Tag Archives: scottish castles

Apr 15 2012
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Scotland

Blackness Castle

Just made a day trip to Blackness Castle. The castle is on the shores of the Firth of Forth in West Lothian, about 2 miles from Bo’Ness and fairly  near Edinburgh.

The castle is unique in that it is remarkably complete. It was built in the 15th century and has been in almost continuous use for most of its life. It protects the Forth and the port of Linlithgow, and though it is smaller than the castles in Stirling or Edinburgh it has seen numerous sieges over its history.

The landscape offers excellent defense and the walls here are extremely thick. From the outside, the castle design greatly resembles that of a ship, which is new one for me.

The village of Blackness is very tiny – not so much as a shop, cafe, or pub (that was open) and just a few houses.

I’m guessing this relatively remote location made the castle a perfect place to store ammunition which was its primary function from 1870 up until WWI. It was also a minor military barracks, but its primary purpose (other than defense was as a prison. The castle itself has a very rugged and one could argue grim appearance (nothing like picturesque Urquhart or Castle Campbell), but you can see a natural beauty there as well in the way it rises out of landscape.

At the time Blackness Castle was built Linlithgow was the primary royal residence and Blackness was the primary port – the castle was built by the Crichton’s but soon passed to James II. Fortifications were added in the mid 16th century making it one of the most advanced artillery forts in Scotland, but that didn’t prevent it from falling to Cromwell’s army a century later.

It was recently used during filming for the movie Doomsday.

Travelling around the countryside is not so easy when you don’t have a car, I managed to get the train to Linlithgow and a bus from there to Blackness. Unfortunately there are only four buses a day that go Blackness so rather than wait around for another 2.5 hours in a village with no pub or cafe I walked back to Bo’Ness  along the shore route to catch a bus from there – its nice to feel like you have the time to take an impromptu 90 minute hike, especially since it did get me home an hour sooner.

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Jul 29 2011
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Scotland, Travel

Inverness and Fort George

Wow, I feel really behind. My Inverness trip was like a month ago.

Inverness is 4 to 5 hours on the train from Edinburgh, and is considered the capital of the highlands. To prove it, there were lots of shaggy highland cows to be seen on the train ride up.

This photo was actually taken on Arran, but the coos are the same.

Inverness is small, but its also considered one of the fastest growing towns in the UK. There is a really good mix of modern and historical buildings. There is also some shipping and manufacturing going on, so its not an unchanging tourist hub. Instead, it is a living city.

There is plenty for a tourist to do, but we soon found out that most of the attractions were a bus ride away.

We camped out at a caravan park near the river, and a short walk away from town. Every year, they have a big Highland Games not very far from where we were at.

The high street was pretty active, but we didn’t manage to spend a lot of time there on the first night. Above the high street, Inverness Castle looks down on the river but it didn’t hold our attention as much because it was built more recently and was more styled as a large home than a fortress. It does give you some amazing views of the river Ness and the cathedral spires across the water. Walking along the river, you get a proper tranquil holiday feel. Fishermen were even standing out in the river in waders, which I haven’t seen very often in Scotland (but I’m told its very common up in Moray Speyside).

The next morning, we managed to take a bus out to Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness.
Urquhart Castle has seen a lot of battles and I was really impressed by the video they put on in the presentation centre showing its history. The castle changed hands  many times over the centuries but was most recently held by the clan Grant. Prior to that the castle was a held by the MacDonalds. When the Lord of the Isles and the Black Douglas conspired with the English against James IV, the castle fell back to the Scottish crown who then gave it to the clan Grant.

The castle saw many years of war. Viking attacks and attacks from other clans were pretty constant up until the Jacobite period. Its destruction was to prevent it from becoming a stronghold for the Jacobites. It is also very likely that there was an earlier wooden fort on the same location.

After getting back to Inverness, Aarti and I checked out Leakey’s Book Shop for about 40 minutes. I would highly recommend it. Its just what a used book shop should be. Leatherbound covers mixing with modern paperbacks on two floors connected by an old wooden staircase. Boxes of unstacked books scattered throughout.

After that we caught a bus out to Fort George for the afternoon.

