Scotland Day 9

Stirling Castle is in Stirling, and of course Edinburgh Castle is in Edinburgh. No surprises.

Stirling, however, would be at most a medium-sized town in the US. Edinburgh, while not huge, is a real city.

So the effect of a castle sitting on a volcanic plug in what is, basically, the middle of the city is more than slightly odd to American eyes.

Stirling would be a challenge to take, especially pre-gunpowder. I don’t think I’d want to attempt Edinburgh without modern weapons, preferably including heavy artillery. Helicopters flying a NOE approach would be subject to plunging fire from three of the sides.

I almost suffered a casualty on the approach myself – the wind took my hat off and nearly blew it away (and ‘away’ would have been over the edge of a fifty-plus foot drop). Even men in armor would find wind like that a complicating factor in an attack, and apparently it was not an abnormally windy day.

The castle, however, as legend tells it, was taken via a secret passage by thirty brave Scottish warriors who stormed the place and slaughtered the garrison. Modern historians have gently suggested there were probably more like 600 of them, while stipulating all the other aspects. The Scots are known to exaggerate just a wee bit from time to time.

The hill has been fortified since Roman times, though exactly when the first sections of the present structure were built are, once again, unknown.

The castle is home to two notable pieces of artillery. One is Mons Meg (I’m sure Google will provide pictures and history). I will note that one can, and I did, insert one’s head and shoulders fully into the muzzle. That is a Really Big Gun. The second piece of note is even more powerful, though less impressive on the surface and not at all SCA period: a modern 105mm howitzer. This one is still used – six days a week at 1PM it is fired as a time gun. The day it isn’t fired is Sunday. Guess which day I managed to visit?

Edinburgh is on the southern shore of an ocean inlet of the North Sea. One can fairly easily see the north shore from the castle. The tour guides are apparently asked if it is Norway (unreasonable but at least demonstrating some knowledge of geography), France (sigh), and the United States (perhaps someone who visited the Scotch Whiskey Experience on the way up to the castle).

The castle also has a very old, and very small chapel that is still used as such. When I say ‘very small’ in this case I mean that my living/dining room at home is about the same size. You can nearly stretch out your arms and touch two opposing walls on the short axis. Another thing you don’t really get from books or pictures.

Not to be outdone by Stirling, Edinburgh Castle has FIVE giftshops. Admittedly this includes several for separate museums inside the structure. One of these is for the crown jewels of Scotland: the crown, the scepter, the sword, and the Really Big Rock. Technically that last is the Stone of Destiny… but you can’t help looking at this thing and thinking “Really Big Rock.” It is not planed, or some beautiful piece of marble, or in some mystic shape. It is a really big, vaguely rectangular prism, of… rock. It is also the only piece that is still in use – the King/Queen of England is also the King/Queen of Scotland, and the Stone is used in coronations to represent this fact; the monarch sits on a throne with the Stone underneath (in older days the kings of Scotland sat on it directly). It does not look like a comfortable rock, either. This means that part of the coronation planning includes a trip by a heavily armed convoy from Edinburgh to London carrying… a really big rock. The crown, scepter, and sword remain in Edinburgh.

I am of the opinion that this represents relations between Scotland and England very well indeed. “Yes, fine, you rule us, as a reward you may sit on our rock.”

Speaking of the Scotch Whiskey Experience while I did not get the tour I did stop in at their bar. Their bar has approximately 300 (an estimate, not an exaggeration) different whiskeys available (almost all Scotch). Just as an example, six different Auchentoshans, and six different Balvenies. They also have a nice chart which groups the various single malts by flavor. Find your favorite around the edge, push a button to turn its light on, and then see what’s nearby. I’ve already used this (sadly non-interactive in picture format) as a reference back here at home.

A bunch of the wedding guests joined the bride and groom for a tour of Mary King’s Close. A close is a medieval name for a narrow street (a narrow alley, in modern scale). Parts of this one and some of the surviving buildings are now three stories underground. It is done up as a piece of living history – the sort that doesn’t get into the history books. Our guide was a foul clanger (phonetic spelling, there); someone who was paid by the city to interact with plague victims while they lasted. I would have preferred a different choice of ambiance, or if they’d picked a single century and stuck to it, but once again walking through medieval rooms is an invaluable experience for a SCAdian. Some of the discussion of how the plague was dealt with I want to double check, but if correct is a nice bit of period knowledge.

We also joined the newlyweds for dinner, where I once again fooled someone into thinking I was current or ex-military without meaning to. This time it was a retired US Army colonel (surgeon, but still an O-6). I might have a future as a con artist if this ability of mine wasn’t completely unintentional. Also at this dinner I had haggis. I am told it was good haggis. If so I never want to have bad haggis, though I’d be willing to have good haggis again.

I don’t know – sushi, haggis, beer… I think I need to give up my standing conceptions about food. Yeah, the sushi thing happened a while ago (right after moving to Washington). It was still a major alteration in my standing list of likes and dislikes.