What's Up With Jes

August 7th 2023 We had a local tour guide, Katrina, join us today for our tour of the Edinburgh Castle. She was jovial, informative & fun. She held a long pole with tartan ribbons on it so we could see where she was easily (it was crowded with lots of other tour groups) & we had transmitters with ear buds to hear her, which was terrific. She led us around a bit & gave us some good info, then let us loose on our own. We had the day free til the Tattoo in the evening so it was great to go out on our own. As we walked in, the huge stadium seats were set up for the Tattoo. They start setting them up in May already then they host some small concerts up until August.

The castle looks grand from where it sits up on the hillside. It was intriging seeing the outside & getting all the history. It was built in the 1300s & has gone through many additions & restorations. We walked up hill to the entrance gate, complete with spikes. Climbing more uphill, we got to a large, open courtyard. One one side was the Royal Palace that houses The Honours of Scotland- Britain's oldest crown jewels=the crown, sceptor & sword, in a fortified room built in the 1600s. They were just pulled out recently for the new King Charles. The royal family would live here too. That's where the gift shop was too.

Another side was the Scottish National War Memorial, dedicated to all the fallen heroes of Scotland since WW1. We weren't allowed to take photos in there but it was more modern. There were lots of inscriptions honoring the fallen from different towns & clans, weaponry & stained glass windows.

I learned the unicorn is a national symbol of Scotland. I asked Katrina why, since it' a mythical creature. She said that they believed a unicorn was pure, powerful, that nothing could conquer it except a maiden (virgin). You'll always see a coat of arms with a lion & a unicorn. Interesting... The Great Hall is another building, so impressive! That was built in the 1500s as a grand banquet hall for dinner & entertainment. In the 1600s, 3 floors were added to become soldier's barracks. Later, it became a military hospital then later restored to its former glory.It was filled with weaponry which was super cool the way they had it all arranged on the walls.

We walked uphill a little more to explore the outside perimeter with cannons, The Mons Meg is the largest, oldest cannon, 500 years old. It's absolutely humongous.

There`s a giant gun that fires a blank every day at 1pm. It started ages ago to help ships navigate since there were no clocks. It would fire a shot that went 2 miles! Crowds gather every day waiting to see it. A soldier in full dress comes out to load it & set it off. Pretty neat!

There is a dog cemetery here too for all the soldier's dogs since the 1800s. They knew how important they are to us!

There were beautiful views up here on the hill over the city & the Firth of Forth river. Windy too!

Up here is also a tiny church- St. Margaret's Chapel. It's the oldest structure here, they say built in 1130! How did they make stained glass back then?