There was a lot of walking that afternoon. A lot more than either of us expected. We had to walk about 40 minutes from where the bus dropped us in order to get to the Fort. On  the plus side, we were able to get some tasty local ice cream when we finally arrived.

Its still an active army barracks, but was never used as intended. It was built as a stronghold to defend against further highland uprisings. On our way back, we saw a few guys kite surfing. Not sure if they were army guys, but very cool all the same.

We had some pretty serious issues with the buses on that afternoon. Due to a accident, the bus didn’t stop where it was supposed to and we had to walk along a rural road for about an hour just to find out that it would be another hour to get a bus from the Inverness airport. We grabbed a cab back to the town centre feeling very tired and hungry.

 

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May 25 2011
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Scotland

Castle Campbell, Dollar

It’s hard to plan things to do when you know it’s going to be raining and probably windy… even tougher when that has been the weather in Scotland for most of the last few weeks.

One of the castles that I’ve really wanted to visit was Castle Campbell – AKA Castle Gloom; the pictures that show up in the guide books and calendars are so phenomenal and really peaked my interest. And since those who wait for perfect weather never go anywhere I decided to make the trip this past Saturday.

The castle overlooks the village of Dollar in Clackmannanshire – about half way between Stirling and St Andrews. It’s a very rural county and Dollar is a very small village (not near the motorway) so I had to first go to Stirling by train and then catch a bus.

I had read that the castle was about a forty minute walk from the town and was located in a large Glen – this location is why it is considered one of the most scenic in Scotland. But I found out that this was one castle that you really had to work for. In reality, the castle is barely visible from Dollar. The thick covering of trees that make up the Glen means you can only see the very top of it and only if your view is not otherwise obstructed, which was rare.

In a situation that is not unique in a country with so many castles (and such a love of golf), the castle provides a stunning backdrop for the local golf course.  This was pretty easy to see from the trail that I was following up the hill.

They say it’s supposed to be more about the journey than the destination, and this trip was a great example of that. I easily enjoyed the Glen and the network of trails surrounding the castle more than the castle itself.

The path up the hill was steep, narrow, and winding – any open clearings were covered in bluebells. Every castle needs a nearby source of fresh water and the stream that winds through the glen had dozens of spectacular waterfalls. The thick covering of trees also kept me mostly sheltered from the rain and wind that was pretty constant through most of the hike. I stopped for a few a photos so it took about 45 minutes to walk all the way up to the castle.

Clan Campbell is one of the biggest and probably the most famous Scottish clan. Their power came from their powerful fleet and ability to choose the winning side to almost any conflict. However, they were traditionally based around Argyll and a few of the islands. The castle was built in the 15th century originally by the Stewart’s but would provide an eastern power base for the Campbell’s when it passed to them by marriage. The powerful families of those days all wanted to have property within a short journey of the capital – so they could plot, scheme, and asskiss their way to more power and land. This would be part of the reason the clan was not so popular. However, they were not unique in Europe as every kingdom had families who would come into wealth this way. They also supported Robert the Bruce before it was popular, so that has to count for something too.

When I arrived at the castle, the first thing I noticed was the scaffolding. I seem to have pretty bad luck when it comes to visiting castles under restoration, but this time there were only a few areas where I could not go. One of my next thoughts was about how difficult it would have been to build a castle here back then. It’s a steep walk, and there would have been no road to get all of those heavy stones up to this remote spot.

The view from the garden was amazing. You could see Dollar, the Glen, and the two larger hills on either side of the castle. This castle really did feel remote. Besides the sheep farm on the slope, there is nothing behind it but more hills.

The castle has not been occupied in a very long while. After the civil war, and when the king had been brought back, the Earl of Argyll was killed for betraying the king and choosing Cromwell while the castle was burned by the Ogilvy’s and the McLean’s.

It’s a spectacular ruin and very well looked after, but I only stumbled around the keep and a few of the rooms for a short while before heading back out to try some more trails.

The little boy in me just loves running around the woods by myself. You can run up a hill, jump over a log or around a tree without feeling even a little self conscious. Because of the weather, the thick woods and winding trail, you would not even notice another person until they are almost on top of you. There is no one around to see you or pass judgement. It’s the most innocent kind of play time.

I had a great time and the only drawback from the trip was how wet it was.

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