White Horse Close is located at the foot of the Canongate, opposite the new Scottish Parliament Building, and near the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The Close, which dates from 1623, once served as stables for the Palace and later as a terminus for stage coaches arriving in Edinburgh at the end of the week-long journey from London. Sir Walter Scott, in his novel 'Waverley', describes how Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite officers lodged here when they entered Edinburgh in 1745. By the time McCulloch painted this view in 1845, the buildings had become very run-down. Since then the area has undergone various redevelopments and few of the buildings that remain today are original.