Edinburgh

Thursday morning I woke up and took an early train to Edinburgh. I wanted to see Edinburgh Castle because I had some castles in Spain and I wanted to compare the two styles. Edinburgh is a really pretty city. Glasgow was nice, but it was much more industrial and economic – people were walking around like they would in midtown or the Wall St. area: business-like. Edinburgh’s High St. was full of touristy shops, but the buildings were old and there were several stone churches and a cathedral. I climbed the hill up to the castle which had bleachers around the entrance. They’re preparing for the Military Tattoo, a performance where countries send their bands to march like an American marching band competition.

The castle itself was a complex of many buildings including a chapel from the 1100s, a palace, a military hospital and military barracks. Today these buildings are almost all used as museums, except the Governor’s House which still functions as such. It’s on a hill in the center of Edinburgh which gives it great views of the city and the coast.

I took the audio tour of the castle. I figured it was the best way to learn about the different structures and a bit about the history of Scotland as well. The rock itself was formed by a volcano 340 million years ago. In 1140, the castle was used as meeting place for the Scottish Parliament. There’s a gigantic gun called Mons Meg that was given to James II in 1457. It’s so big that it could only travel 3 miles a day and had to be pulled by 100 men. The castle is also where in 1566 Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James, King of Scotland and England.

The museums inside the castle were mostly military themed: one on the horse units, one of the prisoners of war who were kept at the castle, and one on the Royal Guards (men who fight in the name of Scotland, but fight with the English troops-I’m not sure if that was their name or not). The best indoor exhibit was the Crown Jewels of Scotland. The exhibit had a lot of audio elements and explained the history of the jewels. One is The Stone of Destiny: the rock which is the mythical foundation of the country and upon which kings of Scotland were inaugurated. In 1296, the English stole it and put it in Westminster. It was returned to Scotland in 1996. The other jewels in the case included a scepter, crown and sword, all of which were locked in a chest in 1707 when Scotland came under the control of the British Parliament. These were rediscovered in 1818 by Walter Scott and stored at the castle. During WWII, the Scots buried the jewels in the castle walls to keep them safe. They even had plans drawn up to send them to Canada, just in case.

This castle was different from Spanish castles because the castles in Southern Spain were designed to protect entire towns (especially the one in Alcala la Real). This isn’t true of all Spanish castles; the one in Priego was used to protect the just the governor. This castle was meant to protect the governor and hold an army. It has many more embattlements than a Spanish castle, because cannons were used here. The Spanish castles were built before cannons were common, while Edinburgh was built and rebuilt to include spaces for them. This castle was also made of a much heavier, more durable stone. Also, the palace part of the castle was much better preserved and much more opulent, partly because the rooms are still used for functions today.

I’m glad I went to Edinburgh and wish I could have spent more time there. It was a nice city, but I had a hard time imagining living there because there were a lot of tourists. I took the train there, and Scottish trains are really comfortable. There’s one running every 15 minutes between Glasgow and Edinburgh which makes it really easy for people to commute or travel between the two cities.