11/12/2014
Our hotel includes breakfast, and I was super excited that I
might get to try a Scottish egg. Sadly, they don’t have that here. In fact, out
of all the supermarkets, only Tesco sells Scottish eggs. What? Scots don’t eat Scottish eggs?! Well, at least the hotel
had haggis. Haggis is made of sheep offal (heart, lungs, and other innards) and
oats. It’s not something I would ever consider buying at a supermarket, but if
it’s in a restaurant, yeah, sure, I’ll try it.
Turns out, it ain’t bad at all. Haggis is actually quite
delicious, though they do go pretty heavy on the pepper (Angel doesn’t think
so). Baby’s actually quite excited to go down to breakfast tomorrow so she can
eat some more.
Edinburgh Castle may look very high up on a mountain, but
the climb, I’m glad to say, wasn’t that bad. The incline is very gradual, so by
the time you’re at the base of the castle, you kinda turn around and can’t
believe you’re already there.
We’d bought a Historic Scotland Explorer Pass for the occasion,
which lets you into 78 attractions around Scotland for the low price of 23
pounds (approximately). However, you’re only allowed to go into each attraction
once, so better plan well. As in, you can’t waltz into Edinburgh Castle at 3pm
and expect they’ll let you in tomorrow just because you didn’t allocate enough
time there.
And boy, Edinburgh Castle will take you the whole day. We
got in right when the castle opened at 9:30am and we didn’t leave until nearing
4:30pm (winter hours: castle closes at 5pm).
The Explorer Pass also gives you a 20% off discount on
audioguides, so we decided to rent 2 audios. I’m in love with Highland lore and
the history surrounding Scotland, so I thought the audioguide would go more
in-depth about all the things I’ve read about.
Ooooh yeah, does it deliver.
The audioguide—if you listen to every single number—is about
4 hours long. Add that with all the signs on display, you’re seriously looking
at 8 hours. The castle is, after all, over 1100 years old. That’s a lot of
history crammed in 8 hours! Plus, there’s a free guided tour of the castle
every ½ hour or so. It’s a walking tour that takes you around the whole
Edinburgh Castle complex (kinda reminds me of Prague Castle, where all the
buildings in the fortified complex are sprawled around).
It means "No one attacks me with impunity." In essence, it means if you hit me, I'll hit you right back. An eye for an eye.
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| Cannons in the rampart |
In the medieval ages, Edinburgh Castle had a total of 6 gates. The portcullis is the very last gate to breach in order to get inside the castle walls. To get to the portcullis means you'd have had to fight your way through the previous 5 (closed, mind you) gates.
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| Portcullis |
Edinburgh Castle is situated on a volcano some 3000 years old. Excavation shows that people were living on this site by the Bronze Age. Later on, tribes settled in the area. They were fighting against the Saxons but the Saxons prevailed, so the tribe was largely forgotten in history.
In 600 AD, the warrior tribe of Gododdin lived on the mound that is Edinburgh Castle today. After a night of drinking, the legendary warriors (some 300 strong) rode into battle the next day. Most perished in the battle. Teaches you not to drink and fight, yeah? :T
During the Wars of Independence in the 1300s, Edinburgh
Castle would fall into English—then Scottish—then English—then Scottish hands
over the years. When Edinburgh Castle fell into English hands once again, Robert
the Bruce tasked his nephew, Thomas Morray, to take back the castle. Morray and
a small contingent of 30 men scaled the nearly vertical cliffs at night—in complete
darkness—took the garrison by surprise, and the castle quickly fell. Robert the
Bruce then ordered all the buildings in Edinburgh Castle to be burned (except
St. Margaret’s Chapel), as part of his strategy for making fortresses unusable
to the English, should the English try to take the castle again. This strategy
worked, as it would be a waste of money and manpower for the English to lay
siege to the castle again.
But it means that a lot of Scottish castles were destroyed
during Robert the Bruce’s era. ;( All that rich history, gone. But I guess to
repel the English, steps must be taken.
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| Lang Siege Stairs |
Queen Victoria came here during a tour of Scotland. She
loved the castle, but she said that the castle should have cannons to decorate the
ramparts. So, she ordered cannons to be sent here. However, the cannons are
ship cannons, and not meant to be fired on land. These cannons have never been
fired during their time at Edinburgh Castle.
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| Cannons brought here on Queen Victoria's orders |
Courtyard decorated with cannons. This courtyard is where Sir Crichton has the Douglases dragged out to, to be beheaded (see below for story):
Mary, Queen of Scots lived here for a short spell in her
life. She didn’t really like drafty Edinburgh and preferred the comforts of
Holyroodhouse, ½ mile away.
