Joust a Minute

Jousting at Linlithgow palace. They do this one weekend each year, I hadn't been the last couple years, the last time I went some events were cancelled due to the threat of lightning, but this Saturday the weather was good, although it did start drizzling just after I left. I got there a bit later than planned and missed the falconry but was in time for the jousting, which is the main event. I was using my long faulty lens to get close up pictures over the crowd, which is a real pain as it keeps reporting an error, if I'm lucky I can get one or two shots before having to switch the camera off and on again. This meant I didn't get as many shots as I wanted,. The jousting is real, in that they do really clobber each others shields with those lances, which do shatter sometimes quite spectacularly and can knock the Knights of their horses! They also spear "heads" off the ground and collect suspended rings with their lances as well as have sword fights on foot.

There are also stalls demonstrating medieval pastimes like cooking, hunting, blacksmith s etc. It's a good day out and lots of kids were running around with swords and shields/helmets. You can also wander around the palace itself, which is basically a ruin, but many features are still intact, including towers and stairwells to explore.

I have lots more pictures but without my laptop it is a little difficult to sort/process them all :-(