On the left of the door is a statue of Robert Bruce, and on the right is William Wallace! I was very pleased. This is a place of heroes, and these are two of mine!
Ignore my hair by the way. I fell asleep with it wet, and it was still wet when I woke up, so I brushed it straight and expected it to dry straight. Despite twenty five years of experience to the contrary. I'm obviously a fast learner. Still, Merida was from Scotland, right?
Edinburgh castle is a fortress. It's been under siege many times, and the whole thing is built purely for defense. It's got a dry moat, a portcullis, steep stairs, guns, and a prison. Built on a volcanic crag, it's got a cliff on three sides. It's never fallen.
According to our guide though, it has been surrendered twenty-six times. Once in particular was during the time of Mary, Queen of Scots. She and her supporters were inside the castle. Those who wanted her son to be king were outside, firing cannon.
See the tall tower in this picture? No, you don't, because it's not there anymore. It's called David's tower, after King David I who built it.
After a long seige, the tower was hit, which collapsed and blocked the well shown above. That was the only source of water inside the walls, and with it so blocked, Queen Mary and her defenders were forced to surrender.
Inside, it's like a city, shaped like a big, ascending spiral. Kind of like Gondor, actually. Up ahead is the last gate before you reach the top. It's called Foog's gate. Nobody knows why it's called that or what it means.
Most of the buildings in here were built since the 12th century. This is because Robert Bruce, realizing he couldn't defend all his strongholds at once, had all the buildings inside the castle destroyed, so the English wouldn't want to take it.
All the buildings, that is, except one.
Saint Margaret's chapel was built by her son in the 11th century, not long after she was sainted. Most of my pictures of it are on my camera, so I can't access them now, but this is one of the windows inside, portraying her. Robert Bruce didn't want to knock down a religious building, so the chapel is the oldest building in the castle, and as such, the oldest building in Edinburgh.
Here's an example of how the castle has grown and changed. To the bottom right you can see the volcanic rock the whole thing is built on. Then as you look up the wall, you can see at least three different types of stonework, illustrating how they kept building and improving as time passed. Robert Bruce fought here. Mary Queen of Scots lived here, and her son James VI of Scotland and I of England was born here.
So neat!
Oh! We saw the Crown Jewels of Scotland! When we saw the jewels of England, they literally glittered with encrusted jewels and there were tons of them. Four or five crowns, scepter, orb, dishes, etc. Scotland has fewer, but what there is are wonderful.
This is an artist's conception of Robert Bruce being crowned king. The earliest Scottish coronation we know anything about is when Saint Columba inaugurated King Aedan by "laying his hand upon his head" in 574. Interesting, huh? They take it very seriously, using holy oil for anointing, and seating the king on the Stone of Scone.
When Edward I took over Scotland, he took the Stone of Scone and put it in his throne in London, where it stayed for seven hundred years. In 1996, the stone was finally given back to Scotland.
The rest of the regalia was made later, after that time. It was used for the coronation of the baby Mary Queen of Scots. When Oliver Cromwell took over England, the regalia was hidden, to prevent it being destroyed. Some say the crown was smuggled out under a lady's dress, while the sword and scepter were snapped in half and carried away in a bundle of flax by her maid. Either way, they were buried under the flooring in a chapel, and not brought out until after Charles II took the throne again.
In the 1700's Scottish Parliament handed the power over to England and stood down. The Scottish regalia was locked up in a massive chest, and left for 111 years. Then people started coming up with theories that perhaps they weren't actually in the box. Sir Walter Scott, of Ivanhoe fame, got permission to look, and for the first time in a century, brought the treasures to light.
Now, there were no pictures allowed, but I'll try to describe. If it bores you, too bad. Skip it.
Or you can look at a picture of a postcard I bought. I'm pretty sure that's not in the spirit of the law, but whatever.
Yes, you can see the reflection of my hands. Sorry. The curly thing at the top handle is the hilt of the sword.
