Edinburgh Castle

Before my mother had come, we planned to do a trip up to Scottland to check out the land of our ancestors. We ordered tickets on EasyJet to fly up to Edinburgh, which is an easy 1 hour flight from London. In hindsight, it ultimately would have probably been easier and cheaper to take the train up.





That being said, we got up very early in the morning to take the bus to Liverpool Station (which is quite atmospheric at that time), to take the Stansted Express train up to Stansted Airport.

Travel is a little involved here.

We arrived to a slightly overcast, windy, and cold day in Edinburgh. Luckily, it wasn't raining, as Scottland is quite known for being rainy a lot of the time.

We hopped on the shuttle from the airport to downtown Edinburgh, but got a little lost finding our hotel. Eventually, we found it. It wasn't anything super special, but it was inexpensive and comfortable for what we needed. Besides, it was right next door to the McEwen's Brewery!



We wandered from our hotel up to Edinburgh Castle, which dominates over the city perched imperiously on top of solid Granite Rock.







It is again a very different castle from the others I've had the chance to see. It reminded me most of Warrick Castle, but this is darker and colder looking.






It is a castle steeped in British History as it was the castle of Mary Queen of Scotts and where she gave birth to Prince James. Many battles over English/Scottish sovereignty were fought here and the castle changed hands several times.










We climbed the road all the way to the top passing through several gates and many cannon ports.

The views of Edinburgh from up there were spectacular. It was very cold and windy however, and we understood why the Kings and Queens preferred living in lower Hollyrood House over Edinburgh Castle.




The actual castle is not very big, but it is very old, and much of it has changed over the years as it went from being a castle for kings to being a jail for prisoners. We got to see the main hall, which was used as a military hospital at one point before being restored as a royal hall.