The Ham Nomads

5 Aug 2014. <GB-SCT> Edinburgh —

Went into Edinburgh. A nice fine day. Walking on Princes Street, turned towards the castle and noticed gardens below us, Didn't go down, but Susie noticed a sign about a floral clock, asked where it was. Turned out we were standing right beside it!

We then walked up to the Castle, which dominates the Edinburgh skyline. Just about everyone and his dog had the same idea. We walked through the stands set up for the Edinburgh Tattoo, and then the queue to get into the castle itself took us about half an hour! Edinburgh Castle is one of those "must see" places — but probably not around Edinburgh Festival time!

The castle is a functioning regimental barracks (like Fort George), so parts of it are closed to the public. But those parts you can get to are definitely worth the visit. There is a little chapel, St Margaret's Chapel, the oldest existing part of the castle, built in about 1130. There are some modern stained glass windows in there, including one of William Wallace! The little chapel is still used for weddings and christenings!

There is a siege gun, "Mons Meg" (after the Belgian town of Mons where she was made in 1449), which was presented to James II of Scotland in 1457. She could fire a 150kg gunstone about 2 miles. She was last used only as a saluting gun, as she was really too cumbersome for military duty. She is one of the few guns that survived the Disarming Act that followed the Jacobite Risings, simply because her great bulk prevented her from being melted down.

The Scottish Honours (the Scottish Crown Jewels) had an eventful history, having been buried from 1651 to 1660 to keep then from Cromwell. From 1707 they were locked away in the Crown Room, which was broken into by Sir Walter Scott in 1818 (with royal approval) and they again saw the light of day. There is a display that tells their story that, on a quiet day, would allow you time to take it all in, and then spend some time looking at the the Honours themselves, and the Stone of Destiny. The Stone of Destiny, or Stone of Scone, is the stone on which all Scottish kings were crowned, until 1296 when it was forcibly removed and placed in the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey. It was only returned to Scotland in 1996! It will be allowed to be "borrowed" for coronations at Westminster, but will be returned immediately to its rightful home in Scotland.

The Great Hall

We went through the Royal Palace, the rooms occupied by Mary, Queen of Scots, when she gave birth to James VI of Scotland (James I of England). The rooms have been refurbished as they would have been in her time. We also went into the Great Hall, completed in 1511. Again, this has had a checkered history (under Cromwell, and as an army barracks for over 230 years), and it is only recently that Historic Scotland has restored it to its original glory. The great hammerbeam roof is original, one of the most important medieval roofs in Britain.

View from the Castle

Museum Main Gallery

After the Castle, we went down a couple of streets south of the Royal Mile to the National Museum of Scotland. This is one of your classic 19th century style museums, although the information carried in the displays is definitely 20th/21st century in content. But you still have your wonderful displays of dinosaur skeletons and stuffed animals, of ethnic artifacts from various cultures both modern and ancient, of geological, astronomical and mechanical wonders.

The entry, through what used to be the basement, is modern, but as soon as you get upstairs you are in this wonderful 19th century steel and glass gallery. We were lucky in that there was a concert being given in the main gallery as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a piano and violin duo who were really quite good!

And after the museum, we went back up to the Royal Mile to the Museum of Childhood. This is a delightful museum of everything concerned with childhood — clothing, toys, games, education. We just walked around, reminiscing — "I had one just like that!"

By now, the day was drawing to a close, and our feet were beginning to say "No more!", so we got on the bus and back to the Camping Area for the night.

Before we retired for the night we watched the movie "The Angel's Share", a Scottish comedy recommended to us by Kay. If you haven't seen it, try to — it's very Scottish, quirky, and a little bit anti-establishment!

Distance driven — today, nil ; to date, 5,422 miles ( 8,726 km )