Castle traipsin'

The week, it is over. Or, at least, my whirlwind week in which my youngest sister flew across the pond to visit me here in Edinburgh before we popped down to London for all of about 48 hours. It was maaarvelous! Exhausting, of course, but time simply disappeared and we had so much fun checking out my regular haunts and new places too.

One of the things we did, that I had been meaning to do for some time, was catch the bus to see Craigmillar Castle. It's within the city limits of Edinburgh so there's hardly an excuse to not go, and we were not disappointed! It was a veeeerrry windy day so on a couple of occasions we were feeling a little... precarious on the parapet. It was difficult to hold cameras straight, let along keep hair whipping in front of the lenses! But it was so fun to climb around seemingly endless stairwells and along countless levels -- it's amazing to imagine what the place must have been like when it had its original floors... a veritable maze.

Hope you're all enjoying a happy weekend. I'll get a few more photos up from the rest of our trip (I didn't take too many photos, so the posts are brief, but it's something!)... Soon! :D

Cheers!
Kate xx

 P.S. Check out that jet stream Saltire-in-the-sky in the first photo! Couldn't have coordinated my sister's welcome to Scotland any better than that... ;)

Dunstaffnage Castle

Wrapping up my brief trip to Oban on the west coast of Scotland, I thought it would be fitting to end this series of posts with the reason I went out there in the first place! That would be Dunstaffnage Castle, which is currently in the care of Historic Scotland and sits on a promontory at the south end of Loch Etive, about 4 miles north of Oban. I'm doing a presentation on this castle and subsequently writing an essay for one of my classes on this and a group of early stone castles to which it belongs. So let me tell you, I've been reading up a lot on Dunstaffnage Castle! But for the purposes of this post, I'll stick mostly with photos and just say that it's totally worth the very short drive/bus ride out of Oban to go see.

Just a wee bit of a background: The main enclosure, or what is called a curtain wall, was built probably mid-13th century, somewhere between about 1220 and 1260 or so... probably. The thing about these old castles is that it's really, really hard to be sure. Historic evidence just doesn't exist like we'd (I'd!!) like, and it's not possible to date stone. So one tries to pick out whatever remaining architectural characteristics there are and hopes to tie them in to the building of other similar castles or what was being done in other locations at the time. In the case of Dunstaffnage, there are a few windows with a tiny bit of detailing on the frames about which has been written tons... because when that's all you've got to go on, well... run with it and best of luck!

It really is a gorgeous castle, having gone through remodels and rebuilds throughout its history. Originally the courtyard would have had timber buildings in it, including a great hall and a kitchen. Later additions were the big gatehouse and another stone house (the one in the pictures with the apparently floating fireplace)... it's really interesting to stand on the ground floor of these structures and try to imagine there being at least one if not a few timber floors over your head. It's hard to imagine when you're being rained on. ;)

But here we go, starting with a sort of abstract shot of the entrance. I love that you can see where the original archway was, and then they made it smaller and built another arch inside.





The photo above is taken from inside the west tower, but in the photo below, the corner where it looks like a huge chunk is missing -- that's the north tower, and is probably where the lord would have lived.  This old boy has been remodeled and rebuilt and ruined throughout the centuries so much that sometimes walls and windows are difficult to make any sense out of. Windows exist in the outer wall that aren't visible inside anymore and stairwells lead to nowhere or start spontaneously where the rest of them have decayed.




The feature that stands out immediately is the huge rock outcrop that this castle is built on. It's just amazing how the walls are sheer with the face of the rock in some places, and creates a natural fortification--extremely difficult for medieval attackers to scale.

 


A short distance from the castle is a chapel that was probably built around the same time. Not much remains of it, but it was probably once extremely gorgeous. Imagine these walls covered in a smooth layer of what's called harl and painted. The fragmentary remaining masonry is gorgeous, though.



Cheers!
Kate x

And your father smelt of elderberries!

Just to get this good and out of the way:



DOUNE CASTLE. Leave it to me to be intrigued only because of its place in my current architecture texts, but of course when I was told this was the famed Monty Python and the Holy Grail filming site, it  became even more awesomer. Apparently also a filming location for the Game of Thrones series, in segments taking place at Winterfell. So they say... I have no idea because none of it seemed recognizable after all of the CGI they do in GoT.

Anyway. Enough babble about filming. But it is pretty cool!

 

Being a rather glaring mid-morning (autumn, I blame you, but... it's okay) the light was kind of terrible for getting a good non-silhouette image of the castle from the front. Either way, it was a joy to walk around, as it sits on the scenic River Teith. Again, I played the cheap-o student card and didn't pay to go inside (partly because I was there with a huge group and prefer, if I'm going to pay to see something, that I have all the time I want). The outside was nice enough. ;)




We really had the best kind of day for traipsing around grassy hills and castles. It had been sunny all weekend so the ground was also dry, save for a bit of morning dew.

Getting out of the city for the day, albeit on an organized tour which was go-go-go, was really wonderful. The thing is, Edinburgh isn't really a tall city, or even a massively packed one. We're obviously not talking Manhattan here, but still: living in the center of the center (aside: I'm starting to type "centre" and have to correct myself back to American -- we'll stick with American for the time being) of tourist-angled Edinburgh really wears on a person. I'm not at all cynical about this (yet, anyway), but being in the middle of it all makes me want to hop out to the country more often. Particularly because I can see the country from my kitchen window and it's like those green hills are taunting me. Ha!

I've been here a month already and I can hardly believe it. I've met so many amazing people, visited some wonderful places, gotten a good start in my program, taken the beginning steps of my internship (with the National Trust for Scotland!!), and continued to just settle in and have a good time. One thing about being in a city is that there is always a ton to do. Too much, really. And part of the fun is finding the good shows, the best eats, the best visits--and the best coffee! Of course!

And by the way, I went to see Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit last night at the Pleasance Theatre, and wowwa. Wow. I haven't seen a show that great in a lonnnggg time. Bolstered by one of his openers (who was incidentally also part of the band), Cosmo Sheldrake, it was an absolute wonder of a show. Apart from having to sit down the entire time -- when one wants to dance! -- it could hardly have been better. I strongly recommend both Johnny and Cosmo if you're in need of some new tunes; Johnny Flynn just released his latest album a couple weeks ago, titled Country Mile, and it's super good.

Just another Sunday in Edinburgh! ;) Hope everyone is enjoying a great weekend.

Cheers,
Kate x