FORMER EDINBURGH CASTLE HOTEL AND ARMSTRONG STREET COMMERCIAL PREMISES SITE

The site is first mapped as Allotment 4 and 5 of Section 13 on the 1852 Municipality of Ballarat Plan with the occupied being purchased by McPhilling and Norburn. The 1861 Gold Fields Plan shows two structures across the site. In 1857 the site was occupied by the Edinburgh Castle Hotel which was occupied through until 1922. The site also comprised three commercial premises to the south of the site, show the movement of trade to Ballarat West in the 1860s. the site was redeveloped in 1922. The Ballarat DEM shows there is an elevation increase of 1m to 2m across the site.

The site is of historical and archaeological significance. 

The site is of historical significance as the location of a Hotel in Ballarat established during the years of the Victorian gold rush. The later nineteenth century shows the development and commercial expansion of Ballarat West that are likely to have been capped following demolition in the 20th century. The site is of archaeological significance due to its potential to contain artefacts, deposits and features that relate to the establishment of commercial operations including the Edinburgh Castle Hotel in the gold rush, and other later 19th-century commercial activities.