Scotland – Page 2 – A Traveling Fool

October 25, 2020

Scottish Castles Experience Day 4 – Ruthven Barracks, Dalwhinnie Distillery, Pitlochary, Loch Leven Castle, and Back to Edinburgh

In the area of Badenoch, Scotland, sits the remains of Ruthven Barracks. The British Government forces built Ruthven on a former castle mount in 1721 after the Jacobite rising of 1715. The barracks could accommodate 120 troops and 18 horses. The walls had loopholes for musket firing and bastion towers built at opposite corners.

In 1746 prior to the Battle of Culloden, the commander of Ruthven surrendered to a fairly sizeable force of Jacobites after a short siege and battle. The day after Culloden, roughly 3,000 Jacobites retreated to Ruthven but were sent home by Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) as their cause was determined to be hopeless. As they departed, the Jacobites blew up the barracks so the government forces wouldn’t be able to use it.

It had a fairly steep gravel path leading up to it, but was very interesting to explore. Most of the other military barracks I have seen in the UK have still been in use, so it wasn’t possible to go inside. Of course this one was missing floors and roofs, but many of the stone walls were in pretty decent shape to get an idea of what it might have been like when it was used as a military base.

Our next stop was the Dalwhinnie Distillery, which produces single malt Scotch whisky. The distillery straddles the regions of the Highlands and Speyside in the Cairngorm Mountains. They refer to themselves as a Highland Scotch. The location was chosen because of the availability of clear spring water and the abundance of peat.

Peat is a brown deposit that looks like dirt bricks which is created through decomposition of vegetable matter in places like bogs and fens. It is often used for fuel. Some of the whisky distilleries in Scotland use peat fires to dry out their malted barley. This gives the Scotch a distinct smoky flavor.

The name Dalwhinnie comes from the Scottish Gaelic Dail Chuinnidh, which means “meeting place”. It was a meeting point of cattle drover’s routes through the mountains.

Immediately upon arrival at the distillery, I headed for the restroom. That was where I was when the fire alarm sounded. As I left the room, I found myself alone in the tasting and shop area as the alarm continued to sound. There was a woman outside of the front door who was quite startled to see me. I explained where I had been and asked where my tour group might be so I could join them. With a chuckle, she pointed me to the Rabbies group just as George was heading towards us.

He was very glad to see me, but was missing one more. This was the woman I mentioned back in my first post about this particular tour — the one who was constantly asking questions, didn’t seem to be terribly bright, and never listened to what anybody else said. The woman at the door sent one of the men outside with us back inside to call out the missing woman’s name. In the meantime, I headed for the rest of our group while the fire department arrived.

It turned out that it was a false alarm. We were able to enter the building once the fire department vacated it. Our missing colleague had been completely oblivious as to what had been going on. She said she heard the alarm but didn’t know what it was for. I thought it was a very good thing that it turned out to be a false alarm as she could have ended up being in real trouble since she never caught on that she needed to get out of the building.

Photos weren’t allowed inside, so nothing to share of the tour other than that they walked us through the entire process they use to create their Scotch. After the tour, we were able to taste, not only the varieties of Dalwhinnie Single Malt Scotch, but also several of the single malt Scotch whiskies produced by Diageo (the company that owns Dalwhinnie and several other distilleries). This was helpful to discover the preferred level of “peatiness”.

I found that I liked more smokiness than the Scotch I was drinking at that time, but not nearly as much as the Scotches one of my brothers prefers. Dalwhinnie actually was in the “sweet spot” as far as I was concerned, especially when accompanied by some of the luxurious Scottish chocolate truffles they also had on hand.

Michelle, Searan, and I had lunch together again in Pitlochry, which was a mostly Victorian town that sprang up as a tourist resort back when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited and bought Balmoral Castle not too far away. We ended up at an Italian Restaurant as we wanted a leisurely lunch outside and they had tables in a courtyard at in the back of the restaurant.

After lunch, we went to a nearby crafts shop. I found a table runner with thistles embroidered on it that I bought.

Down on the other end of the block, we visited a sweet shop called Scotch Corner. They had loads of fudge and other sweets in addition to ice cream and cotton candy. We each bought a variety of fudge and other Scottish sweets. Then we decided to have a little dessert for the road and bought ice cream cones.

Our last castle on the tour was Loch Leven Castle. This was a 13^th century castle that is best well known for being a prison for Mary Queen of Scots from June 17, 1567 until her escape on May 2, 1568. The castle originally took up most of the island, but when the river that feeds the loch was canalized in the 19^th century, the water level lowered.

There still is a tower house (keep) at one corner and the remains of a round tower called the Glassin Tower at the diagonally opposite corner with most of the inner wall somewhat intact. But only outlines of some of the other buildings remain and the outer walls are gone completely.

The only way to get to the island was on a 12-person ferry from the visitor center in Kinross. It travels back and forth at specific times. We were a tad early for the next crossing, so we visited the gift shop while waiting.

I saw a woman looking at a rubber duck that was dressed as Mary Queen of Scots. She apparently decided not to buy it and set it down. It was the only one, so I quickly picked it up and bought it. Later, she went back to try to find it, but it was too late. The rubber ducky was safely inside my camera bag.

During the time when Mary was a prisoner there, she was mainly held in the round Glassin Tower. The Towerhouse was used to accommodate her jailer, Sir William Douglas of Lochleven, and the staff to look after the Scottish Queen.

Not long after her arrival, Mary miscarried twins that she had conceived with her second husband, the Earl of Bothwell. They were quickly buried somewhere on the grounds of the castle. Just a few days later she was forced to abdicate in favor of her infant son James who was being looked after at Stirling Castle.

She made several attempts to escape which failed until her jailer’s family (the men seeming to have fallen in love with her) helped her to a boat and some awaiting horsemen. She fled to another castle from which she contacted her cousin, Elizabeth I of England, and asked for her help.

Loch Leven Castle is one of many castles throughout Scotland where the ghost of Mary is supposed to roam. It is said that she looks for her lost twins.

The Highlands of Scotland has insects known as midges that swarm in large numbers, biting and getting into eyes, mouths ears and noses. In all of the trips I have made to Scotland, I had never experienced the swarms in such enormous numbers before. But on that little island where the remains of Loch Leven Castle stand, I had the full Highland Midge experience. I don’t recommend it. It was much worse than the mosquitos in Minnesota, which we jokingly call our state bird.

That evening, we were dropped off at the Edinburgh bus station. From there, I took a taxi to the hotel where I would be staying for two nights.

The Scotsman Hotel was originally the offices of The Scotsman newspaper. They were housed in the Scottish baronial style building from 1904 until 2001. That was when they moved to new offices and the building was renovated into a hotel. It was just the other side of the North Bridge from the Balmoral Hotel on the Old Town side.

It seemed like it would be such a cool place to stay, but I ended up being creeped out. I found out after my stay that my room was on the same floor and only a short distance away from a room where a couple had committed suicide a few years earlier. Despite not knowing about this, I found it to be really spooky when I turned out the lights, so I left them on all night both nights.

Next time – a day trip from Edinburgh to Anstruther, St Andrews, with a stop at Falkland Palace.

October 18, 2020

Scottish Castles Experience Day 3 – Part 2: Brodie Castle, Culloden Battlefield & Clava Cairns

Located in Moray, Scotland, Brodie Castle was built in 1567 by the Brodie family. They had been in the area from the 12^th century, so likely had an earlier castle on the site that may have been swallowed up by this castle.

The Entrance Hall to the current castle is in the 16^th century part of the castle, flanked by a Guard Chamber (rather disturbingly containing the skeleton of a child in a glass case) on one side and the Library on the other. From this part of the house, a staircase leads up to the Dining Room.

