Day 14 – July 31 – Linlithgo & Glasgow

by The Travel Guy

Edinburgh Castle from our new hotel “CastleView”

We said our good-byes to everyone on the tour and thanked Roy for an absolutely outstanding job on guiding us around Scotland.  We then moved hotels to the CastleView Guest House on Castle Street, with …. you guessed it, views of the castle, Edinburgh Castle that is.  The Edinburgh Festival is set to start on Saturday, along with the Fringe Festival and the city is in mad preparation mode. The odd street is being closed down to accommodate the various live entertainers and street vendors and the city is real bee-hive of activity.  Although it might have been interesting to be here during the festival, it looks like it is going to be a bit of a zoo and we’re thinking we’re just getting out in time.  After dropping our bags at our new lodgings we headed for the train station and a trip to Glasgow.  Our tour didn’t stop in Glasgow but we’ve heard that it’s worth at least a day trip if that’s all the time you have.  The trains for Glasgow leave at least every 30 min and so we didn’t have to wait long until the train arrived.

Old view of Linlithgow Palace

The Linlithgow news – had to include this

A few stops after we leave Edinburgh the intercom on the train announces that the next stop is Linlithgow.  Our friend Martin had mentioned that he and Byron had spent some time there and really enjoyed Linlithgow Palace.  As well, Martin told us that Blackness Castle is his brother’s favourite place.  So we jumped off the train at the Linlithgow stop and started to explore the town.  It’s a pretty quiet place with lots of character. Small little shops and craftsmen working on restoring a few of the old buildings.  It was easy to find the palace and we got the bus times for access to Blackness Castle at the local TI (Tourist Information).

We wandered into Linlithgow Palace and we immediately saw why Martin and Byron found it such a treasure.  This is described as a Palace not a Castle so you don’t have to go through 7 different lines of defence to see where people actually lived.  There were local school children dressed in period clothes giving tours of the castle, but we got the guide book and started exploring on our own.  This is the perfect castle for exploring on your own.  There seems to be no end of small passageways to follow and just see where they go.  One other noteworthy accomplishment is that this is the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots.  There is some evidence that there might have been some prehistoric or Roman settlement in this area and there might also have been two Crannogs (see Day 9 when we visited Crannogs near Kenmore) here as well in the loch.

Deana looking out over the Loch and the 2 Crannogs seen along the shore

 

The first royal residence was created here in the 1100’s.  David I was the first monarch to build here and the town developed from this time as well. In 1424 a fire swept through Linlithgow leading James I to tackle the rebuilding of the palace.  The castle’s design is fairly simple, a square with an inner courtyard with a fountain in the center.

The center court with its fountain

Deana just loves the circular staircases …. NOT!

 

 

Now that’s a kitchen stove!

 

Picture two young girls of this era, trying to share a secret …. then note the iPhone and the one in the green is probably standing watch so as to not be caught ‘out of character’

 

A worker applying filler to assist with the restoration work of a stone carving that has suffered at the hands of the elements.

 

On December 8, 1542, Mary Queen of Scots was born at Linlithgow Palace and 6 days later her father, James V dies and Mary succeeds him to the throne.

King James the VI

 

But she only remained here for 7 months and after an arrangement is made in July 1543 for her to marry Edward, Prince of Wales, her mother moved her to Stirling Castle to provide better safety (see Day 13 to see Stirling Castle).

Wood carving of Mary, Queen of Scots on the pulpit of St. Michael’s church, where she was baptized.

 

The South (stern) end of Blackness Castle

After Linlithgow Palace we caught a cab for Blackness Castle on the Firth of Forth. Eddie our cabbie was very informative as we drove the short distance to the castle and pointed out several interesting sights and good restaurants on the 15 drive.  He also agreed to pick us up and return us to the Linlithgow train station. We crossed the very long Firth of Forth rail bridge when we went to St. Andrews to play golf at the start of our trip.  We then travelled on the vehicle bridge after we started our Tour and went to Culross.  We could just barely make out Culross from Blackness Castle as the Firth of Forth is very wide at this point.

Looking North and East from Blackness Castle. Note the two bridges in the upper right corner, over the Firth of Fourth.

 

The center tower of Blackness Castle

Blackness Castle is known as ‘the ship that never sailed’ due to its nautical appearance, long and thin with the short tower closest to the water and facing North is known as the “Stem” tower.  The tallest tower, in the middle, is the ‘main mast’ tower and the one furthest inland is known as the ‘stern’ tower.

Although it was originally built for the Crichton family in the 1440’s, James II seized it just a few years after it was completed and it remained in Crown ownership.  Over it’s life it was used for strategic defence on the Firth of Forth as a heavily armed garrison fortress, then a state prison and then finally as an ammunition depot(1870’s). Originally, the outer wall facing the East, the direction from which ships would approach by sea, was only 1.5 m. thick, in the 1530’s the castle takes on a much more defensive posture and the walls are thickened to provide better resistance, closer to their present thickness of 5.5 m.  Although this was thought of as a palace for the Crichton family, it clearly was destined to be used for defence and as such there was an emphasis on defence over comfort.

This hole is believed to be damage from one of the cannon balls from Cromwell’s cannons.

The castle was viewed as “impregnable” until 1651 when Cromwell’s forces invaded Scotland and pounded the south wall from the hillside, literally behind the castle. The large cannon fire left its mark on the castle.

We then continued on our trip to Glasgow and started with the “Self-Guided Tour” described in the Rick Steves guidebook.

Glasgow pedestrian street

 

One of the first things that strikes you when you walk out of the train station is that this is not Edinburgh.  The guide books tell you of this, but until you see for yourself it isn’t so obvious.  Every second shop isn’t trying to sell you a souvenir and it appears that the people walking the street are locals, for the most part.

An ornate building in the heart of town, with a peacock at the top.

 

The peacock on the top

 

The easy to miss entrance to The Lighthouse.

One of the first stops on the walking tour was “The Lighthouse”.  This houses the Scotland Center for Architecture and Design.  This building had a number of exhibits as you work your way up the floors.  One of the more interesting was the work that has been done creating habitats in Antarctica.  Jeff took the opportunity to climb the 130+ stairs to the top of the “Water Tower” to get a better view of the city.  From here he could see the different architectures from a new perspective.

A view from the top of the water tower at The Lighthouse

 

Old and New

 

Even the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art can’t just have it’s roman columns, a bronze of a famous father on horseback, without having a little fun with the facade.

The Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art …. with a twist

 

We continued to walk though the streets, enjoying the different views.  Due to our earlier detour to Linlithgow we didn’t have time to visit the Glasgow School of Art.  It would have been interesting but we still got to see just how different this city is.

The city is proud of imprint Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Art Nouveau influence has brought to the city.  Below, the “Hatrack” Building features the elaborate rooftop iron work that demonstrates the Glaswegian (pronounced like “Norwegian”) architecture.

The “Hatrack” building

The “Hatrack”

 

A short subway ride to the West End of town found the restaurant that Roy had recommended the Ubiquitous Chip. The menu has a line below the “game” dishes, such as venison “ Please be aware that our game dishes may contain shot”.  That gets you thinking…..

The Ubiquitous Chip restaurant

 

The food and beer was good and once the rain showers started it was just a short trip back to the subway and then the train ride back to Edinburgh.