May 19: Scottish History and Stairs

Sterling Castle

Today was a great day, in spite of cool and cloudy weather.  We saw Stirling Castle & Bannockburn; the Wallace Memorial, Doune Castle, and walked through the Highland town of Callandar.  We will need to put up pictures tomorrow.

We retrieved the car from Edinburgh Airport, (Alanna literally fell down a rabbit hole while we were dragging our suitcases down the airport road!) and headed off to Stirling Castle. 

Although it was another grey day, the rain was limited to a few showers, and it was four degrees warmer today, at a balmy 9˚C.   Our coats were still very damp from yesterday, but as long as the rain held off, we were happy!

The town of Stirling is truly lovely, and the history that has happened on the fields of Bannockburn and at Stirling Castle really caught our imaginations.  We saw every inch of the Castle and even managed the wall walk with its rather sheer drops. 

Stirling Castle was used by the army from the time of the union of Scotland and England under one king until 1964, when restoration work began.  As a result, most of the rooms, and even some of the exteriors have been restored by Scottish Heritage.  They have tried to make things look as they must have when new and in use.  The colours are very bright, and there are actors in costumes in many of the rooms.  It does give one a clear picture of the original atmosphere and effect of each room, but does reduce one’s sense of being in a historic building.

The stucco has been replaced on the Great Hall on the right.  This kind of stucco is called "King's Gold"

A southern lady kept saying to this man, "You look just like an English Man."  He was getting a bit annoyed, so I told him he looked like a Scottish King, and he told me I could have a sweet.

There was a sign that said, "Can you find the unicorn in this room, a symbol of power and purity?"  Having just come from York and St. Giles cathedrals and having to find tiny but insignificant objects, Alanna said, "It isn't exactly 'Where's Waldo'!"

The ceiling of the King’s Hall used to be covered with carved wooden heads called the Stirling Heads.  These were commissioned by James V to bolster his claim as a legitimate king of Scotland – the Fifteenth Century idea of ‘spin’.  Eventually, they started to bring down the ceiling, and were distributed to various sites.  They have since been retrieved and are on display, while replicas that are brightly painted have been put back in place in the Hall.

The reconstructed replacement heads.

An original.  A Victorian lady took it upon herself to find and sketch them all!

A carving of King James.  We watched a video about how the gods and goddesses were inspired by the finds in Rome, but they are strikingly different in style from any classical sculpture I've ever seen.

Although we did find the castle a bit commercial, we agreed that it was well worth a visit.

They have a tapestry workshop on the grounds that has made new tapestries for several Scottish Heritage sites, including this one.  They have some in the gift shop -- not cheap!

looking down the gun barrel

Our next stop was the William Wallace Memorial, a Victorian Monument, where we managed not only the walk up to the monument, but all 276 steps to the top.  The monument is in a delightful wooded park full of bluebells.  

I'm teaching Alanna to sing "Bluebells of Scotland".  She is ever so grateful, and has almost stopped resisting and crying.

The climb up the narrow winding staircase was relieved by four galleries, each with a different theme or purpose.  The first explained the life of Wallace.   

The multimedia show had an imaginary conversation between King Edward of England and William Wallace.  An actor's face was projected onto a white face of a dummy.  It gave Alanna the creeps, but I found it so fascinating as a technique I forgot to listen to what they were saying.

 The second explained the importance of Wallace to Scottish nationalism, and showed statues of William Wallace located all over the world.  The next section explained the Victorian movement to build the monument, and the last floor showed a selection of marble busts of famous Scots. 

The top of the monument from the viewing platform.  It's an amazing sight, really.

The view from the top.

My favourite part was the actor who played a soldier who fought alongside Wallace, and gave a presentation that kept a fairly large group enthralled in spite of the threatening skies above.

Having seen both the Scot and the Wallace monument, Alanna is glad that the Victoria idea of a monument has gone out of fashion, for the sake of having any view between monuments.  It is a strange looking beast, but works in the landscape, I think.

Our next stop was Doune Castle, which was one of the best things we have done so far.  It is not only one of the most remarkably unaltered and undamaged castles of the Late Medieval period, but it is also the set of the Monty Python Movie The Holy Grail.  The accompanying audioguide, narrated by Terry Jones, not only gave us a really clear picture of castle life, but also played snippets of the movie when we were in the place where the snippet was filmed. 

The other thing we really appreciated was that the castle was not crowded, and while we understand that we are not the only tourists thrilled to be in Scotland, we were able to relax and just take our time.  There we were, alone in the great hall where the scene of “Knights of the Round Table” was filmed, dancing around and singing out loud.

Callendar was only a short drive away, so we arrived and checked in to our hotel, then enjoyed a walk around this historic highland town near Trossachs National Park.  We saw enough lambs even to satisfy Alanna, and enough old bridges to satisfy me.  Alanna finally was able to purchase jelly babies, and may have to replace her supply before we leave town.

 What you probably can't tell from these pictures is that there was a huge hatch of some tiny white flies from the river, and it was hard to walk around without breathing them in.  I developed a technique, however:

I didn't think I'd be able to show them, but ehy are in the video.

Pub food.   Alanna LOVES Scottish food, including black pudding, haggis, neeps, Lorne sausage, white pudding. . .

e had the best meal we’ve had in a long time, on the recommendation of the landlord.  I had steak and kidney pie, and Alanna had chicken stuffed with haggis, wrapped in bacon, and covered in whole grain mustard.  We traded bites, and both meals were delicious, especially when washed down with our new favourite drink, Crabbie’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer.

Our B&B said it had WIFI, and it sort of did.  It was only in the "bar", a 10 by 10 foot room, our host had to hold my netbook in the top corner of the glass door to connect.  He told me I would only stay connected at the bar.  A few minutes later, I was in the middle of 6 guests, our host playing the clarinet -- pretty well, really -- and his wife acting as bartender.  Everyone was singing, and dancing, and as soon as I had uploaded the text, I fled.   Sorry for the wait for the pictures!