Scotland - Day 12

Today we went to Culloden and Fort George. The battle of Culloden was part of the 2nd Jacobite Rebellion. That rebellion occurred in 1745. Price Charles Edward Stuart, also called Bonnie Prince Charlie, was in the family of Stuarts. He wished to become king, and was trying to convince the French that they should help him. They sent him with a fleet of ships to England in 1744, but it was scattered by a storm. If that fleet had landed in England, they would probably have took over England and Scotland.

The next year he left for Scotland with only two ships, one of which was attacked and forced to return home on the way. He landed in Scotland and raised his standard at Glenfinnian on April 19, 1745. He moved south and his forces grew to 3,000 men. He began a march to take over the capital, London. His army came within 125 miles of London, but the generals decided to return to Scotland.

They fought the 2nd battle of Falkirk Nairn on April 14, 1746. The Scots planned a night attack, which failed. The English came out on the 19th of April, 1746. Their army was about 9,000, and the Scot's was about 5,400. The Scots formed 2 lines, and the English 3. There was a short exchange of artillery, and then some of the Scottish clans decided to charge. Charles gave the order, but the McDonalds on the left refused to move because they were not positioned on the right. Those who did charge were forced to avoid some boggy areas, and were defeated when they hit the English. The Scots lost about 1,250 killed, 1,000 wounded, 558 captured and the English only 52 killed, 259 wounded. After the battle the English killed all Scots that they could find.

A flag Jacobite at Culloden.

This is the Battlefield looking towards the Scottish line.

This is what the soldiers would have looked like: British (left) and Highlander (right).

This was the last Jacobite Rebellion. After Joshua told us about the battle at Culloden and we walked to all the corners of the battlefield, which took about 3 hours, we left and went to Fort George. The building of Fort George was started in 1748 by William Skinner, who was the king's military engineer of North Britain. By 1757 the main defences were completed and the internal buildings were starting to emerge.

A cannon at Fort George.

The whole fort was completed in 1769, well behind schedule. Fort George was made to have all the provisions of a small town. Fort George is very large, 42 acres. Joshua enjoyed it very much.
The walls are very thick:Fort George is still in use today. We saw some snow flurries even though it was very sunny, but it was cold and windy. We spent about 2 1/2 hours at Fort George, then we went back to the condo.

Scotland - Day 11

March 20 was our first day touring in the Highlands, which is the north of Scotland. The first place we went was a valley called Killiecrankie. This valley was a battlefield in the First Jacobite rising, which occurred in 1689. The Jacobites were Englishmen (mostly Scottish) who wanted to restore the house of Stuart to the throne of England and Scotland. The leader of this rebellion was John Graham of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount of Dundee, also called Bonnie Dundee. He raised the standard of the Stuarts on the 16th of April, with only 50 men to support him. He raised an army and fought the English army commanded by Hugh Mackay of about 3500 with his own of 2500. His men took their position on the top of the valley down which the English would march. Here is the battlefield:

The Scots were positioned on the top of the hill on the left. When the English marched down the valley, they saw the Scots, halted and opened fire with their muskets. The Scots waited until the sun had gone below the opposite side, because otherwise the sun would be in their eyes. When it had, they charged down on the English. The English were broken and the Scots won the victory, but their general Dundee had fallen. He died afterwards, and that is why the first Jacobite Rebellion failed.
This is me doing my speach.

Then we went to Glencoe, which was where a massacre of the Scots occurred. We went to the visitor center there, but we didn't take any pictures because it was all about environmentalism and evolution. Then we went to Dunstaffnage Castle, which was nearby. We got there right before it was going to close, and the lady there made us hurry through because she wanted to leave early. Here are pictures of it.
Here is the courtyard:
The castle was built mostly in the 13th century. In 1309 Robert the Bruce captured it. The gate-house is from the 1800s and not open the the public.
Then we went to Glenfinnian Memorial, which is where Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in the third Jacobite uprising. I will tell more about that later. Here is the monument:
Here is the highlander on top:
I did a speech on the landing and then we went back to the condo.

Scotland -- Day 11

Today was Sunday so we did not go to any historical sights because it was the sabbath. We went hiking in the mountains near Loch Murdoch. Here is a picture we took:
Here is Mommy and Daddy:
Here is Stephen:
The hike was pretty cold and we had some snow flurries.

Scotland - Day 10

This day we went to St. Andrew's Castle and Cathedral and the Discovery, which is a ship that was built in Scotland and then went from there to Antarctica to explore. First we went to St. Andrew's Castle.

This is a sketch of St. Andrew's Castle.

A castle was at St. Andrew's at least in 1189, and maybe before. The castle was taken by the English in 1296, but then recaptured by the Scots in 1314. The castle was once more taken by the English in the 1330's. The English were strengthening the castle around 1336, and then Sir Andrew of Moray recaptured it after a three-week siege. The castle probably remained in ruins and deserted until Bishop Walter Trail started rebuilding it.

This is a picture of the Castle from the Cathedral.

The castle was completed about1400. Bishop Trail died there in 1401. There was a mine and counter mine built there when the castle was being sieged between 1546-7.

A picture of the mine in St. Andrew's castle.