The Dining Room has a very ornate and heavy ceiling. It also has a portrait of a lady who is pointing to the ceiling. Is she trying to say, “Look up?” And is she indicating the ceiling or the room above?

The lady in question is Lady Margaret Duff, who was the wife of Lord James Brodie back in 1786. In the room directly above the Dining Room, known as the Best Bedchamber, Lady Margaret fell asleep by the fireplace where her clothes were set on fire and she died. She is said to haunt the castle.

In the Blue Drawing Room, which is just off of the Dining Room, a ghostly soldier often sits in contemplation. The Red Drawing Room leads to the very large and airy Victorian Drawing Room. This was my favorite room in the castle, other than the suite of Nursery Rooms. Brodie was the only castle on this tour where we could see a Victorian Nursery with all of its furnishings and even the toys. It covered the entire top floor and looked as though the children would be returning any minute. A little ghostly dog probably would agree as it is often seen heading for the Nursery.

The child’s skeleton was found when some renovations were being carried out on a set of turnpike stairs in the castle. Surprisingly enough, there doesn’t seem to be a ghost associated with the bones. Maybe that, and the fact that nobody seems to know who it is, are why they haven’t been buried anywhere and are on display in the Guard Chamber instead.

I have been to Culloden Battlefield four times. Each time has been completely different. The first time was on the second anniversary of 9/11 in 2002. It was a gloomy, rainy day. Not much was there at the time. It was mainly a rather overgrown field with a path leading to the monument. Said path was dirt, so quite muddy on that occasion. We all tromped out to the monument and had a minute of silence for 9/11 in the rain and mud.

Other than the path and monument, was the little, thatched cottage. We could go inside back then. It was decorated to look as it had after the massacre of the battle when those would took refuge there were all slain.

The second time I was there, they were starting to clean up the area – mowing the grass and uncovering the various small, stone markers to indicate the mass graves of those who had fallen. They were also raising money for a visitor center. I contributed. That was in 2005.

By my next visit in 2009, the visitor center was up and running. They had artifacts from the battle, a timeline, a display of the history behind it all, and a very moving film. To see the film, just stand in the middle of the room and watch the battle unfold all around you. I have seen it twice now and it moved me to tears both times.

The battlefield had flags indicating where each side was, the ground had been cleared, paths were created, the clan grave markers could be seen and other signs had been added. There were also benches to sit on if needed or desired.

The best part was that there were GPS devices with recorded commentary. These would beep when you entered a space where something notable happened. Then they would tell you all about it when you pushed the button in response.

I had looked for my name on the ceiling of the main room of the visitor center, but couldn’t find it. All contributors towards its building were supposed to be represented. But it was in order of contribution which made it difficult to find. There were a lot of names there.

During the 2017 visit, I watched the film for the second time, went out and explored the battlefield again, and then came back to the cafeteria for some lunch. I have included with this post, photos of some of the mass grave markers for some of the clans.

The nearby Clava Cairns were built about 4,000 years ago and constitute a Bronze Age cemetery. After many years of suffering from a lack of interest, the site has become famous as the inspiration for Craigh na Dun in the “Outlander” books and series.

We visited the main site, known as Balnauran of Clava. It has three large burial cairns, each with its own stone circle. Two of the cairns are called “passage cairns” where you enter through a narrow corridor. The third cairn (in the middle of the other two) is completely enclosed. All three have lost their roofs as well as their contents.

Of the four photos I selected to include here, the first shows two of the cairns with several of the standing stones. The second is my viewpoint from inside of one of the passage cairns. The third is a lovely tall stone. The fourth is the infamous split stone which, if you are an Outlander fan, you should recognize immediately as Claire’s means of time travel.

That night we spent the night at Knockomie House Hotel, a stone house built in 1812. The owners have it set up as a 15 room inn. Each room is different. Mine was dark purple and had a Victorian iron bed and plaid drapes. The reception area where we checked in was very quaint. Next to that was a small pub where they also pushed together a few tables and served us a delicious dinner.

We were served a Chicken and Ham Terrine (kind of a pate) with Chutney; Haddock with a nice variation on a Hollandaise Sauce and some Lemon Dill Mashed Potatoes; and a Sticky Toffee Pudding with a Butterscotch Sauce and some Ice Cream. I remember sleeping quite peacefully after that meal.

Next time – our last day on the Scottish Castles Experience tour with Ruthven Barracks, Dalwhinnie Scotch Distillery, lunch at Pitlochary, and Loch Leven Castle.

October 11, 2020

Scottish Castles Experience Day 3 – Part1: Fyvie Castle

I was really excited to be able to visit Fyvie Castle. From what I had read about it and had seen in various programs that talked about the castle, it was quite a place.

The oldest of the castles we were visiting on the tour, Fyvie was said to have been built originally in about 1211 by King William the Lion of Scotland. It remained in royal hands until about 1390 when it became the property of the Preston family in order to pay off a ransom. The Prestons celebrated by building a tower.

Early on in its history, however, it gained a curse. A prophet called Thomas the Rhymer turned up at the castle in the 13^th century (same century in which it had been built). Due to some freak gust of wind that came up just as he reached the gate, Thomas was incensed that the gate had been slammed in his face and put a curse on the castle. This curse involved three stones that were referred to as the “weeping stones”.

The “weeping stones” always appear to be wet no matter what is happening with their environment. The curse says that, until all three stones are found and removed from the property, no eldest son of the owner of the castle will ever inherit. So far, it has appeared to be true as no eldest son of any owner since has ever inherited the castle.

Originally the three stones were said to have been boundary stones marking the parish. But one supposedly found its way into the walls of the oldest part of the castle. Another somehow ended up in the Charter Room. That is the only one to have been found to date and is on display in a bowl inside of a glass box in the Charter Room. The last stone was lost in the River Ythan, which makes it impossible to ever lift the curse.

I have included a photo of the stone on display in the Charter Room. On the day we visited, it seemed to be only slightly moist. Apparently it hasn’t cried quite so much since it has been in the glass case.

While exiting the tour coach before going into the castle, I felt like we were being watched from one of the rooms above. I looked up and took a photo of the window. It was at the corner of where the south range met the west range, just below a little turret and a flag pole with the Scottish flag. I didn’t see anybody at the window, but they could have just stepped out of sight.

We entered the west range into the main hall which contains loads of armor, some taxidermied animals and a few bronze Chinese dogs. It was very interesting room and one of 110 rooms in the entire castle. We went up what was called the Great Wheel Stair to the Dining Room. This was a lovely room (though my photos were a little on the dark side), followed by the Morning Room, which I thought was quite cozy. It seemed like a pleasant room to hang out in. The Charter Room came next and then the large and opulent Library.

In addition to the “weeping stone”, a second curse having to do with the castle involves a secret chamber below the Charter Room. It is said that, should anyone enter the chamber, the Laird of the Castle will die and his wife will go blind. They say that someone did enter the room once upon a time and the curse did happen. So the chamber was completely sealed up to the point that there isn’t even an entrance to it.

After the Prestons, the castle passed to the Meldrums when a Meldrum married a Preston daughter. This was about 1433. The Meldrum family added a tower too. Then the castle was sold to Alexander Seton in 1596 who added the Seton Tower in the middle of the south side of the castle (between the Meldrum and PrestonTowers). He also added the West Range.

Alexander Seton’s wife, Dame Lilias Drummond, kept giving him only daughters, which ticked him off royally. So he imprisoned her in part of the house and starved her to death in order to marry a much younger cousin of Lilias with whom he was enjoying himself. If the room in which she died had been the secret chamber below the Charter Room, it would make sense that the curse would be about killing the Laird and blinding his wife.

