cranes to lift the barrel in order to carry out a programme of checks on the condition of the great gun.
“This was the supergun of its era and it’s one of a kind, so we take very good care of her with regular checks and maintenance," said Hugh Morrison, Historic Scotland collections registrar.
“As she is so large we are having to set up special lifting gear to hoist her off the carriage," he said. "But once that’s done we’ll be able to check her over and carry out any conservation work that’s needed, and put on some new protective paint as required."
“One job that has to be done is to knock a metal rim on one of the wheels back into shape as it has bent out of shape from the enormous weight of the gun.”
Mons Meg was originally made in 1449 and presented to James II in 1457, at which time she was the latest in military technology, and fired gunstones weighing 330lbs or 150kg. When fired in 1558, to celebrate the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to the French dauphin, Francois, the gunstone reached Wardie Muir, nearly two miles away.
The gun was last fired in October 1681 in a birthday salute for the Duke of Albany (later James VII) but her barrel burst.
The conservation work is expected to take a week to 10 days to complete.