Blackness and Edinburgh Castle!

Day 2 ( or 3 if you count the drive up ) in Scotland saw us all head towards Edinburgh from Glasgow. But along the way, we stopped off in a small little village to have a look at one of the rural castles situated along the way.

This one was called Blackness castle.. which seemed to house prisoners back in the old days. But depending upon where you stood in the society you would either get a roomy stay in the central tower.. or you could spend your days in the pit where the cold northern waters would come in and out twice daily. Think of it like indoor swimming but in your living room.. that you share potentially with 20 other people.. and have someone above you using your "air vent" as a lavatory! Lovely!

As you can tell from the photos the weather was not the best, but I have been assured that this is to be expected when travelling to Scotland.. Sun is usually reserved for those returning or special occasions like leap year days in February...

From the outside though it looks pretty impressive.. and if you can see one of the shots from above ( which I don't have with me here ) you would see that it was built like a ship! Whoo .. cool! Nerds even back in the dark ages who went a bit crazy with their buildings!

Last photo is not the pit though, but more the well for clean drinking water. Which was quite funny to see cause well.. it sat right under the lavatories! Mmm fun!

Unimpressed with the wind at the top of the towers I was.. blew me hair straight off!

The main hall for those that were lucky enough to still have some luxuries afforded to them ( lords or nobles ).

And a spacious room for those living in the "good" tower of the prison.

And for those not of noble birth.. the pit.. and a nice plaque board explaining the lifestyle. Yay for those that got this treatment! Especially anytime between January and December when the waters were cold...

Anyways.. once we explored and ran and hide and played around enough on this castle, we then moved onwards to Edinburgh. Where we would explore Edinburgh Castle in comparison, and also have a nice lunch where the original Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde were based off of. Crazy crook, but hell of a beer at his establishment :)

Since we basically just walked straight from the car park to the pub to the castle.. not much to see. Plus at this point the weather turned from gloomy to straight up showers! Thankfully much of the castle's features are in the museums found within. So we could keep dry for the most part.

What I really liked were some of the miniature displays re-enacting the scenes from historical events.

And although it was raining out, the overall trip was quite nice! Though am back to work this week.. I can say that I have almost fully recovered from the trip and am ready for the next adventure! I am thinking.. mm.. Germany sounds good.. but maybe this time with some Spainish influence.. stick around for what that entails.. and in the meantime check out some more photos from Edinburgh!

More photos can be found here.. enjoy!