The Castles of Scotland

Charlie Zahm in Scotland

When we first signed up for the Faith and Freedom Tour, we thought that the only way that the trip could be better would be that Charlie Zahm would come as our balladeer. When we went to the 200 Year Plan conference, Mr. Phillips told us that they had arranged for Mr. Zahm to come! We were really excited. We ordered another CD (Scotland's Heroes) from him to prepare for the trip.

Charlie Zahm mostly sings Scottish, American and Irish folk songs. We first heard him at the National Constitution Party convention in 2004, but when we really learned about him was on the Faith and Freedom Tour in Philadelphia. We also heard him at the Jamestown Quadricentenial Celebration, where we bought a CD.

It was wonderful to hear Mr. Zahm sing Scots Wae Hae at Stirling Castle, Will ye no come back again? at Culloden, and Scotland the Brave at the closing dinner. He did three concerts during the trip, and at many stops along the way.


Here is Mr. Zahm singing Scots Wae Hae at Stirling Castle. Mommy and Rachel and in the background.

'Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,

Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,

Welcome tae your gory bed,

Or tae Victorie!

'Now's the day, and now's the hour:

See the front o' battle lour,

See approach proud Edward's power -

Chains and Slaverie!

'Wha will be a traitor knave?

Wha will fill a coward's grave?

Wha sae base as be a slave?

Let him turn and flee!

'Wha, for Scotland's king and law,

Freedom's sword will strongly draw,

Freeman stand, or Freeman fa',

Let him on wi' me!

'By Oppression's woes and pains!

By your sons in servile chains!

We will drain our dearest veins,

But they shall be free!

'Lay the proud usurpers low!

Tyrants fall in every foe!

Liberty's in every blow! -

Let us do or dee!'

If you enjoyed this, you might want to visit his website, http://www.charliezahm.com/ where you can order CDs, and listen to samples.

Scotland - Day 5

We do not have time to write a long post, so here are some quick pictures and captions.

 Here I am with an ancient Pict Cross and a post-covenanter church in the background

 A statue of David Livingstone being attacked by a lion at his birthplace.

 Here Mommy is playing with Issac in the rain at Bothwell Castle.

 Here we are climbing on the outside wall of Bothwell Castle.

Scotland - Day 8

One more thing happened for the last day's post. At night we tried to view the videos of the speeches that Daddy and I had done. And then we found out that we got mixed up as to what as stop and what was go on the video camera (who would have thought red means "on" and green means "pause")! All we had was videos of the floors of castles. So we decided to go back to the places that we had messed up. So on the eighth day Daddy and I went back to Stirling Castle to film and Rachel, Stephen and Mommy went to a house near by, Argyl's Lodging. It was built for a nobleman and is within walking distance from the castle. We filmed and then came to meet up with the rest of them. Then we walked past the Church of the Holy Rude, where it was snowing a little bit, to the Old Town Jail. You can see some snowflakes in the picture of the church tower.
The Old Town Jail was built about 150 years ago. Here is a picture of the door to a cell:
This is Daddy in the office of the head of the prison:
There was a machine for the prisoners to use called the crank that they put sand in for the prisoners to do meaningless work. Here is Stephen using it without sand:
They gave us audio tours to listen to. They had them at most of the places we visited. Then we left and walked while Daddy went to get the car. We saw this statue of Rob Roy MacGregor:
Then we went to Bannockburn, the site of another battle. We went to the visitor center. Here are some pictures:
That is supposed to be William Wallace.
Stephen trying on a helmet.
That is the statue of Bruce on the battlefield.

This is what the statue says:

"For God and St. Andrew Robert Bruce King of Scots Planted his Standard Near this Spot When the Scottish patriots under his command vanquished the Army of Edward II of England at the Battle of Bannockburn 24th June 1314"

The quote below is from a covenant that the Scots signed later in 1320 called the Declaration of Arbroath Abbey. It says

"For as long as a hundred of us remain, we will yield in no least way the in English dominion. We fight not for glory, nor for wealth, nor for honor, but for freedom, for that and that alone, which no honest man surrenders but with his life."

The Battle of Bannockburn occurred on June 23 and 24, 1314. It was between Robert Bruce of Scotland and Edward II of England. The Scots had about 8000 men and the English 20,000 trained soldiers. There was a small battle the first day, and then the second day they Scots moved out to attack the English, who were still in their camp.

When the Scots knelt in prayer Edward said, "They pray for mercy!" "For mercy, yes," one of his attendants replied, "But from God, not you. These men will conquer or die."
The Scots ended up destroying the English army, which resulted in Scotland claiming it's independence.

While we were video taping, the camera battery died, so we had to come back the next day.
Then we went to Castle Campbell in Dollar Glen and took a hike because the castle was closed until spring. My feet got tired because it was a very long trail. Here is a picture of Castle Campbell. We hiked up to it, and then down the stream which is in the left side of the picture, then to the bottom of the Glen, and then back up the right side.

Scotland - Day 7

Today we went to the city of Glasgow which is the capital of Scotland. We went there to see the Glasgow Cathedral, the John Knox memorial, and the David Livingston memorial there. When we went there they were having a school service, so they told us to come back in about 15-20 minutes. We got to hear the pipe band playing for the service. While we were waiting we saw the David Livingstone memorial in front of the cathedral. David Livingstone was a Scottish Missionary who went to Africa.

This is a picture of the statue of David Livingstone at Glasgow Cathedral

After we looked at this memorial and read everything on it, we went to the Necropolis (which is a graveyard), and we walked up to the top of the hill to see the memorial of John Knox, who was a great preacher in Glasgow and was one of the great Reformers. John Knox helped write the commentary notes in the Geneva Bible, which is the Bible the Pilgrims brought to Plymouth. His statue is on top of the hill looking over the city of Glasgow.

This is a picture of the statue of John Knox preaching to the city of Glasgow

Then we walked back down the hill, looking at the graves until we got to the bottom, and then we started walking towards the Cathedral. When we got to the Cathedral there was almost nobody there, so we went in. We walked around the Cathedral until they told us to leave because they were having a wedding. We got to see the wedding party arriving dressed in kilts. We spent about 1 1/2 hours in Glascow and then we went to Bothwell Castle. Bothwell Castle was one of my favorite castles because it was the biggest castle we saw.

This is a picture of the outside of Bothwell Castle

The construction of Bothwell Castle was started in about the middle of the 1200's, by Walter of Moray. The castle was never finished, but many people built on it. it was seiged several times by King Edward I. We spent about 1 hour at Bothwell Castle. We had walked around the outside of it the day before because we had arrived at closing time.

This is a picture of Joshua playing on Bothwell Castle