Mary Queen of Scots

Well..........we've taken hundreds of photos today of the opening of the Royal Palace at Stirling Castle in Scotland. I've chosen this one to blip with. It tries to capture the essence of the day which was a lot of happy smiling faces at what was a magnificent event for Scotland.

The photo of a feast in the Great Hall includes (seated and from right to left in full view) Mary of Guise (the mother of Mary Queen of Scots), the infant Mary Queen of Scots, Lords Arran and Otterburn. They are of course actors - among the 60 or so who entertained us at the Castle today re-enacting what might have been the experience of the court and visitors to Stirling Castle in the era of Mary Queen of Scots ie c1540.

We enjoyed a grand procession to the Castle; canon fire; swordfighting displays; Scots and French cooking - including a maginficent cake which actually fired canon shot; jesters; musicians playing instruments and tunes of the 1540s; costumes and cosmetics of the 1540s; and politics and plots and squabbles acted out in the Queen's court. A heady day of entertainment and absolutely fantastic fun.

I've got enough photos for a years worth of blips - will take me ages to process them all but will put some on my new website next week and some on Flickr. A second day of celebrations is being held on Sunday and we hope to get back for more as, for Stirling (our home town) and indeed for Scotland, this is a unique event. Oh, and the newly refurbished Royal Palaces are nothing short of sumptuous. Its quite inspiring really to see how advanced the court at Stirling was in the 1540s with its influence in France and Europe.