Another weekend, another walk in the East Lothian countryside on a beautiful day. East Lothian is just to the east of Edinburgh: flattish, fertile land where some of my great-grandparents came from.
Someone had looked up what this little castle was called but I can't now remember. It's very typical of a Scottish tower house of medieval-ish times but has clearly been restored and is now lived in (according to our friend). Not that handy when it comes to vacuuming the staircase, but rather pretty.
We passed this rose, blooming away outside a house where in a different life I'd quite like to live - in the middle of the country, with a big garden. On the other hand it would be inconvenient if it snowed, I dare say.
But the weather's been very mild recently and there was no wind at all on our walk.
Quite nice to be a horse on a day like this.
This stone at Carberry Hill marks the spot where Mary Queen of Scots surrendered to the Scots lords on condition that her unpopular third husband, Bothwell, could escape to Dunbar (and thence to Denmark, where he spent the rest of his life in prison). She too was in captivity for the rest of her life, poor soul, and was beheaded at the age of 45 by order of Queen Elizabeth of England, her cousin, who thought that Mary was trying to take the English throne. When Elizabeth died, she left the throne to Mary's son, James VI, who became James I of England.
People, eh? I suppose that at least in Britain we're not beheading each other nowadays, so maybe we've learnt something.
We walked on through the woods,
looking toward Edinburgh - you can just see our city hill through the haze - and then repaired to a pub for coffee and scones. Such a lovely day.
There is a new film out about Mary, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I.Saoirse Ronan plays Mary; although she did an amazing American accent for "Lady Bird," I'm not sure what I think of her Scottish accent. She still sounds Irish to me. Glad your weather is still so pleasant for walks. Ours has gotten cold, and the rain is coming in tomorrow. We've had a beautiful November so far though, so I won't complain. :)
ReplyDeleteOooh I love a mini history lesson. I sort of knew it but good consolidation for quizzing purposes. I am a total gannet for snippets of factual trivia!!
ReplyDeleteLovely and interesting country. We were just discussing Mary, Queen of Scots on the D.E. Stevenson discussion list, trying to remember which character had talked about her.
ReplyDeleteYOu're killing me. I was just reading over posts of my trips to see you. I need to come back. And I was just there LOL. I'm obsessed, but can you blame me? You keep posting these perfect days -- and it's freeeeezing with a bit of snow on the ground here.
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