In between exams and late-night excessive studying, my flatmates and I decided to head north of Edinburgh and look up some awesome castles. We rented a car for a day and drove to a bunch of old abbeys, castles, and got to see the Scottish countryside in all its glorious late-Spring splendour.
Our first stop was Dunfermline Abbey, the refectory of which is today a ruin.
It doesn't look like much when you look at it from the top, but it's nice to imagine how the area must once have looked.
We climbed down steep staircases - if there's one thing I've learned about the ancestral Scots from visiting castles, it's that they certainly had no concept of claustrophobia.
Since a refectory is a sort of communal dining area, there must have been a kitchen. Unfortunately the kitchen doesn't look like very much today.
When the nave of the church was rebuilt, some little changes were made to the detailing - one of the towers says BRUCE KING, for Robert the Bruce who is buried here. Robert the Bruce was a famous warrior and King of Scotland, and is remembered as a national hero.
We saw the skull of King Robert the Bruce. Well alright, not actually his skull - but a plaster cast of it.
It was still just a wee bit creepy.
We also saw where Robert the Bruce was buried.
After talking to a nice old gentleman who was explaining all the stained glass detail to us and telling lots of stories, we headed to Scone Palace.
I learned that Scone is in fact pronounced 'scoon' rhyming with 'spoon.'
The family of Lords and Ladies that own Scone Palace would of course just happen to have peacocks roaming the grounds. Driving in, we also saw a bunch of hairy coos - clearly this is a family that loves their animals!
They are very pretty peacocks indeed.
We saw Moot Hill, which is really just a mound - but where the Stone of Scone, also known as the Stone of Destiny, was kept historically on what used to be Scone Abbey. The Stone of Scone was a coronation stone used for centuries and which is today kept in Edinburgh Castle. Talk about legends coming to life!
If you're familiar with Shakespeare's Macbeth, perhaps you might recognise the lines:
So, thanks to all at once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.
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| Rejoicing in the Scottish sunlight! |
Kevin Kern's In The Enchanted Garden kept playing in my head, and was pretty darn perfect for right there and then.
Our third stop was Glamis Castle (that's 'glamz'), which Macbeth fans might recognise as the castle where King Macbeth lives. Interestingly, the real Macbeth never had any connection to Glamis Castle whatsoever!
Approaching Glamis Castle from the driveway is impressive - the driveway is lined with trees and Glamis Castle sits at the end of it all.
Rachel decided to roll about in the lush green grass because Scotland was being too cold again.
The Glamis Castle family must have really liked their pets, because there was even a little pet cemetery complete with proper tombstones.
I decided to climb up trees, because why not?
The tulip garden was in full bloom for spring, with colours so vibrant they seemed surreal.
We sat in the sunshine, a rare occurrence in Scotland, for ages - just soaking in the Vitamin D.
And then we headed to the Hermitage, a woodland in Dunkeld that is home to the marvellous and spectacular River Braan and this amazing waterfall.
We climbed over rocks and played in the heart of Mother Nature.
But above all of that, we had fun.
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