Shortly after Lilias died, Alexander married his mistress. On the wedding night, the newlyweds heard some scratching and moaning outside of the window of the bedchamber (four floors up). They thought it was just the wind. In the morning when Alexander opened the shutters and the window, he saw the name of his first wife,” D. Lilias Drummond”, scratched deeply into the stone window sill , outside, upside down, as if done by someone hovering outside of the window.

We were shown the room. It was no longer a bedroom (who would want to sleep there?), but had maps and charts and such scattered around. It seemed to be a storage room. I walked over to the window and took photos of the name carved into the stone. It was the same window from which I had felt we were being watched when we arrived.

A successor of Alexander Seton died in exile in Paris after a Jacobite uprising that had taken place in 1689. At the time of the uprising, the castle had been forfeited to the crown. This would have been the Hanoverians down in London.

It remained a crown property until it was purchased by William Gordon, who was Earl of Aberdeen at the time, in 1733. Forty five years later the Gordon Tower was added to the north end of the west range. Gordon was also the one who moved the main entrance of the castle from the Seton Tower in the middle of the south range to the middle of the west range.

One more family purchased the castle in 1885, adding the final tower. That was the Forbes-Leith family. It was Alexander Leith who built the Leith Tower in 1890.

Another ghostly presence for a short time was Lady Meldrum, who died sometime in the 13^th century. For some strange reason, her dying wish was to be placed in the walls somewhere in the castle. She supposedly loved the castle and didn’t want to leave it. Around 1920 her skeleton was discovered, carefully excavated from the castle and buried in a grave. After that, she haunted the castle as The Grey Lady (Lilias Drummond is called The Green Lady and has been seen here and there too). Once they gave in and put her back in the wall (in one of the bedrooms), she stopped her haunting.

One of the most impressive parts of the castle consists of the enormous Drawing Room in the Gordon Tower and how it opens onto the Gallery in the Leith Tower. The Gallery has several rich tapestries and portraits of King Charles I and his wife Henrietta Maria. It also has a fairly large organ. The Gallery is often used for weddings.

Heading back downstairs towards the entrance again, we entered the Billiard Room. This was a more casual, welcoming room with flowered sofas and a table with a tartan cloth.

Next time – Brodie Castle, Culloden Battlefield, and Clava Cairns.

October 4, 2020

Scottish Castles Experience Day 2: Castle Fraser, the villages of Ballater and Crathie, as well as Crathes Castle

Pretty much every castle that is at least two hundred years old has a ghost. The older the castle, the more spirits there may be roaming the building or grounds or both. Both of the castles in this post and both in the next post were reportedly haunted with very interesting stories associated with them.

The majority of the ghosts in haunted castles seem to be of females who were victims of domestic violence. Either they didn’t want to marry the man to whom their father was trying to unite them or they wanted to marry a man of whom daddy didn’t approve. Or they were someone entirely inappropriate who turned up at the castle with child by one of the males in the castle. Or they were an inconvenient wife of whom their husband wanted to dispose so he could marry someone else.

Built in 1575 by the 6^th Laird, Michael Fraser, Castle Fraser was originally a two-story square keep. Over the centuries the castle was added to and evolved into what is considered to be the most elaborate Z-plan castle in Scotland. A Z-plan castle has a strong, rectangular center tower with smaller towers attached at diagonally opposite corners.

Castle Fraser is now six floors with turnpike stairs at each end and a normal staircase covering some of the lower floors in the center of the main tower. Two additional wings form a courtyard in the rear of the castle. The photo I have included is from the rear as I think that is the most interesting façade.

The rooms were a more human scale than in many castles and more cozy and livable too. The Great Hall was in the oldest part of the castle and very simple in layout and décor. One of the early lairds (Scottish Lords of the Manor are called Lairds) apparently was not too trusting. He had both a spy hole into the Great Hall and a Lairds Lug, which was a tiny secret room above the Great Hall where the Laird could sit and listen to everything that was said below.

In the Great Hall was a chest with a complicated locking mechanism that reminded me of the trunk in Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire. After exploring some of the other rooms on the ground floor, we headed up a set of turnpike stairs all the way up to the top of the castle, stopping off on various floors to see various rooms on the way up and then again on the way down.

One of the rooms we visited on the way up was the Green Room (a bedroom). While visiting the castle, a woman was murdered when sleeping in the Green Bedroom. Afterwards her body was dragged down the turnpike stairs for disposal. The blood stains could not be removed, so they placed wooden steps over the offending stone steps. The ghost of the murdered lady has been seen throughout the house.

Once we reached the top of the castle, we went out on the roof where we had gorgeous views of the grounds. I included a photo of the view down at the back of the castle from the roof.

On the way down, one of the interesting rooms we visited was the library. One of the Lairds, Charles Mackenzie Fraser (1792 – 1871) lost his leg in the 1812 Peninsular War. His wooden leg was on display in the library. You can see it in the far right of the photo included here of the library. It is peeking out from behind a green baize gaming table.

Apparently the leg’s owner doesn’t need it anymore as he doesn’t seem to be hanging around looking for it. However, children laughing and other unearthly sounds have been heard in the kitchens; piano music has been heard drifting through the castle when nobody has been playing; and disembodied voices are frequently heard in various parts of the castle.

Then there is Lady Blanche Drummond who died from a fever in the 1870s, just a couple years after her marriage. She has been seen wandering the grounds in a long, black gown.

We stopped off in the village of Ballater to have lunch. Once again, Michelle, Searan and I ate together at a pub where we had some good food and a pint of the local ale.

After lunch we paid a visit to the village of Crathie. This is the village just outside of Balmoral Castle where the Royal Family goes to church and where some of the people who work at the castle live.

This was my fourth time in Crathie. The prior three times, we were supposedly going to visit Balmoral Castle, but some member of the Royal Family ended up being there so we could only visit the church.

This time there had been no discussion of any possibility of seeing Balmoral Castle. Since I had seen the tiny little church three times already, I decided to cross the bridge over the River Dee and walk to the gates of the castle. Included here is my photo of the gates – most likely the closest I will ever get to Balmoral Castle.

I did get a great photo of the phone box back across the road from the bridge to the castle. It’s very colorful with yellow daffodils around the bright red phone box.

Our final visit for the day was Crathes Castle. Like Castle Fraser, Crathes Castle was also in Aberdeenshire, near the town of Banchory. The land upon which Crathes was built was given to the Burnetts of Leys by King Robert the Bruce back in 1323. Originally the family built a Crannog (a kind of fortification made with timber on a manmade island in a lake or bog), but by 1553 they started building the castle. It was mainly a tower house with a wing added in the 18^th century.

The first thing I noticed in the Great Hall was what looked like some chainmail armor high up on the wall in a niche. Not far below is an ivory horn that Robert the Bruce also gave to the family. It was called the Horn of Leys.

Again like Castle Fraser, Crathes had six floors. The only stairs were of the turnpike variety. The stairs we were led up, however, did not have any kind of railings or even ropes. So I was holding onto the steps themselves and the walls on the way up.

One of the problems with traveling in the spring is that I have allergies. Beginning in 2016, a certain amount of dizziness accompanies the allergies. So holding onto something as I go up and down twisting, uneven stairs is somewhat of a necessity. Not too interested in falling and possibly ending up as another ghost in the castle.

