Much Depends on the Weather.

The weather was looking mighty promising Saturday before last - promising rain, that is - so we cancelled our tentative plan to go for a cruise on Loch Lomond, and decided to visit Stirling Castle instead. The castle only opens at 9:30 am, but we decided to travel up early, as we had some mail to deliver to the local missionaries. So off we set on our peregrinations. Last time we went to Stirling, in 2012, we took the long route, so we could drive over the Forth Road Bridge, and admire the iconic red Forth (rail) Bridge off to the east of us. This time we decided to drive the more direct route. It was still quite early as we approached Stirling - not quite 8:30, so we put off phoning the missionaries as long as we could. They are supposed to be all showered and fed and exercised and ready for the day by 8:30 am, so after that time we feel we can call with impunity. (We still sometimes phone before that time, but our earlier calls are decidedly lacking in said impunity.)  Finally we were just 10 minutes from their flat, so we phoned. No reply. Tried again a few minutes later (almost at the flat) and one of the elders picked up. "Elders, we are in Stirling and have some mail for you." Said mail included a new debit card, as a greedy ATM had eaten the old one.  "Oh dear!" the missionary replied, "We are in Edinburgh and won't be back in Stirling until tomorrow." Fortunately we were able to get into their building and pop their mail through the mail slot in their front door, but it was a little disappointing, as we love visiting the missionaries and perhaps taking them out for a little treat. I guess it was a little disappointing for them too, as we had packages and letters for them, as well as the fresh debit card.

Stirling valley from the castle walls.

Eliza Mellefont

Wife of Major Peddie

Stirling Castle

Died 25 Jan 1860

Major William H Peddie

21st Royal British North Fusiliers

Died 27 Nov 1871

Anyway, after less than the briefest visit imaginable, we arrived at the castle somewhat early. Richard had memories of there being a shortage of parking last time we were there, so we looked for and found street parking some distance from the castle entrance, right next to the Church of the Holy Rood, which we visited last time when we searched for and failed to find his third-great-grandfather's grave. We walked through the part of the graveyard that we were sure we had already searched, in the pouring rain last time, and looked at some of the other gravestones we had skimmed over previously. This time we had seen a photograph of the grave stone, so had some idea of what we were looking for, and after about 20 minutes Richard found the grave.

The churchyard is a lovely peaceful place, with many flowers and neat lawns, just below the castle walls. We climbed the steps to the castle entrance and got into line to enter the castle. It is one of the Historic Scotland sites, so we did not have to pay, just show our membership cards. Our membership has about paid for itself by now and everywhere else we visit will be a bonus.

We did not bother to go on a guided tour this time, but just wandered around for a couple of hours, exploring. The palace area has been renovated and furnished. The plaques indicate that the colours are true to the originals as well as historical research can determine. We were surprised at how colourful they were. Of course these are lovingly restored and maintained, and are not subject to candle fumes, fireplace soot and all the other things that would have made them less bright. Also we had the benefit of seeing them illuminated by the best of modern lighting. Nevertheless, they were amazingly bright and cheerful. The ceiling tiles are an early alternative to television. the figures, if it is not clear from the photo, are 3-D. By the way, while viewing the blog you can click on a photo to get a larger, zoomed in image.

So if this was TV then there are dozens of channels because the figures represent a mix of real characters, kings and nobles and princesses--so there is your history and documentary--and some represent fantastic beasts--providing your sci-fi and children's tales--while others represent typical characters of castle life--giving you your soap operas and comedies. The changing and evolving programs must needs be supplied by the imagination of the viewers, combined with the stories related to the pictures by the sound-track. Of course this Renaissance TV also requires a sound-track, which is provided by the court jester. The court jester's job was to entertain royalty; in this next photo sequence he entertains the queen and is royally rewarded. Real life is much better than TV!

We also met fully costumed characters in many of the rooms willing and eager to chat about their lives. We were lucky enough to meet with a seamstress who was well acquainted with Mary of Guise, the mother of Mary Queen of Scots.

We asked about her, and were rewarded with a torrent of interesting information. Mary of Guise was, by all accounts a canny politician, with the welfare of her family and her people as guiding principles. She was queen-consort (and co-ruler) then regent and of course she was the mother of Queen Mary (Queen of Scots). She didn't want her infant daughter to be betrothed to Henry VIII's son as she considered Henry to be a poor match and his very young son not the best for her infant daughter, and did not want Scotland to be absorbed into the English kingdom. She did her best to steer through sixteenth century intrigues and difficulties. Quite an amazing woman! Henry VIII, however, was becoming more and more autocratic by this time and declared war in order to get his son Edward betrothed to Mary. He sent troops north and bombarded several fortresses. This, with true British understatement, is recorded in history as the 'rough wooing'.  Of course the sad result of all this is Mary of Guise sent her daughter off to France where she became very Catholic, leading to her eventual confrontation with and demise at the hands of Henry VIII's daughter, Elizabeth I.

