Merchiston Castle
Merchiston Castle in Edinburgh is a sixteenth-century tower house that was the birthplace and home of John Napier, the mathematician and theologian who invented logarithms in 1614, one of the most significant mathematical innovations in history. The tower house was built in the late fifteenth century and Napier was born here in 1550, spending much of his life at the castle where he carried out the mathematical work that produced his Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio, the publication that introduced logarithms to the world and transformed the practice of complex mathematical calculation. The castle is now incorporated into Napier University's Merchiston Campus in south Edinburgh, which takes its name from Napier himself. The tower is a well-preserved example of a late medieval Edinburgh tower house.