My favorite bedroom had a 16^th century bed with a bedspread covered in crewel embroidery from the 17^th century. At the top of the castle was a long gallery with a wooden barrel vaulted ceiling. There was a bedroom up there too. I didn’t think I would want to have to haul myself up all of those stairs every night. However, I had once lived in a fifth floor walkup in NYC and had to go up and down those stairs constantly. I was in my early twenties at the time and quickly became used to it.

The turnpike stairs on which we came back down had railings. I was so relieved.

This castle had several rooms with very colorful painted ceilings. One of the rooms was where the ghost of this particular castle comes in. It is called the Green Lady’s room. This is where several people have seen a woman carrying a baby walk through the room and disappear at the fireplace. Skeletons of a woman and a baby were found behind the hearthstone of the fireplace when some changes were being made to the fireplace a few years back. They received a decent burial but continue to haunt.

The photo I include here of the Green Lady’s Room doesn’t show the fireplace. Unfortunately I learned of the story after having returned home from this trip, or I would have taken a photo of the fireplace.

There was a tiny little room inside of a tiny little turret. It seemed like it might be a fun place to hang out, read a book, and drink some hot chocolate, or ale or mead or mulled wine.

Once back downstairs and outside of the castle, I visited the walled garden. It was very nice. Parts were somewhat wild looking and parts were fairly formal. It had a lovely pond in it with a bench nearby. So I took a seat for a bit. I like to be able to have some time to sit and absorb it all.

During the English Civil War, the Burnetts had friends on both sides and so had letters from both sides stating that they should not be “molested”. The castle hasn’t ever been sacked or taken from the family. What can been seen is pretty much as the family left it.

We returned to Thainstone House Hotel for another night. After all that climbing up and down six floors each in two castles, I felt a relaxing bubble bath followed by a stiff glass of Scotch was the ticket.

Next time – Fyvie Castle

September 27, 2020

Scottish Castles Experience Day 1: Falkland Palace, House of Dun & Dunnotter Castle

As you may remember, I have never met a castle I didn’t like. So I figured a Rabbie’s tour with four days of Scottish Castles would be a good one. I wasn’t wrong.

Shortly before this 2017 trip, I had purchased a new, four-wheeled, hard-sided, smaller suitcase to make life easier with all of the times I would need to lift and carry the darned thing on this trip. The longest I would ever be seen by the same people was five days. So five days of tops were what I brought along. I would wear each of them up to three times. So I wouldn’t need a larger case. I had it all figured out. But, for some reason, the wheels were not all that cooperative on anything but a smooth surface (like the floor inside of the store where I bought it). Even some carpets caused an issue, much less cobblestones, uneven sidewalks and gravel. Obviously I should have test driven it before leaving home.

Because I had fought with it all the way from Waverly Train Station in Edinburgh to the hotel (just two blocks), I was not in the mood to be fighting with it for the four blocks from the hotel to the bus terminal. So I took a taxi instead. At the bus terminal all of the floors were even and tiled. Smooth sailing.

This time we had eight people – one from Malta, four from Canada, two from Germany, and me. Our Tour Director/Driver was named George and he wore a kilt. Many of the male tour directors and drivers on day trips or longer tours like this one up in Scotland wore kilts. Like all of the Rabbie’s personnel before him, George was knowledgeable, helpful, very nice to deal with, patient, and had a good sense of humor.

He would need both the patience and the good sense of humor in abundance. One of our number (not me) continually asked questions at about a five year old level. “Why did they paint the walls blue?” Each time she received an answer, she would respond with, “Oh,” and quickly ask another equally ridiculous question.

She didn’t listen to anything anyone else said, so she frequently asked things that had already been answered. Such as “Where are the people who own this castle?” when it had been said repeatedly that all of the places we were visiting were run by the National Trust of Scotland.

This carried on both while we were on the tour coach and at the site of whatever location we were touring. She drove all of the guides at the places we visited bonkers. She pretty much ignored the rest of us who were on the tour. So none of us were peppered with constant questions. Whew!

Our first castle on the tour, Falkland Palace, was built by Mary Queen of Scots’ grandfather, King James IV of Scotland. This James’ son (and Mary’s father) died at the Renaissance style palace, leaving Mary as Queen at the ripe old age of six days.

During the English Civil War, while some of Cromwell’s troops were staying there, a fire destroyed part of the palace. For a couple hundred years, the palace fell into ruin until it was bought and restored in the late 19^th century. I really liked the interior of the place, but we weren’t allowed to take photos inside. I found it to be rather cozy. It seemed like a nice place to live.

Falkland Palace had the oldest tennis court in the world still in use. Mary Queen of Scots used to play there. It managed to survive even when the palace itself was in ruins.

I really loved Falkland Palace. Even though parts were in ruins, the parts that weren’t in ruins were lovely and cozy. It seemed like a place in which it would be great to live.

We had lunch in St Andrews, in a part of town where I had never been before – along the main street in the town center. Every other time I had been there, I had confined myself to the castle and/or the Old Course. Two ladies from Quebec City (Michelle and Searan) and I had lunch at a pub on the main street. We had a tasty lunch and some of the local ale.

Built in the 1730s, the House of Dun lies in the county of Angus. More of a large country house than a castle, the Georgian house is known for its extravagant plasterwork in the salon. One of its former residents had been very handy with a needle as there was a very large amount of really well executed needlework throughout. They still had a Game Larder just outside of the kitchens. We were able to take photos inside this time.

Our last stop of the day was Dunnotter Castle. Located on a rocky outcrop with steep cliffs jutting out into the North Sea, Dunnotter was a spectacular ruin of a mainly 15^th and 16^th century castle. It was fairly recently (2015) used during parts of the filming of Macbeth, starring Michael Fassbender as the title character and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth.

After Charles II was crowned King of Scotland at Scone Palace during the English Civil War, the Honors of Scotland (the Scottish Crown Jewels) were hidden at Dunnotter Castle to keep them out of the hands of Oliver Cromwell and his troops. Katherine Drummond had carried them into the castle concealed in sacks of wool.

When Cromwell besieged the castle, the Honors were smuggled out hidden among sacks of goods over the course of three visits to the castle by Christian Fletcher, a minister’s wife. They were then buried under the floor of the church until Charles II returned. In the meantime, another woman, Anne Lindsay, removed the King’s papers from the castle sewn inside of her clothes. Some pretty brave women.

On this tour, instead of booking hotels, B&Bs or hostels, we were all together in country house hotels which were included in the price of the tour. Our first two nights were to be in Thainstone House Hotel, which was near Aberdeen and built in the 18^th century. The house was set in 44 acres of woodlands. So once you were there, you were there (unless you had a car). It had a restaurant that had the reputation of the best steaks in Aberdeen. Breakfast was mighty tasty with a buffet plus a cooked breakfast to order. Our last morning there I was in the restaurant early and our driver/tour director, George, joined me.

Next time – Day 2 of the Scottish Castles Experience with Castle Fraser, the villages of Ballater and Crathie as well as Crathes Castle.

September 20, 2020

Best of Scotland in a Day

Arrived at King’s Cross Train Station to catch my train to Edinburgh. This time the First Class ticket was more than double the Standard (as opposed to the only $20 US difference that it was for my train trip the prior year). So I had a Standard Round Trip ticket. This meant that, instead of checking my large bag and having a small table to myself in the car, I needed to find someplace to stow my large bag fairly close to where I was sitting and share a four seat table with strangers. Back when Mom and I used to fly into Gatwick Airport in London, we took the train to Victoria Station with a Standard Round Trip ticket. But that was a 40 minute ride. London to Edinburgh was four hours.

The seats were assigned in advance and I managed to have a table to myself all the way to York (halfway). But then I gained a couple who sat across from me, did not speak English, and smooched and snuggled the entire two hours from York to Edinburgh. Good thing I had a good book.

