2023 Scotland – 9

A Palace and a Farewell Dinner

I’m late in getting this blog up for several reasons. The farewell dinner went later last night, and our train this morning was earlier than we would have liked!

We began in the morning with another wonderful breakfast at the Kingsway Guesthouse. Then we decided that a nice quiet morning was in order. We went back to our room and read (Dorothy Dunnett books of course!) and dozed for a few hours. We finally headed out for Holyrood House at the bottom of the Royal Mile at 1pm. Luckily the tickets were open timed. This was a section of the Royal Mile that I hadn’t seen yet. It’s much quieter than the upper half.

Like all of the royal palaces, this one was regal and stunning. I think I finally understand the difference between a palace and a castle. A castle is all about defense. A castle may contain a palace as well (like Stirling Castle). And it seems a palace is more of a royal residence. Holyrood House is a working palace and used by the royal family on a regular basis, for meetings, and as a place to stay when they have business in Edinburgh.

Everyplace you look, there are thistle motifs, unicorns, and crowns. One the stonework, in the ironwork, and on lamps!

As royal palaces go, this one may seem smaller, but it still has 218 rooms, and the tour only goes through 17 of them! I have to say, this was by far the best audio guide I’ve ever used. It was interactive, showing pictures and places, as well as guiding you through the rooms. It was kind of funny to see people rubbing at the screens, when the guide would have you rub at the picture to incover what a room would have looked like in another time! Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed inside.

Holyrood house is tied to Mary Queen of Scots as well. We were able to go up into Mary’s private chamber (yet another narrow, stone, spiral staircase!), and see where her husband, Lord Darnley, killed her secretary Rizzo. It was really something to see a place where something so pivotal in history took place.

Julie also mentioned that during the lectures last weekend, a mention was made that in Dorothy Dunnett’s books, Lord Darnley may have been Lymonds illegitimate son from his affair with Margaret Lennox. One more fun tidbit. It fits. It really does, in that fictional world!

Are you still with me after I diverted into Dunnett Land? Well, back to Holyrood. We saw several other rooms of state, and they were as amazing as you might think. The tour then took me out to the garden. As it is at the bottom of the Royal Mile, the castle backs up to the Salsibury Crags and Arthurs Seat. These lands were originally part of the Palace grounds, as Holyrood was originally a hunting lodge. But the crown has now made them a park for all to enjoy. Still, the gardens that remain as part of the palace grounds are exquisite, and often used for state garden parties. At this time of year, the hillside was yellow with flowering Grose (I hope that is the correct spelling). Yesterdays guide told me that this was similiar to Scotch Broom.

Attached to the palace is the ruins of the old Abbey. It’s literally attached, as it forms part of the building of the palace. It is haunting to go into and look up at the sky. It’s a wonderful site to take pictures! The original chapel for the Order of the Thistle was in Holyrood Abbey. We saw the current chapel is St. Giles a few days ago. Currently, the royal family go to the close by Canongate Kirk for worship when they are in town.

Julie and I split up and went wandering seperately afterwards. I meandered my way up the part of the Royal Mile I hadn’t yet seen. I spotted the Niccolo sites in the Canongate, and did a little shopping. I found a great knitting shop up near the bridge called ‘Ragamuffins’, and bought a pair of lovely fingerless gloves. These will be great for judging winter horseshows!

Ater that, I caught the bus back to the guesthouse, and realized that my time here was almost done. The Farewell dinner was that evening, then we headed back to London. I will definately come here again. The city is amazing. As one of the Dunnetteers comements, it is a city in 3D. You cross a bridge, look down, and see another road below you about 5 stories down. At one time a walled city, people were crammed in everywhere, and no nook or cranny was wasted. There is a pub called ‘World’s End’ that was located right at what would have been the gate. To the people of that time, the wall was the world’s end. It does give one food for thought.

The farewell dinner was held at the Ghillie Dhu. It was held upstairs in a room with vaulted ceilings and lots of candles. It was fun to see lots of now familiar faces and have a wonderful meal. The organizers volunteered their time and put together an incredible 10 days of lectures, tours, meals, and fun. Karen, Tom and Julia (pictured below) were the lynchpins of this feat, and we can’t thank them enough as well as everybody else who pitched it.

We got back to the guesthouse at about 11 and crashed. This morning we ate incredible omlets of spinach and goat cheese for breakfasts, then headed out for our train. I have to mention something that Gary and Lizzie do. Their business cards have a small map on the back, and all the bus numbers that stop near them, as well as the phone numbers for the cabs. It’s a genius touch that saved us more than once!

Our suitcases are incredibly heavy, so we caught a cab to the train station this morning. There was no dramatic schedule revisions, and I got us to platform 9 in plentry of time. As we watched a Liner train pull in, Julie mentioned she wanted to check the board one more time. It was a good thing she did! Our train was now on platform 5. As Julie says, 2 slightly fuzzy heads are better than one. We hustled up and over to the new platform and got on our train.

We are now settled in the Grand Royale Hotel in Kenningston. The internet works with my Microsoft Surface, but doesn’t like my iphone or ipad. That will make things interesting, but it’s only for two nights. We plan to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum tonight, and we have tickets to Kenningston Place tomorrow. We’re both tired, but it has been an incredible trip so far. I have some thoughts on miscellanous things I want to jot down, so there will be some more entries. So for now, I’ll close with the castle at night. More pictures from the palace will follow.

Pictures of the Abbey are below.

More pictures of the palace and gardens follow.

Various pictures of the Canongate and the lower Royal Mile.

And finally a few miscellanous pictures of the Canongate Kirk, Calton Hill, etc.