September 22nd

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh castle, although not quite as old or as restored as Stirling Castle, was much busier. There were people everywhere, and about 3/4 of them seemed to be fellow Americans.

At 1:00 every day this gun shoots off a round, to continue an old tradition in which the ships in the harbor set their time pieces by this gun. The gun shoots off at 1:00, instead of 12:00, we were told, because the Scots in their thriftiness desired to save the cost of 11 shots. Seems practical.

This was scrawled on the door by an American prisoner during our Revolutionary war. Although the guide told us severely that it was "still graffiti," it made me proud to see the Patriotic Spirit.

This diagram shows another piece of artwork left on the door by an American Prisoner: Lord Nord on his way to the scaffold. This piece is strictly fantasy.

The Great Hall, restored in the Victorian era.

This guide was extremely entertaining. He disliked Braveheart, and the suggestion that the movie offers that Scots of that time were uncultured rabble. He explained that the lowland Scots wore armor, just as their English adversaries did, and that William Wallace was a nobleman, not a peasant.
"The main difference between the English and the Scots," he said, was that "the Scots were much better looking".

A real live piper!!

Sir Walter Scott's memorial.

We bought a CD from these guys, their band name was "The Scottish Blowfish"