Since the Balmoral was charging its usual high prices this time, I tried the Apex Waterloo Place. This Georgian hotel wasn’t far from the Balmoral (or the train station or the grocery store) and was right across the street from where most of the day trips picked up and dropped off. A convenient location. They also had fridges in the rooms, so I picked up a few things from the grocers.

Once I was settled in the room (which was at the back of the hotel, one floor down from the entrance floor – still about three floors up from the street on that side of the hotel), I walked around in the area before it was time for the Champagne Tea reservation I had booked online when I was still in Minneapolis.

Calton Hill was an interesting place, full of monuments and giving great views of the city. The steps up the hill were right next to the hotel. The monuments included The National Monument of Scotland, which was dedicated to the Scottish soldiers and sailors who died during the Napoleonic Wars. It looked like an unfinished Greek temple. Then there was the monument to Admiral Nelson, which looked like a giant inverted telescope. There was a Robert Burns Monument, a Political Martyrs Monument and a City Observatory.

The round, Grecian-looking monument shown in the photo I have included with this post is the Dugald Stewart Monument and is a memorial to the Scottish philosopher who was a professor at the University of Edinburgh. To the left of that monument in the photo, can be seen the Gothic-looking spire of the Waverly Monument (dedicated to Sir Walter Scott), the clock tower of the Balmoral Hotel, and Edinburgh Castle up on top of the hill near the center of the photo.

The next morning I crossed the street and picked up the small group day tour Best of Scotland in a Day. These were all places I had not been to before.

At the tour pickup place, I ran into two of the women who had been on the Heart of England & Wales tour with me. They had also taken the train up to Edinburgh after the other tour ended and were doing a different day trip than I was. It was one I had been on the previous year that I had really enjoyed. It was fun to actually run into someone I knew.

We started at Dunkeld with a visit to Dunkeld Cathedral. Begun in 1260, the Cathedral stood near the River Tay in a very scenic location. The original monastery on the site dated to the 6^th century AD. In 1689, the Battle of Dunkeld took place in the area around the cathedral between the Jacobite Highlanders who supported King James II & VII and those who supported William of Orange. William and his wife, Mary (daughter of James), had recently taken over the monarchy from James, when he was kicked off the throne, in what had been called “The Glorious Revolution”. William’s supporters prevailed.

Inside the cathedral were the banners that had been carried by the Jacobites. Also inside was the sarcophagus of Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, nicknamed the “Wolf of Badenoch”. That nickname intrigued me, so I learned some more about him after taking his photo.

He was the 3^rd surviving son of King Robert II of Scotland and lived from 1343 to 1405. He had a petulant relationship with his uncle King David II of Scotland before his father became king. He was also said to have had a defiant relationship with the church. He was best known for his destruction of Elgin and the cathedral there.

He was also Justiciar of Scotia for a while, but apparently not a good one. He ended up losing a fair amount of the territories he held going into the job. The nickname, Wolf of Badenoch, was given to him due to his notorious cruelty and aggressively greedy streak. Apparently not the type of person with whom you would want to try to be friends. His father’s reputation as king suffered due to the actions of his son (and the fact that he seemed to back his son rather than attempt to curb him). The Wolf of Badenoch’s effigy is one of the very few from the Middle Ages that has survived in Scotland.

The towns of Dunkeld and Birnam have been incorporated together. The area is quite forested although the only tree that dates back to the time of the setting of Shakespeare’s Scottish play that mentioned Birnam Wood (Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him) is a single, massive oak tree. The wooded area is still called Birnam Wood however.

Not too far away was Blair Castle, the seat of the head of Clan Murray, the Duke of Atholl. This was the Scottish Castle that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited back in 1844 when the Queen began a lifelong love of Scotland. They even used the real Blair Castle when they did an episode on the visit in the “Victoria” miniseries. Shortly after her visit, the Queen gave the Duke the permission to create his own private army, the Atholl Highlanders. They remain the only legal private army in Europe.

I had a running joke with my mom that I wanted to introduce her to the 11^th Duke (who was single) so he would fall in love with her and we could all live in the castle. Unfortunately, he died before I could put that plan into motion.

Upon entering the castle, I took a couple photos of the entrance hall before being told that no photography was allowed except in the ballroom. Some of the shields and muskets in the entrance hall saw service at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.

I put my camera away until we got to the ballroom. Those of you who may have seen Scotland episode of the “Victoria” miniseries definitely saw the ballroom. It was quite prominently featured as were the castle grounds.

The grounds and gardens of the castle were quite extensive. After lunch at the restaurant within the castle, I set off on a circular hike through the grounds and gardens. My first stop was at the ruins of St Bride’s Kirk. This contained the last resting place of John Graham of Claverhouse, who was nicknamed “Bonnie Dundee”.

“Bonnie Dundee” sounded like a much friendlier nickname than “Wolf of Badenoch”. It turned out that he earned his nickname at the time of his death. He was a leader of the 1689 Jacobite rising and died a hero at the Battle of Killiecrankie, which the Jacobites won just days before losing at the Battle of Dunkeld.

Bonnie Dundee was the commander of the Jacobites, who were in possession of Blair Castle at the time. If they had lost the battle, the castle would have been forfeit to the Crown of England. As it was, it was a pretty rousing victory. His breastplate and helmet were on display inside the castle.

After my hike through the gardens, I returned to the castle with a small amount of time left before we were to depart. So I took a seat on a shaded bench, listened to the sounds of the stream bubbling past and the bagpiper playing next to the castle.

Since Killiecrankie was not far from Blair Castle, that was our next visit for the day. Killiecrankie Gorge was quite a scenic place with the battlefield just beyond.

At Queen’s View, we got some really nice photos of what is considered to be one of the best views in Scotland. When Queen Victoria visited in 1866, she thought that it was named for her. It wasn’t. It was named for Isabella, the first wife of King Robert the Bruce, more than 500 years earlier. The lake is Loch Tummel.

Our last visit of the day involved a roughly 20 minute walk deep into the Caledonian Forest. At the end of the walk was a building. We entered and found a viewing platform for a magnificent waterfall called the Black Spout. It was quite dramatic.

Next time – the first day of the Scottish Castles Experience tour with eight castles in four days.

June 28, 2020

Much More of Hadrian’s Wall

A full day exploring various sections of the Roman wall built across Britain, near present day Scotland, in 122 AD to keep those wild tribes north of the wall north of the wall. As a descendant of more than one of those wild tribes, I have to say that I’m rather proud of them putting the “fear of God” into those Roman Legions. The Romans were used to just going all over Europe and the Middle East conquering everybody.

This was another Rabbie’s day trip, leaving from across the street. This time we had a much smaller group. Me and two young guys in their twenties who were from the Dominican Republic and were re-enactors of the Roman Ninth Legion (officially Legio IX Hispana). They had their banner with them and posed for photos at the wall, some of which I took for them. The Ninth Legion is the one that was stationed in York and supposedly marched up to Caledonia and disappeared. This was prior to the wall being built and has been considered to be one of the reasons why Hadrian ordered its building.

They didn’t speak much English so most of the conversation was between the Tour Guide and me. It seemed they understood more English than they could speak although the Tour Guide would write down the times they needed to be back to our chariot (the tour coach). They were always there on time.

After a bathroom break at Jedburgh, our next stop was Carter Bar – one of the border crossings between Scotland and England. It was also the site of the last battle between England and Scotland in the 1500s (Culloden technically wasn’t between England and Scotland, but between British Royal forces and Bonnie Prince Charlie and his forces).

