Border Castle

On the way home from a visit to England I paused at Hermitage Castle (memories here of folk like Mary Queen of Scots, James Hepburn, border reivers, and so on).

I loved the lonely situation, backed by the empty hills. Not much home comfort for Mary the Queen, but loads of atmosphere! Maybe she had comfort from the temporarily wounded James, but he lost all for her, later, dying in Denmark, insane and in fearful conditions.

Much, much earlier the Castle had received its Old French name 'l'armitage', meaning guardhouse and was spoken of as 'guardhouse of the bloodiest valley in all Britain'.