A Castle, A Palace And A Church

We got our money’s worth out of our Historic Scotland membership today.  It was a glorious day, but quite nippy, and our first stop was Blackness Castle on the south bank of the River Forth.  A friend visited it recently and recommended it to us.  The castle was built in the 15th century by one of Scotland’s more powerful families, the Crichtons. In 1453 it became a royal castle and its enduring roles were those of garrison fortress and state prison. In the late 19th century, the castle served as an ammunition depot, but after the First World War it was decommissioned.  The castle itself resembles a boat, with the three towers - the small ‘stem’ tower at the prow, the tall ‘main mast’ tower at the centre, and the solid ‘stern’ tower at the rear. Poor BB dressed as alwsy in his shorts was perished by the time we had finished exploring.  We hope to go back on a warmer day and explore a bit more.

We headed to Linlithgow to warm up, and had a very welcome lunch – it  was so nice to be out of the chilly breeze.  Next stop was Linlithgow Palace, the birthplace of mary Queen of Scots.  The last time TT and I visited it was a grey and very cold day – at least it was a much brighter day today, though still cold.  We had fun exploring the palace, looking for the answers to BB’s palace quiz.  BB was quite taken with the recently dead rat that we spotted – it had nothing to do with the quiz.  We popped into St michael’s Church and I admired the beautiful stained glass windows – old and new.

We planned to come home via South Queensferry to check out the bridges, but we were stymied by two sets of road/bridge works, so just headed straight home.

It was such a bright and clear day that we had great views up and down the Forth from the castle, as well as great views from the top of the palace.  Here is a view up the Forth towards Longannet (switched off last Thursday) power station.  The extras show the view looking down river to the bridges and the contemporary stained glass from St Michael’s Church.