Once we crossed the border, we drove along Dere Street, which was built by the Romans, to our first stop along the wall. This was Housesteads Fort again. But we were only stopping briefly. This was just to give us a taste. We were heading for Steel Rigg.

Along the way, between Housesteads and Steel Rigg, was Sycamore Gap. This is on a part of the wall which runs along the edge of a cliff and has some rather dramatic dips formed by retreating glaciers. In the middle of one of the sharpest dips is an enormous sycamore tree. The tree is a few hundred years old and was used in a pivotal scene near the beginning of the Kevin Costner film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

Steel Rigg got its name from the 17^th century farm that used to be there. It was a cool site with lots of dips and twists in the ground upon which it runs. The wall itself was low and grass covered on top, but it ran on for a ways. It briefly snowed while we were there. The ground got a “wee bit slippy” but we managed to stay on our feet while getting photos and heading back to the van.

Our next stop was Vindolanda. The name comes from a post that was excavated there and was the actual name of the Roman garrison, which predated Hadrian’s Wall and had a village just outside of it. The fort was built 85 AD (the wall 122 AD) and ended up just south of the wall.

Vindolanda has been an active archaeological site since the early 1800s. It has a very interesting museum containing clothing, shoes, pottery, tools, equipment, weapons, and even some skeletons of both dogs and horses. All of these artifacts would have been from between 85 AD and 370 AD. It was amazing to me how well things had been preserved.

The most important artifacts found there have been the Vindolanda Tablets which are handwritten wooden leaf tablets. These were the oldest surviving handwritten documents (in ink) in Britain at the time they were discovered. More recently older documents were found in London. They included letters, various lists (of supplies, for example), military orders, a request for “more beer” –- quite a variety.

I had lunch at a café next to the museum and then went exploring outside. Temples (one was a combined Roman/Celtic temple), bathhouses, barracks, officer’s quarters, storage buildings, domestic homes, and drainage ditches were among the excavations with more buildings being discovered all the time.

In addition, they had replicas of what the origin wooden portions of the wall would have looked like as well as the stone walls. People could enter the replicas and walk along at the height (16 feet) and width (six feet) that the real walls would have been when the Romans were manning them. I climbed up on both the wooden and stone replicas to see what they would have been like.

Originally called Banna (horn) by the Celts, Birdoswald (named for the farm it is on) has a Roman fort, a milecastle (a small fort), a turret, and one of the longest stretches of a pretty solid wall from six to eight feet in height. The site also has the remains of a Dark Ages Hall and a Medieval Tower House as well as the 16^th century farmhouse.

When the Romans arrived, the site was a forested bog. They needed to clear and drain it before they could build. It seems that the main Roman occupants of this fort were Dacians, from what eventually became present day Romania. They know this because of Dacian inscriptions found in the fort and on the wall.

After the Romans left, parts of the fort were still in use. This is also when the Dark Ages Hall was built. Remains from the Anglo-Saxon period have been found at Birdoswald as well as the Middle Ages. The main west gate of the fort was apparently still in use at that time. A small Medieval Tower house was built next to it. By the 16^th century, the west gate had collapsed and the current farmhouse was built. The tower of the farmhouse was added in the 18^th century.

Here was where we had the opportunity to walk on the actual wall. To do so would involve some climbing. This would have been much easier back when I was in my twenties. By 2016 I was a long way from my twenties, but I was determined to walk on the wall. Using my hands as well as my feet, I climbed to a height of about six feet (I judged the height by the distance over my 5’3” head the wall appeared to be at that point).

Once on top of the wall, I walked along it rather gingerly. It was only about three feet wide at this point, rather rough, and missing some stones here and there. Plus, my spring allergies had recently shown me a new symptom –- a slight dizziness. Said dizziness was more pronounced up there on top of the wall. So determined as I was to be up and walk along it, I was being careful not to fall off.

Imagine my feelings as I saw a child, about three feet in height, running along the top of the wall towards me. His parents were down on the ground and didn’t seem to be concerned about his safety any more than mine. They didn’t tell him to stop running or to be careful about me, although they were looking up and could see us both. I froze totally until he passed me. Then I continued on for a while, taking the photo of my foot on the wall that I use here in my blog, before going back down.

Back on terra firma, I took the photo showing some other people on top of the wall coming from the opposite direction. The wall was wider there. The photo of my foot doesn’t give much of an indication of how high up I was, but the photo of the longer course of the wall gives a pretty good idea of both the height and the roughness of the top of the wall. You can probably guess that I was pretty excited about having been able to get up there and walk along for a bit.

We were not too far from Carlisle and from the west coast of England. When our visit at Birdoswald was over, we continued along the wall until reaching Lanercost Priory. The priory was founded in roughly 1169 and used several stones from Hadrian’s Wall. King Edward I of England stayed a few times at the priory and was initially buried there until he was moved to Westminster Abbey.

From Lanercost, we pulled northwards to re-enter Scotland. Our last pit stop was in the town of Moffet. Just outside of town is an area called The Devil’s Beef Tub. This was where four mountains sit very close together to form a very deep and dark ravine. Cattle thieves once used this area to hide themselves and their stolen cattle. Later (in 1935) a Moffat doctor used this location to hide the bodies of his murder victims, including his own family. The road we were on had a sharp drop down into the ravine next to it which provided a pretty dramatic viewpoint.

Back in Edinburgh, I purchased some food at Sainsbury’s for dinner in my room. That night, BBC2 had a three hour “Shakespeare Live” telecast from Stratford-Upon-Avon which was being hosted by David Tennant and Catherine Tate. I settled in for the night with my dinner and thoroughly enjoyed the show. You can probably pick out Benedict Cumberbatch, Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, and Judy Dench in the cast photo.

Next time – the train to London and a boat trip to Greenwich.

June 21, 2020

Dunfermline Abbey & Stirling Castle

Dunfermline Abbey was another of King David I of Scotland’s abbeys. But this one was personal as it was founded on behalf of his mother, Queen Margaret of Scotland, who was later canonized as a saint. Margaret was buried before the high altar until her canonization, after which a special shrine was built for her and her husband, King Malcolm III. If you are familiar with Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Malcolm was the son of King Duncan (who was murdered in the play by Macbeth). Both in the play and real life, Malcolm avenged his father’s death, taking back the crown.

During the Scottish Reformation, which replaced Catholicism with the Presbyterian religion in Scotland, Margaret’s shrine was destroyed with both her and Malcolm’s remains dispersed and eventually lost. What remained were a couple of stacked slabs upon which her tomb used to sit and upon which visitors often place flowers.

Both Duncan and David were also buried at Dunfermline, along with other Scottish royals of their family. King Robert the Bruce was buried there and can be found under the pulpit of the church that was built inside of the remains of part of the abbey. A beautiful stained glass window showing the wedding of Margaret and Malcolm was also found in the church.

Where Duncan and David’s remains are located, nobody seems certain; just that they were somewhere in the abbey. It seems that Robert the Bruce fared better because he had been buried in the quire of the abbey, which was the part that became the church.

On the whole, this abbey did better than many of David’s abbeys because it survived the Rough Wooing (too far north) and the Reformation zealots were mainly interested in destroying the shrine of a Catholic saint and not necessarily the entire abbey. Around the top of the church end of the abbey is the name “King Robert the Bruce”. That might have helped in saving it.

From Dunfermline, we drove to Bannockburn. This was the site of where Robert the Bruce (who had taken the Scottish crown in 1306) and his army of Scots (and some say Templar Knights, as he accepted many Templars into Scotland who fled persecution in 1307) soundly defeated the English armies of King Edward II in 1314. This was what made Scotland a free and separate country again until King James VI of Scotland also became James I of England in 1603.