King James IV of Scotland, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots—and later King James I of England—was born in this tiny room:
The throne room:
The Great Hall was the largest hall of its kind in Scotland when it was first built. The oak ceiling is original, and there are no nails or screws in the entire thing! It's made entirely from pegging the wood slabs together. A serious medieval engineering feat, that is.
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| Great Hall |
The oak beams are from Norway, as timber was hard to come by in
Scotland in the early 1500s.
All the armors and weapons displayed in the Great Hall are from the Victorian era:
During the Revolutionary War in America, a lot of prisoners
were held here at Edinburgh Castle. Americans, French, Spaniards, you name it. In 1781, there were
over 600 Frenchmen imprisoned here. Aside from the freezing ass weather, the
prisoners were relatively well-treated. They had the basic comforts provided
for, and as they were all soldiers, they were given rations every day on how
much they could eat and drink. Plus, they were given 1 penny a day—2 if you’re
French. 1 from the Scottish government, another from their own government. The
standard ration was 1.5 pounds of bread every day. But if you’re American, you’re
regarded as a damn pirate, so you only get 1 pound every day. In 1781, the
prison becomes too crowded. Following negotiations with France, Spain, and
other countries, the prisoners held here were repatriated back to their own
countries, provided, of course, that Scotland gets its imprisoned soldiers back
as well. But because Americans are “pirates,” they weren’t extended the same
courtesy.
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| Original prison cell door |
The prisoners left their mark on the door, much like
graffiti today. You can make out the year 1781 and a hangman’s noose with a man
hanged there. Above it, the prisoner scratched “Lord North.” Lord North was prime
minister of England in 1781—it was his government’s crippling taxes on the
American colonies that led to the Boston Tea Party in 1773 and the Declaration
of Independence in 1776. Lord North was not a popular man, and as you can see
from the prisoner’s etching, he clearly hated Lord North!
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| Lord North hanged from the gallows |
This is a ship flying an early version of the American flag. The design changed as new states joined the original 13 of the union. This door and the graffiti have been here before America became independent! You can imagine a captured soldier held here, whiling away the hours of the day, etching onto the wooden door.
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| Ship etched out in left-hand side |
Some industrious prisoners spent their time in jail making
things to sell to the local townspeople. Every day, a market was held where the
local townsmen could come up to the castle and trade with the prisoners through
the iron bars.
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| A prisoner made this. Can't believe the intricacy of this thing! |
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| Complete with cannons! |
A few crafty prisoners began using their meat ration to save
the bones. Using these bones, they could carve anything…like watermarks and
seals. Once these were made, they began mass-producing highly convincing
banknotes.
It was custom at the time for Scottish banks to reimburse
all innocent holders of forged banknotes. That wouldn’t happen nowadays, would
it?
Baby was super excited to visit David’s Tower because this
is where the infamous Black Dinner took place. George R.R. Martin was inspired by the Black Dinner for the Red Wedding, for all you GoT fans.
However, when we got there, we
realized it’s a shadow of its former glorious self. During the Lang siege, cannons
leveled the tower, and the top levels came tumbling down.
In its heyday, David's Tower was a sumptuous medieval tower fit for kings. The Black Dinner centers around the Clan Douglas and King James II's courtiers. The Clan Douglas had been gaining in power, so much so that by the early 15th century, they were a threat to the stability of the nation (according to their enemies). I guess when you're powerful, you're bound to make more than a few enemies, right?
King James II was only a ten-year-old boy at the time. Sir Crichton, the real man behind the throne, perceived the Clan Douglas as a danger to his rule, so he put on a lavish dinner at Edinburgh Castle and invited the Earl of Douglas and his kinsfolk to attend. They had a jolly good time, eating and drinking...until the end of the dinner.
Sir Crichton had a black bull's head (the symbol of death) brought in. The Douglases saw this and knew immediately what it meant; they sprang up and drew their swords. But Sir Crichton had the advantage of planning ahead, and within minutes, the Douglases were all subdued. They were then dragged out to the courtyard, given a mock execution and beheaded.
This was a serious breach of Scottish hospitality laws. The remaining Douglas chieftans rose up against Crichton and laid siege on Edinburgh Castle. Sir Crichton knew he couldn't win this, so he "gave" the castle to young King James II. King James, in turn, rewarded Sir Crichton with a title.
This wouldn't be the last time King James II has a skirmish with the Clan Douglas. More on that tomorrow.
