Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Day 13, Monday, Septemeber 28 "The Castle"

Good morning, friends and family!Today was Castle day. The Edinburgh Castle is the place from which Scottish Kings and Queens reigned their county. It sits on top of a large volcanic rock that is 70 million years old and is the highest point in the city.

It is made up of about 20 separate buildings, some very large with many levels; some very small and private. It was built and rebuilt over many centuries. We took the #27 bus up to New College and walked up the last little (but extremely steep) way.

Here is the entrance to the Castle. On the left is a statue of Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland. On the right is William Wallace, the Scottish Freedom Fighter who was immortalized in the movie Brave Heart. In the center is David Capes, famous scholar (no, David is not writing the blog today! He is off working.)

At this site there were 4 different gates to serve as a defense. Today, 2 of them remain.

At the first level beyond the entrance, you find the first set of buildings and a row of cannons that over look the north wall. Behind David and the cannons, you can see a long row of buildings. These were the stables where all the horses and other animals at the castle were housed.
  Looking over the wall you see a great view of the city and the Firth of Forth ("firth" is like a bay). This is just the first level of the Castle grounds, but you can see how easy it would have been to defend it since it sits on a high point.
On this same level is a museum of more modern Scottish military activity. It is located in a building known as the Governor's House and New Barracks. The military still use this building today. That bagpipe guy was very cooperative in posing for pictures!
There is a very interesting custom here. At exactly 1:00 pm every afternoon (except Christmas and Good Friday), a cannon fires a single round and a ball drops from a tower. This was done in past centuries so that sailors could set their navigational instruments to a precise time. It still carries on each day today.
The man in the picture below is Tom MacKay (pronounced  "Mikai").  For decades he shot the "one o'clock cannon" everyday. His son, Robert (who you saw in a previous post) works at the University of Edinburgh as the Servitor...meaning he is in charge of looking after all the building facilities there. This man, his father, is a bit of a legend around here.  He died a few years ago.  No, that isn't really him.  It is a cardboard image of him.





Next you walk up the winding path to the  2nd level of buildings. You may notice in the middle of the walkway, the stones are laid in a different pattern. This was to make it easier for the horses to get up the steep pathways rather than slipping on the stones spaced further apart.



One of the first buildings you come to on the 2nd level is actually the oldest surviving structure here in the Castle and also in the whole city of Edinburgh. It is St. Margaret's Chapel. Margaret, whose family were contenders for the throne of England, fled England when William the Conqueror came to power instead. She married the King of Scotland, Malcolm III, and became one of their most loved queens. She was a devout Christian, promoted education and welfare for the poor.  She was recognized as a saint by the Catholic church many years later.





This is one of the rooms in the Royal living quarters. Here is the fireplace in the sitting room. Just behind this room is the royal bedroom and just off that is a tiny little room where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to King James VI of Scotland who became King James I of England.  He is the King James of the King James Bible.  As our guide said, the room is no bigger than a cupboard.


This picture is taken in The Great Hall, another part of the royal living quarters. Here they held banquets and official royal activities. David got to go behind the barrier and try out a Scottish Long Sword called a Claymore.  It weighs about 8 pounds.




The Great Hall contains armor on loan from The Tower of London. There were swords of all sizes, body armor, shields, spears, guns, trench cannons and more.











The next two pictures are taken from the front and back of a building now use as the National War Museum. It contains memorials and the names of each and every person who has died in the service of Scotland.  Scotland lost over 150,000 people in "the Great War" (WW1).  It lost about 50,000 in WW2.  But Britain continues to lose soldiers every week in Afghanistan.  Some of those are Scots and their names will be added.  It is a solemn place.





There was a very detailed display for "The Honours of Scotland", also known as the crowned jewels...the sword, scepter and crown. These were bestowed on the Kings and Queens of Scotland when it became officially recognized as a nation by the religious leaders. They were hidden numerous times to protect them from invaders and were stashed away for 111 years after Scottish and English Parliaments united in 1707. There they stayed until Walter Scott  remembered them and started searching for them. They were found in a wooden truck, just where they had been left.  David got a chance to  join a procession of bishops and popes.  But he wasn't dressed for the occasion.

After all this walking and climbing, we went into The Queen Ann Cafe and had coffee and scones.YUM!

The buttery looking stuff is "clotted cream". Apparently it is the product you get when you churn cream but just before it turns to butter. Delicious!

The castle was about to close so we started the walk back down to the bottom level. Here is a shot of me standing against some of the volcanic rock that serves as a foundation for all the buildings. You can see bits and pieces of it coming out from under and around many of the buildings. Two sides of the castle sit on the exposed rock and a third side, though covered in vegetation, is also the same rock. In person, it is easy to see that it would be very difficult for an army to overtake the castle except from the one side which has a more gradual incline.


This was a great day of sight seeing. Before I came to Scotland, I read a book by Alison Weir called The Children of Henry VIII and now I am reading another of her books called The Life of Elizabeth I. This visit to the castle was great timing because I have learned a lot of the background information which made this visit even more fascinating. I hope you all are having a great day and will post more soon.

1 comment:

  1. Wow!! This is a great trip!! I love seeing you guys! The castle is amazing!

    ReplyDelete