A statue of Robert the Bruce on horseback stands above the battlefield as part of a memorial to that victory and to the Bruce himself. They say that the statue is a fairly accurate representation of what he looked like. If so, he was not a handsome guy.

Robert’s 4^th great grandfather was David I. Just a couple generations after David died, the direct royal line died out and the throne was up in the air with twelve claimants for it; all descendants of one or another prior king. Edward I of England was in the position to choose among them and picked John Balliol, mainly because he could use Balliol as a puppet. Long story short (don’t worry, I get to William Wallace shortly), the Bruce ended up as the main candidate and then won at Bannockburn. Stirling Castle could be seen from Bannockburn and that was where we went next.

I love Stirling Castle. This was my second trip to it and it had undergone a lot of improvements since I was there the first time with my mom. Right outside of the castle is another statue of Robert the Bruce, which is a little more idealized. I looked over the wall next to the statue down at Stirling Bridge.

This version of Stirling Bridge was built of stone to replace the wooden bridge that featured so prominently in William Wallace’s victory there. Wallace and his men waited up on Abbey Crag (where the Wallace Monument is today) while the English forces marched across the very narrow (could accommodate only two men on horse abreast) wooden bridge that was the only bridge across the River Forth at Stirling.

Once Wallace felt that enough men had crossed the bridge, the Scots swooped down upon them and pretty much annihilated them. Only one man made it back across the bridge. The English forces burned the bridge so the Scots couldn’t follow them and fled.

At the time of the Battle of Stirling a castle already existed on Castle Crag, although it was not as extensive as the present castle that dates mainly from 15^th and 16^th centuries. However, King Edward I of England’s forces occupied the castle until the Battle of Stirling Bridge when they were dislodged by Wallace and the Scottish forces. The castle then changed hands many times between 1296 (Battle of Stirling Bridge) and the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

The English once again took over the castle in 1336 and were dislodged by Robert Stewart, who became King Robert II of Scotland in 1342. Up until this time, the castle was mainly timber, mud and plaster. The Stewarts began to build in stone by 1380. But still, the majority of the present castle was constructed between 1490 and 1600 by Kings James IV, James V, and James VI (Mary Queen of Scots’ grandfather, father and son).

This was where Mary Queen of Scots was brought shortly after her birth and lived until she was sent to France at the age of five. Stirling Castle was also where her son was brought shortly after his birth and he continued to live there much of the time until he left for London in 1603. His eldest son, Henry, was born there.

As I said earlier, I love Stirling Castle. This is a castle as a castle should be. Now it is a tourist destination and is not used as a royal residence like Holyrood Palace or a military fortress like Edinburgh Castle. They restored both the palace within the castle and the Great Hall.

There was quite a bit of controversy when the Great Hall was painted externally in a bright gold. But that was what it looked like back when James V was king. It certainly stands out as you can see in an included photo of the Great Hall and the Royal Palace.

The interior of the Great Hall was in the process of being restored when Mom and I had visited before, but it was complete by my 2016 visit, including the restoration of the hammerbeam ceiling. They even served soup, sandwiches, and desserts at the far end of the hall with tables and chairs. I can truthfully say that I have dined in the Great Hall of Stirling Castle.

They also had some men dressed as they would have been back in the day. I love when places have costumed interpreters. Loads more tourist sites in both the US and the UK are doing that now. Gives another dimension to the visit.

The Royal Palace was dark and dingy and didn’t have many rooms open when Mom were there in 2005. Nine years later, nearly the whole palace was open and restored and quite amazing. It’s only been in recent years that interior restorations have added loads of colors to the white, grey or blackened stone walls. This is because these rooms originally had bright colors.

After the palace, I went around to the other buildings in the main courtyard – a chapel and the King’s Old Building (parts of which date back to James I). Then I headed for a garden on the other side of the chapel. From the garden, I took some stairs up the wall to do the wall walk.

From there I could clearly see the Wallace Monument, which is a Victorian tower up on Abbey Crag. It contains his claymore, which is a large, two-handed, double-edged sword. I have one that is close to four feet in length. His is said to be nearly six feet as he was nearly seven feet tall himself.

I stayed on the walls for as long as I could, taking them to the end near the castle kitchens. They are next to the North Gate, which is the oldest part of the castle that is still complete (not like the King’s Old Building or the kitchens which have bits and pieces of various building periods). The kitchens themselves are quite old.

I ended this visit there and headed back out to the car park to catch the small group tour bus back to Edinburgh. Since I arrived a little earlier in the evening than usual with these day trips, I decided to have dinner at the restaurant in the hotel that was called Hadrian’s at that time. I had rabbit with whipped potatoes and baby vegetables.

Next time – another trip to much more of Hadrian’s Wall with the opportunity to actually walk on part of it.

June 14, 2020

Around Edinburgh Part 2

On this visit to Edinburgh Castle, I went to the National War Museum of Scotland. The building was built about 1700 and was used for an ordinance storehouse and later as a hospital. The place was jam-packed with all sorts of items from throughout the centuries, such as uniforms, letters, claymores (a large, two-handed broadsword), chemical suits, etc. The exhibits were all behind glass and somewhat crowded together, so photos were difficult. But I did include one here containing a jumble of items.

On my way up to the main part of the castle from the museum, I saw some of the current Scottish army in their fatigues, carrying their dress uniforms complete with kilts. Once I got to the top, I went over to the wall that looked down over the New Town and shot a few photos of the view.

At the front of the photo included here, is the Scottish National Gallery (the main art museum in Edinburgh). Behind it to the right, the building with the kind of wavy roof is the Waverly Train Station. To the left of that building, with a mostly flat roof and some green turf, is the shopping center. It has the one level above ground and two more underground. Behind the shopping center, the Victorian building with the clock tower is the Balmoral Hotel. The clock on the clock tower is always about three minutes fast so people won’t miss their train.

In the main portion of the castle the rooms that the visitor passes through on their way to see the Scottish Crown Jewels (the “Honors of Scotland”) and the Stone of Scone had exhibits featuring Scottish history in them instead of being bare. The rest of the rooms were no longer bare either. They had been refurbished with paint and other decoration to look more like they would have back in their heyday. Some paintings were on the walls and some sticks of furniture added. The rooms are still quite small which makes photography a challenge, but a photo of the interior of one of the rooms has been included. The Great Hall had much more arms and armor in it.

One of the legends regarding Edinburgh Castle is that of the Lone Piper. It is said that, several hundred years ago when tunnels were found under the castle that seemed to lead to Holyrood Palace, a young male piper was sent into the tunnels beneath the castle to see where the tunnels went. He played his pipes as he marched along so that the people up above could hear him and know where he was.

At some point, however, around Tron Kirk (near the present day intersection with the North Bridge) the pipes were abruptly silenced and he was never seen again. Notice I didn’t say he was never heard from again. This is because there are times still when the sound of bagpipes can be heard from beneath the castle and the Royal Mile.

On the Esplanade in front of the castle, where the Edinburgh Military Tattoo takes place every year, if you search for it, you can find a memorial on one of the walls to the women who were burnt at the stake as witches there. It is near the end of the wall on the left of where you exit out of the Esplanade to the Royal Mile.

Leaving the castle grounds and heading down the Royal Mile, it wasn’t long before I reached Gladstone’s Land. This was a 17^th century (completed about 1620) tenement house that belonged to an upper middle class merchant who had his shops on the ground floor, lived above, and rented out parts of the house to others. In Scotland, a tenement is simply a building in which multiple people have rooms or flats (apartments). This building is six floors high.