We spent about 1 1\2 hours there and then we left and went to St. Andrew's Cathedral. St. Andrew's was first built as St. Rile's church, and was very small. The church was claimed by the Augustinians, and soon they decided it was too small for what the bishops desired. They started making it bigger and ended up building Scotland's largest cathedral. The work actually took 150 years to complete. Shortly after the cathedral was completed, half of it was blown down by a gale. When John Knox preached a sermon there the people got so angry they started destroying the furniture. Later the cathedral was destroyed by siege.

This is a sketch of what the cathedral might have looked like.

After we had been at the cathedral for 1 1/2 hours we left to go to the Discovery. The Discovery was built in Dundee in 1901. Captain Robert Falcon Scott took Wilson and Shackleton with him. They headed for Antarctica and reached it in 1902. The Discovery was frozen in ice until 2 rescue ships went out there to rescue them. We spent about 1/2 an hour there since they were about to close.

Captain Joshua trying to sail the ship

I really liked the Discovery because it was like the real ship, and because you could actually go on it. We ate dinner at a hotel on our way to the condo outside of Inverness in Aviermore in the Highlands of Scotland.

Scotland - Day 9

On day 9 of Scotland we went to Bannockburn, Falkirk, Edinburgh Castle, The Royal Mile, St. Guiles Church, and Holyrood Palace. We went to Bannockburn and Falkirk for refilming because we did not know how to use our video camera. We did not do anything but refilm Joshua's and Daddy's speeches. Then we went to Edinburgh Castle in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Edinburgh Castle is very old. The Castle was called "The Stronghold of Edyn", until the invading Angles came in AD 638, and they renamed it Castle Edinburgh. The Castle did not become the Capital of Scotland until after 1745. Here is a picture of the gate.
There is a big cannon in Edinburgh called the Mons Meg. Here is a picture of the cannon.Here is a picture of the ammunition the cannon fired.Here is a picture of Rachel and my father walking along the wall.Here is a picture of Edinburgh (the city) from Edinburgh castle.Edinburgh Castle was at one end of the Royal Mile so we decided to walk along the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile was a mile of restaurants, stores, and historical places. On the way we stopped at St. Guiles Cathedral. St. Guiles Cathedral is where Mary Queen of Scots would hear John Knox speak and would want to kill him, but she did not kill him because if she did Parliament would stop giving her money. At St. Guiles Cathedral there were different statues and memorials. One of the statues was of John Knox preaching to Mary Queen of Scots and the Parliament. After we went to St. Guiles Cathedral we went to Holyrood Palace. Holyrood Palace was where the king actually lived. Edinburgh Castle was where the king went when there was trouble. We did not get to go into Holyrood Palace because it closed right before we got there.

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

Scotland - Day 6

On day 6 in Scotland we went to Doune Castle, Falkirk, and Dumbarton Castle. First we went to Doune Castle. Doune Castle was built by Robert Stewart Duke of Albany. The Duke made it for the King to dwell in when he left the palace. This did not happen till the Duke was dead. The Castle was made for strength and comfort. This is a picture of the outside of the Castle: We went into prison and took some pictures. Then we went up into the tower. This is a picture from the top of the tower. We took a picture of the top of the tower from the roof of the other part. After we left Doune Castle we went to Falkirk. At Falkirk there was only a memorial. There were houses around it. Joshua did a speech at Falkirk about the battle of Falkirk. The battle of Falkirk was Wallace's second major battle, and also his last. He and his men were stationed in four groups. In the above picture, they would be where the snow still is below the trees in the upper portion of the picture. King Edward, who was king of England at that time, was attacking the Scots from the direction from where the picture was taken. Edward sent his men down the valleys and commanded them (which were mostly horsemen) to attack on the Scots right and left. They move over the stream, which is in the valley, and when they reached the Scots they surrounded each group and tried to pierce the Scot's line. But the Scots had long spears, which worked well against the English horsemen, so the English horsemen fell back, and brought up some archers. The archers fired their arrows at the undefended Scots, most of whose archers had been killed by the horsemen. Finally all the groups except one fled, and the last one retreated with Wallace.

After this the English took over Scotland again, Wallace went to France to get help for the Scottish cause. When he returned he was chased for a while, and finally caught and was taken to England and executed.

It was cold and windy there. After we left Falkirk we went to Dumbarton Castle. It did not look much like a castle. Dumbarton Castle was built on Dumbarton rock, a piece of volcanic rock. It was an old stronghold, dating back to at least the fifth century AD. The vikings sieged it for 4 months before it surrendered in 870. Robert Bruce's son fled there after a defeat in 1333, and the infant Mary Queen of Scots was protected there for several months before she was taken to France in 1548. The castle declined in importance after Cromwell's death in 1658, but new structures and defences were built as it was garrisoned until WWII. It was in a strategical place, located on the James River. Here is a picture of the river from one of the towers. Here is a picture of the magazine, were they kept their ammunition. Here is a picture of Joshua, Rachel, and Stephen next to a cannon. This is a picture of the tower were William Wallace was imprisoned. This is a picture of a cannon on a tower over looking the sea. After we went to Dumbarton Castle, we went to the condo where we were staying.