There's a sword, probably five feet long, with a crosspiece the length of my forearm. You can see the line where the blade has been mended. Not in the picture though.
There's a scepter with a globe of rock crystal as big as the circle I can make with my thumb and middle finger.
There's a sword belt and scabbard made out of silk and gold thread. It's decayed a little from being hidden in the wall of the church for so long.
There's also a crown. To me, it looked more like a king's crown than any of the British ones. It was red velvet and gold and pearls!
Last but best, there's the Stone of Scone. (They say it "skoon") It's a big block of slightly grayish stone. If I put my fists together with my elbows making a straight line, it's a little shorter than that. It has rusty metal rings fixed to both sides, with indentations chipped into the rock so they can be folded down flat. The bottom doesn't seem to be quite flat - looked more rounded to me, but the cloth it was on made it hard to tell. On the postcard it looks flat. I was so excited to see it! I couldn't stand it.
Then we went to the palace of Holyroodhouse. You leave Edinburgh castle, walk a mile down the street, and it ends at the palace. This the road is called the Royal Mile, since it begins and ends with royalty.
This is where the Queen stays when she comes to Edinburgh. Unlike the castle, the palace is built for comfort, not fortification. Charles I was crowned here, and Bonnie Prince Charlie hosted a ball as he tried to recruit people for his cause.
First we stopped by an exhibit. This was the best thing in it. It's a gold cup from the Bronze Age. It's an absolutely fabulous find, because only about seven artifacts have survived, and one of them is this amazing cup. It's not huge - I estimate it would hold maybe a cup and a half of water, but it's made of thinly hammered gold. This is before smelting or iron tools, so it would have been made with rocks and bones.
Then we went in the palace. No pictures inside, but I got one of the ruined Abbey on the side.
Inside were a lot of artifacts. We saw where Mary Queen of Scots lived, and the room where Darnley had her counsellor, dragged out and stabbed. There was a lock of her hair, and a lock of Bonnie Prince Charlie's hair, as well as a letter he had signed. (!!!) I also saw a box owned by Flora Macdonald, the woman who helped Prince Charlie escape his pursuers and get to France. The box was silver, not much bigger than my thumbnail.
I had a minor fangirl moment after we left. I've seen Prince Charlie's hair, and the place where Bruce fought, and a statue of Wallace!
Then we went to our third museum of the day: the Museum of Childhood.
Recognize anything? I did.
This piano was like a glorified version of Grandpa's blue and red one. It actually played, so Miriam and I pooled our money and put fifty pence in to hear a song.
This is a record player with accompanying pictures. You put the picture roll in like a piano roll, turn on the story record, and watch the pictures move as the story plays. Sadly, it was behind glass so I couldn't see if it worked.
Mom, these looked familiar. Also, below is some scout stuff for Dad.
After that, it was five o-clock, and everything closed. A few stores and bars aside, everything closes super early here. Even the stores are all closed at nine. So we wandered down the street to admire the fantastic skyline.
Then we realized the Scottish Art Gallery was open late on Thursdays - late means seven, by the way. So we went on in and enjoyed our fourth museum of the day. Also, we found a completely surprising Da Vinci there - Mary and Jesus. I was so surprised, I forgot to take a picture. Sorry. I'm not used to having Da Vinci's and Raphael's and Reuben's paintings all tossed in rooms like they're everyday occurrences.
I did take a picture of this one though. And yes, I did a little editing job. Don't hate me - I just didn't want to put naked people on my blog. I thought it was thought provoking. It contrasts the strict justice of the Old Testament, portrayed on the left side, with the mercy of the New Testament, shown on the right. There are parallels: the Fall leading to death on the left, and the Resurrection leading to eternal life on the right. Isaiah and John the Baptist are in the middle. Take a look at it - I thought it was interesting.
Anyway, when it closed, then everything was really closed. So we went back to the hotel and instead of catching up, I fell asleep on the bed and didn't wake up until 2:35 am. Then I got up and ready for bed. That's why I'm publishing this today.
Bye, people!
No comments:
Post a Comment