Connecting the floors are turnpike stairs. These are narrow, stone, circular stairs that exist in loads of medieval and older Scottish residences. The steps are wider out near the walls and way more narrow in the inside near the stone pillar the steps are built around. A photo is included here.

Several rooms were open on the first two floors. The kitchen was quite interesting and included a wheeled, wooden contraption that kept a baby in a standing position while they walk around in it. The room with the painted ceiling was a great find. This was not a restored ceiling, but the original, and is very colorful. The room was decorated as a bedchamber. There were a couple of women with owls just outside where the shops would have been on the ground floor.

I rode around for the rest of the tour, passing the First Minister’s House in Charlotte Square as well as a Georgian House that can be toured. Mom and I toured it on a previous trip. The First Minister is the Scottish version of a Prime Minister. The house is just sitting there without any visible security.

There was also a house where the owner, an obstetrician named James Simpson, in 1847 would experiment with chloroform on his dinner guests. Some of his experiments went well; some did not.

His behavior was mild in comparison to Burke and Hare who, in 1828, supplied bodies for dissection at the medical schools by murdering 16 people. Hare turned state’s evidence against Burke and was set free. Burke was hanged and dissected. His skeleton remains at the Edinburgh Medical School.

When I returned to the hotel that evening, I saw on the BBC that Prince had died back home in Minneapolis. I was both shocked and saddened. Plus I felt bad that I was so far from home.

Next time – Dunfermline Abbey & Stirling Castle

June 7, 2020

Around Edinburgh Part 1

There are several Hop On Hop Off bus tours around Edinburgh offered online through Viator. I booked one of them that was going to the places I wanted to go (I actually think it was the same one I had done several years earlier with my mom). They all depart from the Waverly Bridge near the Scott Memorial. I planned to spend the day hopping on and off to explore different locations along the way, so I was at the starting location at 9:00am.

I was met by a woman who was checking our online receipts and giving us the appropriate tickets for the tour we had selected. When she saw my receipt, she suggested another tour that had a live commentator instead of a recording. There was no further exchange of money needed. She just printed out a new receipt for me, gave me the ticket and route map, and I was all set. I thought that was great. A live commentator is definitely better than a recording. Not only can you ask them questions, but they tend to add a certain amount of humor as well as extra information to their commentary.

The route was different from the other tour, but went to all of the same locations. I hopped on the bus and went upstairs to the open air seating. The first place I hopped off was near the Scottish Parliament building to visit Holyrood Palace. Although I tend to visit this palace (which is the Queen’s official residence when in Edinburgh) most times I am in Edinburgh, this time I didn’t have any time limits. I could take as long as I wanted.

I know that palace almost as well as I know my own house. There is a portion of it that dates back to Mary Queen of Scots — basically one tower with her suite of rooms, her husband’s rooms, and the turnpike staircase that linked them.

The rest of the State Rooms were created when Charles II refurbished the palace after Cromwell’s troops had burned down part of it and abused most of the rest of it. So, for most of Holyrood, you feel you are in the late 1600s and then step into the late 1500s when entering Mary’s rooms. The original palace had been built by David I of Scotland in the 1100s. But most of that was gone.

I have my certain favorite rooms. Mary’s rooms of course. Then the Throne Room with the portraits of the Stuart kings, the King’s Bedchamber with the huge red curtained bed, and the Gallery with what are supposed to be portraits of every Scottish king. I get a kick of the portraits because they mostly look alike and tend to have fairly prominent noses, like Charles II had. Should you visit and burst into laughter when you see the portraits, you can always blame it on me.

Because of Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday, they had an exhibit of the Queen’s gowns and suits plus a tartan gown that had belonged to Queen Victoria. If I hadn’t already known that Victoria had been tiny, the gown might have been a surprise. She was super tiny at only 5’0”. She was also petite with a very small waist at the time she wore that gown, which was 1835 to 1837 (she became queen in 1837 at the age of eighteen).

In Mary Queen of Scots’ bedroom, there was a place where I could actually sit down. I sat for a while looking all around the room. It was pretty much empty at the time and I could really take it all in. I explored the side room that was used as a dining room for very intimate groups (it’s a tiny room). This was the room from which her secretary, David Rizzio, was dragged and then stabbed to death in front of a very pregnant Mary by her husband, Lord Darnley, and his pals.

After that, Mary fled to Edinburgh Castle to give birth to her son, James, who became James VI of Scotland and succeeded Elizabeth I as James I of England. James was taken to Stirling Castle after his birth to be raised Protestant (his mother was Catholic). This was just the start of Mary’s troubles.

Darnley ended up getting murdered a few months after James was born. Lord Bothwell kidnapped Mary and took her to Dunbar Castle. For some reason, Bothwell and Mary got married. Then Mary ended up being imprisoned at Loch Leven Castle, where she miscarried twins. She was then forced to abdicate the throne of Scotland in favor of her one-year-old son.

She escaped from Loch Leven, raised an army, was defeated, and taken to Carlisle Castle. She spent the rest of her life imprisoned in various locations, involved in various plots (both to regain her own throne and to take Elizabeth’s) until she finally stood trial for one of the plots to take the throne of England. She was found guilty and eventually executed. She was buried at Westminster Abbey by her son, James, (who had her moved from Peterborough Cathedral) on one side of the Henry VII Chapel while her cousin, Elizabeth I, is buried on the other side of that same chapel.

I find the whole Mary Queen of Scots story to be quite fascinating. But she didn’t seem to be the brightest bulb in the fixture. So many of her life choices were doomed to failure.

Since I had all of the time that I wanted to see what I wanted, after spending time in the palace and then in the ruins of the abbey next door (also built by David I), I took a garden path from the abbey through the grounds. I had never had the time to do that before.

It was a lovely walk in a beautiful garden which circled around to the rear of the abbey where the foundations of the rest of the abbey had been recently discovered. It was once about double its current size. I could also see the back side of the palace, which consisted of the private royal quarters. I could see the private stairs to the royal apartments. There was also a parade ground back there.

Coming around to the other side of the palace provided a really great view of Arthur’s Seat. This is another extinct volcano. There are the remains of an Iron Age hill fort at the top and some miniature coffins containing wooden figures were found in a cave. Nobody is really sure where it got its name. Some association to King Arthur perhaps? There was a prince of Dalriada (prior to Scotland becoming Scotland) back in the 500s named Arthur.

As I was heading out of the palace grounds to have lunch at the palace café, I was offered some champagne and a cupcake by palace staff in honor of the Queen’s 90^th birthday. I had my dessert first and then some lunch.

Between the Palace and the place where I needed to catch the hop on hop off bus was a place called White Horse Close. This is a little group of buildings off of the Royal Mile through what looks like an alley. I found out a long time ago that things that look like alleys are often very old streets and have some great places hidden in them. White Horse Close dates to the 17^th century and used to be a little residential area behind the White Horse Inn. The lovely buildings in the Close were turned into housing for the working class in 1889 when the neighborhood was somewhat run down. Currently these buildings would cost a very pretty penny to live in.

I stayed on the tour bus for several stops until reaching Edinburgh Castle. A relatively new Radisson Blu hotel on the Royal Mile was built to resemble a row of medieval townhouses. I love that. It fits in with the existing architecture.

The National Museum of Scotland consists of a modern building and a Victorian building, combining a museum with collections of Scottish antiquities and another focusing on natural history and science. These museums are right by Greyfriars Bobby, the pub made famous by the little dog who stayed by his human’s grave for years after his owner’s death. The entrance to the cemetery is next to the pub. Mom and I visited both Bobby’s and his owner’s graves during a previous visit.

Next time – Around Edinburgh Part 2