SCOTLAND'S historic castles received a huge boost in visitor numbers during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
More than 84,000 people decided to get a sense of royalty from a bygone era by visiting Historic Scotland sites over the holiday period.
Edinburgh Castle was the most popular attraction, experiencing record-breaking daily figures for the month of June.
Visitor numbers in total increased by 14% compared to last year's May bank holiday weekend, and Monday was the busiest day with a total of 20,595 visitors at Historic Scotland sites.
Edinburgh Castle was the best-performing site, experiencing a total of 30,769 visitors over the five-day holiday – including two days with more than 7000 customers, which is a new record for the time of year.
Stephen Duncan, director of tourism and commercial for Historic Scotland, said: "We had one of our most successful weekends last week with the Diamond Jubilee. Visitor numbers were up considerably on other bank holiday weekends and even the royal wedding, so we definitely had a good Jubilee."
He said Stirling Castle was also a popular choice, attracting 10,166 visitors who enjoyed the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of the Royal Court in years gone by.
Mr Duncan added: "In addition, Edinburgh Castle's three retail outlets performed well, with the whisky and fine foods shop seeing its best trading day yet, which is great news as every penny we make goes into looking after and maintaining Scotland's historic environment."
The Jubilee figures were revealed as the body also announced record-breaking visitor numbers in 2011-12.
The total number of visitors last year increased by around 7% to 3.37 million, while income also rose by £3.7 million to £31.5m – an increase of 13%.
Linlithgow Palace saw the biggest increase in visitor numbers to 62,733 (18%) for the year, closely followed by Stirling Castle, which experienced a surge of 17% to 441,924.
Edinburgh Castle remained the best performer overall with a total of 1.3 million visitors over the year, an increase of 10% on the previous year and a record-breaking figure for the attraction.
Urquhart Castle on the banks of Loch Ness and Stirling Castle also experienced record-breaking years.
Mr Duncan said: "A number of factors have contributed to our success – the top three properties, Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle and Urquhart Castle, have all had exceptional years in their own right.
"Edinburgh Castle continues to benefit from the buoyancy of Edinburgh tourism and we opened the royal apartments at the palace of Stirling Castle last June and are now seeing years of investment come to fruition there.
"The positive thing about Scottish tourism is that people are staying at home. The staycation is becoming increasingly popular and we have a very buoyant Scottish audience who use our properties through an annual membership."
The director added that a number of events taking place in Scotland over the next few years will hopefully allow their success to continue.
He said: "There are a number of major international events coming to Scotland. Things like Brave, the Disney Pixar movie, which will be premiered later this year, features Scottish castles, myths and legends, and will provide the country with a new showcase and hopefully attract visitors.
"2013 is also the Year of Natural Scotland and then we'll have the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup – Scotland has a whole lot of signature events which will undoubtedly attract visitors."
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