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Published: February 23rd 2008
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Edinburgh Castle
Magnificent isn't it :) Hiya all
Today we got up early and went on the sightseeing bus around Edinburgh. We went to the Castle first and had a great time. They have a courtesy car for those with problems and with all of the old cobbled streets through the castle to the top we thought it might be a good idea to take it so Mark would make it up without trouble. We were driven through the back tunnels to the top of the castle which was fun. We went in to see the Honours of Scotland first. They are the Crown, Spectre and the Sword of State..... the history behind them is fantastic. If you'd like to know more check out this site...
Honours of Scotland They also have to Stone of Destiny (Stone of Scone) there now. It used to be in Westminster Abbey for hundreds of years but the English generously allowed them to have it back 😉
We went into The Great Hall which was built in 1511 as the chief place of ceremony in the castle. When Cromwell captured the castle in 1650 he converted the hall into the soldiers' barracks. It stayed as the barracks for 200 years
Edinburgh Castle
nice view of Edinburgh until they started restoring it in 1886. The only part left from the 1500's is the magnificent ceiling. They have a lot of old guns and swords on display, and seeing them makes you wonder just how they managed to swing them around, big bulky things they are.
From there we went down into the Castle Vaults. Prisoners of war have been kept in there since 1757 when the the British captured a French ship. They had it tough in those days.
We went into the National War Memorial for all of the fallen Scottish soldiers from all of the wars. They also had listings for some of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers and Mark found his Grandad's name listed. He fell in Malaya in 1942.
We went around the museums for the Royal Scots Regiment and the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Regiment. The displays were great and the stories of bravery and heroism were inspirational. Especially Sargent Ewart, who captured the French Standard of the 45th Regiment at Waterloo. They have the Standard proudly on display, and I can't see them giving it back to the French in the near or far future.
At
one o'clock we headed down to the courtyard when they guns are. Everyday (except Sunday's, Good Friday and Christmas day) at 1pm they fire a gun (called "The One O'clock Gun"). The gun was first fired on 7 June 1861 following a frustrating couple of days when the wretched thing misfired. It has continued uninterrupted ever since, except for periods during the two World Wars. All of the locals check their watches and visitors jump out of their skins. "Why one o'clock and not 12 noon?" I hear you ask..... The Scots being a canny lot figure why fire 12 rounds of ammunition when you can fire just the one.... LOL
After spending 3 hours looking around the castle we headed back to the bus stop to re-join the tour. We stopped off at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is the home of the Queen when she visits Scotland. We weren't allowed to take any photo's inside the palace but we did get some of the outside. It has been the home of many of the UK's royalty of many hundreds of years, including Mary Queen of Scots and Bonnie Prince Charlie. There are rooms that are exactly how
they were when they lived there. Wonderful, fascinating, interesting. I enjoyed it can you tell???... LOL
Well by this time it was well and truly time to head off back to Hull.... but we knew we weren't going to make it so we thought we would drive for a couple of hours then find somewhere to stay for the night. The winds were gusting at 65 miles an hour and it was really hard keeping the car on the road. We found a nice little hotel in the countryside some where..... on the coast.... little place... not really on the map... well not ours anyway.... but they did have a castle.... the lights were on... someone suggested maybe the ghosts were home... thought we'd leave them too it... LOL
Well that's it for now... nearly caught up hey Denise 😊
love to you all... miss our girls and Player... and all of you too....
Jules and Mark
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