Richard's 3rd-great-grandfather, William Henry Peddie, served as the Fort Major at Stirling. One of the records we founds refers to this and says, "as was his father before him" and we searched in vain for any information on his father. There was a military museum with an information office in the castle last time we visited there, but they were not very helpful then and this by now the information facility has shrunk to a very small help desk, manned by a friendly but not at all knowledgeable young man. We have not given up, but the records we are looking for are not to be found at Stirling.

Stirling Castle is sometimes referred to as a nursery castle, because it was used as a safe place to raise the sons and daughters of kings and queens of Scotland, a little removed from dangerous confrontations with the English, which generally happened at Edinburgh Castle and points further south. I couldn't hep reflecting on this as we wandered though the castle and saw its many, many interlocking courtyards, walls, fortifications, gardens, buildings, staircases and so much more. What an incredible place for privileged children to explore and grow up in.

fFowers on the castle wall

We found our way back to our car down a steep staircase into the churchyard and were struck by this display, which gives a new and beautiful meaning to the term 'wallflower'. In addition to the flowers in the wall we found a thistle growing in the churchyard.


This brought to a close our first visit to Stirling Castle on this trip. I think it is my (Richard's) favourite castle, partially because of the family associations and partially because it has been so interestingly restored and they work so hard to make it a place of history as well as a tourist entertainment.

We decided to head homeward for lunch via Leith, the harbour just a couple of miles east of our flat. We had read that there was a festival there that day, and we thought that would be an interesting place to look for some lunch. We never made it to the festival. Right next to the river and port was a street market, so we decided to explore that instead. They had an amazing variety of food stalls, mostly "natural" and "vegan" and not an "inorganic" (as opposed to "organic") offering in sight. We picked up some artisan bread, a salad, and a pork pie, and Richard also picked up an amazing cupcake. The pie was very expensive and Louise's last hope. She tasted it and we now have to accept that she just does not like pork pie. Actually everything was very expensive, but what we bought was quite delicious (if you like that sort of thing) apart from the cup cake, which was gorgeously decorated, dry, bland and generally disappointing.

The promised rain did not arrive until late in the day. Loch Lomond would probably have been fine, but we will enjoy visiting there some other time.

Our children bought Richard a gift certificate for the "Wee Restaurant" which is sort of local, for his birthday. If they erred, it was on the side of generosity, and they gave us sufficient for a full three course meal for each of us. We might have just gone there, eaten a good meal, and planned on coming back for seconds a few weeks later, only we read the instructions and it turns out that if you don't use the full value of your certificate, you forfeit the remaining value. Well! We could not possibly eat our way through the entire certificate in one sitting, so we decided to take a guest with us. The mission office was being audited this past week (very big deal) and an accountant came out from Germany a day early to help Richard get ready. We invited her to dinner and off the three of us went to the Restaurant. The restaurant is in the shadow of the iconic red Forth Rail Bridge in North Queensferry, a beautiful location.  The old bridge is still fully functional as a railway bridge, although it was built in the 1870's and was everlastingly being painted. The front of the restaurant is not very prepossessing, so we took a shot of the bridge instead.

Despite its narrow and ordinary exterior the Wee restaurant produces cuisine, as opposed to food, and the meal and service were both excellent. You can tell cuisine by the way it is arranged on the plate

That creamy coloured ring around my (Richard's) smoked salmon is a lentil dish. Yes, I ordered lentils and ate them and enjoyed them, probably because they didn't taste like lentils. A most enjoyable evening ensued, and we ate our way through the entire certificate.

Our mission car, btw, is new. We acquired it a few of months ago and it now has about 2,000 miles on it. We mentioned in another blog post that we drove it over the new Queensferry Crossing bridge on an earlier trip into the highlands.  Well, Hyundai is not very good at keeping their maps up to date, and our GPS still does not know about the new bridge. Every time we drive across it, our GPS assumes that we are swimming across the Firth of Forth and tries in vain to rescue us. It is particularly annoying when you a trying to get to a certain restaurant, let us say, very close to a certain bridge, and your GPS can't help you because it doesn't have a clue where you are. We found the restaurant on our own, driving a somewhat original and exceedingly beautiful route.

So with changeable weather and street markets and cute restaurants life is still good and interesting.

More in our next.