Edinburgh Castle and the Saint Margaret Chapel

Edinburgh Castle

11th to 21st century

We'd come here in 1991 and now (2 1/2 decades later) we were back! Those are my parents, in their hats, walking ahead of me and toward the statues of Robert the Bruce and William Wallace. 

Here's Braveheart ...

This visit to the Castle was on the same day that we visited the Scottish National Galleries. After enjoying all of the beautiful art we walked up to the Castle. 

Yet another imposing gate ...

 

Below, the governors residence (on the left).

I hadn't remembered that there were so many structures up on the hill!

This tour guide was filmed on more than one occasion. I found him at least twice on YouTube. There is quite a lot of good information if you want to watch a bit of it. Plus, what better accent is there then the Scots?

I love that there's this little "Cemetery for Soldiers' Dogs."

The Great Hall

The Great Hall was built for James IV and completed in 1511. He was killed 2 years later so he didn't get much of chance to enjoy it. This huge hall was one of the the things I remembered of my first trip to Edinburgh ... a room filled with armor and swords and huge stained glass windows with coats of arms!

Check out the incredible oak beams that were built by ship builders. There are no nails but huge wooden pegs. You can imagine it being used for large royal ceremonies and function but in 1650 Oliver Cromwell turned it into military barracks. 

In the 1880s they cleared it out and restored it. That might have had something do with Queen Victoria's fascination and love of Scotland. Maybe I'm just watching too much Masterpiece Theater and making the leap.

Some of the armor looks rather small!

Love these little seating niches with the coats of arms.

In Rick Steves Edinburgh episode, he gets some views that I didn't get of the city, as well as of the Royal Yacht Britannia (in previous post) The first part of the episode is at Edinburgh Castle.

Amazing views from the Edinburgh Castle ...

Scottish National War Memorial

1 in 3 adult men in Scotland were killed in WWI. The names of all Scottish soldiers killed in that war and in military action since are commemorated in this building. The building dates to the 1700s but it was opened to the public as a war memorial in 1927.

Saint Margaret's Chapel

1130 a.d.

I was excited to come back to this tiny chapel. It's the oldest building on the castle hill but it was packed full of people that day! It was rather unlike our visit so many years ago when it had had a quiet serene charm, but the crowds in town for the Festivals have definitely exploded in recent years. This day people were lining up to get into this very small space. 

from the website:

"Scotland’s royals once knelt to worship in this serene private chapel. It was built around 1130 by David I and dedicated to his mother Queen Margaret. St Margaret was a member of the English royal family who fled the Norman invasion and married Malcolm III.

Reputed to have performed many acts of charity she was canonised by Pope Innocent IV in 1250.
The decorated chancel arch is original, while other features, such as the stained glass windows, are more recent.

... There are always fresh flowers in the chapel. These are provided by St Margaret’s Chapel Guild whose members all share the name Margaret and live in Scotland.

The chapel is still used for christenings and weddings."

The Queen who became Saint Margaret ...

Even with all the people, it was still worth the visit!

A year and a half ago when I was getting in to the groove of planning our trip, my sister and I discussed our long ago and brief, stay in Edinburgh. The thing we most vividly remembered was St. Margaret's chapel with its little bouquets of flowers on the altar and in front of each of the small stained glass windows.

So, for my sister's 50th birthday I started a painting for her to honor the memory of our visit, along with our Scottish heritage.

I changed the face a bit and did a little simplifying of this tiny painting ...

But here it is ... A little painting of the Saint Margaret stained glass window. It's an oil painting with gold leaf on a small wood panel, and I included the tiny fresh bouquet of flowers.

There is so much history and too much to try to cover here but one of my favorite things on this trip was seeing the Stone of Destiny or the "Stone of Scone."  It is kept in Edinburgh Castle with the Scottish Crown Jewels, first worn by Mary, Queen of Scots. (Who gave birth to her son at the Castle and this child would be successor to Queen Elizabeth I of England and King of Scotland.)

Anyway, back to the stone. It's a huge part of Scottish history and a symbol of the Scottish monarchy. It's been imbued with so much meaning as a sacred object, and the Ancient Scottish Kings were crowned upon it, starting with Kenneth I in 843 a.d. Prior to that it was said to have been in Ireland as well as attached to the biblical story of Jacob and that it was the pillow on which he dreamed of angels. One legend says it held up the arc of the covenant. 

(No photos in the room with the Stone of Scone and Crown Jewels, so I did this sketch from an old photo I found online of it with the Scottish flag.)

In 1296 Edward I of England took it from Scotland and built it into his throne, and at which point it started getting used by the monarchs of England for their coronation ceremonies. 

You might want to do more reading on it because clearly I'm not a historian but anyway, as you can imagine taking the stone out of Scotland didn't go over well with many Scots. On Christmas day of 1950 four students from Scotland showed up at Westminster Abbey, in London, to remedy the situation. 

There is a great little movie I highly recommend called the Stone of Destiny which came out a few years ago. Here's the trailer.

After you hike up the hill and all around the buildings, there are fortunately plenty of spots to take a load off. My little down jacket and waterproof oxfords turned out to be perfect for Edinburgh, by the way. (Psst! Wait for the sales but Cole Haan has cute waterproof Oxfords!)

We could have spent a whole lot more time there and gotten into all the nooks and crannies. I could have sketched, we could have listened to the tour guides, and had teas in the café, but we were off to the Royal Yacht Britannia, in Leith, but since we'd been there before we decided to move on.

If it's not clear after all these posts of Edinburgh, or if you haven't seen the previous 5 I've posted, I love Edinburgh. It is definitely one of my all time favorite cities. And, if you are lucky enough to get there, definitely head to the Castle for the Military Tattoo and stroll around its historic stones.

OH! And I know I post a lot of "in case you are interested" videos, but here are one or two more. They are by an adorable Scottish YouTuber called "Wee Scottish Lass" and my dad and I started watching her videos before the trip. Here's an example ...

Scottish endearments and compliments ...

As the Wee Scottish Lass says ...

"Haste ye back!"