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| The ruins of David's Tower |
The Crown Jewels were buried here during WWII for fear of
German invasion. There the crown jewels sat for 4 long years. The crown was
buried beneath the floor of a medieval toilet that was once used by Scottish
kings and queens!
The scepter and sword were hidden in that green-lit corner:
The Honours of Scotland (aka the Crown Jewels) are kept in this tower:
Photography is not allowed in the Crown Jewels room. Sucks, I know. Besides the crown, sceptre and sword, the Stone of Destiny is here on display as well. This "stone" is basically a simple block of sandstone. But way, way, waaaay back in time, Scottish kings were not crowned with the coronation process we know today with the sword and sceptre. There was a procession and in the final, ultimate act of "becoming king," the king would sit upon the Stone of Destiny. Then the coronation would be at an end.
This Scottish tradition of anointing their kings had been in place well before 800 AD. King Kenneth I moved his court to Scone Palace in 840 AD and had the Stone of Destiny moved there as well. There it stayed until King Edward I of England, "Hammer of the Scots," invaded Scotland. He was successful at conquering Scotland and for his trophy, he took the Stone of Destiny back to London. He had a throne built in Westminster Abbey and placed the Stone of Destiny underneath the seat, a clear symbol of his subjugation of the Scottish people. Kinda like an "up yours" symbolism. Very crude, yes. Offensive (to Scots), hell yea.
So this throne chair of Edward's has been used in every coronation of every king and queen of England since then. It was only til 1996 (700 years later) that Queen Elizabeth consented to removing the stone and returning it to its homeland. BUT. There was a stipulation: for every future coronation, the stone must be brought back to Westminster Abbey and tucked back into the throne chair. :T
They have a war memorial to fallen Scottish soldiers:
St. Margaret’s Church is the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh city. It was built by King David I in the 1100s. He was the 6th son of Queen Margaret and King Malcolm III, so he was never supposed to really be king. But King Malcolm and his eldest son died in , and I guess something happened to the other sons, so David ascended the throne. He is thought to be a good ruler and pious, like his mother. Malcom was a warrior and Margaret was a religious woman, but it was love at first sight. Margaret was heartbroken when her husband died, and she died several days later…some say of a broken heart. So David erected this chapel in her name. She was later canonized in the mid-1200s.
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| Interior of St. Margaret's Church |
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| St. Margaret's Church |
A wedding present to King James II from the Duke of Burgundy, this was the height of medieval weaponry. It weighed 6 tons and required 100 men and God knows how many horses to move the cannon. The going was so slow, it could only move 3 miles a day. Also, because of how much heat each cannon shot created, it could only really be fired a handful of times a day. So yeah, it wasn’t really practical to use this thing.
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| Mons Meg cannon |
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| Look at how big the cannon balls must've been! |
Edinburgh Castle looks out into the ocean. On a clear day, you can see the Kingdom of Fife just yonder. Since the mid-1800s, everyday at 1pm, they fire a cannon
from the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle so all the shipping captains out
in the harbor port would be able to set their clocks to the same time. Originally, instead of a cannon, they had a ball drop from this tower, kinda like the Big Apple on New Year's Eve:
But the ball proved unreliable on cloudy days and the captains complained about low visibility. Most cities were using cannons to synchronize everyone's clocks, so Edinburgh adopted this as well. However, most cities used 12pm noon as the synchronizing time. Scots, being tightfisted (I guess it's a stereotype? The tour guide told us this, though I always thought Scots were known for their hospitality :T), didn't want to use noon because that would mean firing 12 cannons.
So, they chose 1pm. 1pm = only 1 cannon needs to be fired. Money saved! Yay! More for whiskey!
Signed photograph with Tsar Nicolas II of Russia with the officers of The Royal Scots Greys:
The Lang Siege Staircase:
Edinburgh Castle around 4pm (it's getting dark so the lights have turned on already):
We went to Marks & Spencer to take a gander. Baby saw this cereal:
Boy, did she get a kick out of it. I told her she should eat it to build arm muscles. She has chicken arms. Not good for lugging around heavy suitcases.
UK apple!
We had Scotch eggs from Tesco for dinner. They were really delicious! We didn't have an oven to heat them in (the instructions say microwave's not advisable, though we don't have a microwave either), so we ate them cold. The directions do say "eat hot or cold."
The egg yolk was so soft and silky, just a tad underdone--my favorite! The sausage exterior wasn't too salty, so this was the perfect Scotch egg experience for me.
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