Local historians claim that there was an inn licensed on this spot as early as 1360, we are currently attempting to ascertain the truth behind this assertion. What we do know for certain is that not a stone throw away sits the picturesque twelfth century church of Duddingston, and one thing we can be sure of in Scotland is where there were places of worship there was always an enterprising innkeeper offering the faithful nourishment for the soul of a slightly less ecclesiastical nature!

The Sheep Heid doesn’t feature too heavily in the history books again until the time of Mary Queen of Scots when it became a stop off point on her regular jaunts between the royal palaces of Craigmillar and Holyrood. This royal patronage was continued by her son James VI whom tradition records presented the innkeeper with a richly embellished ram’s head snuff box in thanks for the good times had playing skittles in the yard at Duddingston.