Linlithgow Palace

Welcome to the first of my posts about my trip.

With 978 pictures to choose from, it’s the first of many. *laughs*  Unfortunately, since I’d forgotten my camera, they’re all taken with my phone.  We could have taken the effort to find and purchase a new camera but I had limited resources (both financially and physically, though Val did her best to help with both).  I wasn’t concerned, my phone camera may not be the best, but it’s not the worst. 🙂   I think, having gone through all the pictures, that there were times when I was definitely a very poor photographer.  

While the trip was difficult on me it was extremely enjoyable and I don’t regret a moment of it, or anything I’m going through now.  There were times when I couldn’t stand still, or my hands wouldn’t stop shaking and the pictures are blurry and there was nothing to be done about it.  So with that in mind, let’s go on.

When planning the trip, I wanted to start with a bang.  I wracked my brains for the perfect thing.  I was tooling around our area of Scotland (via our friend, Google) I saw a few things – Loch Lomond, Stirling, Linlithgow.  Now, our plans were to do the Highland Explorer tour, (that got cancelled on us), and that covered Loch Lomond and Stirling.  That left us with Linlithgow.  I did some research into and – I’ll admit – somewhat reluctantly scheduled it in.

My reluctance was wholly unfounded.

Now, I need to remind you that I am a believer in past lives, in feeling history, and in the energies left by people.

Linlithgow was absolutely amazing.  If you stand quietly, close your eyes and just breathe you can hear the voices of people past.  You can feel their emotions and almost see the history play out.

Our first views of Linlithgow offered wonderful views of history and …antique?…architecture. We were immediately thrown into the past. (Despite the cars 😉 )

This is the Linlithgow Town Council buildings. “Linlithgow Burgh Halls.”

Even the path to the castle gate was steeped in history. Along the wall on the right are plaques detailing every Royal who stayed in the palace from Mary, Queen of Scot. She was born there and crowned queen at the age of 7 months then shipped to France for her safety.

An upward glance in the entrance to the courtyard showed some carvings called “bosses”. These are protrusions of stone or wood and are found on a number of vaulted ceilings in Gothic Architecture. I liked them.

Once through the entrance, we were confronted with this Message Fountain.

It is beautiful, complicated and astonishing.

We wandered inside and one of the first things we saw was this hole in the wall that led to a hole in the floor. It turned out to be a prison.

This plaque didn’t give us numbers but I have to tell you, it was deep.

Val and I separated and I wandered around, taking pictures until my camera died. I found some fantastic rooms like this one. This is the Royal Apartments, I think.

This is the Great Room, a place of gatherings of all kinds from political meetings to a grand ball.

 (And HEY!  On to day two of trying to write this post!  My built-in keyboard crapped out yesterday and it was a frustrating piece of work trying to use the onscreen one.  Eventually, I gave up.  And by the time I could sit down after supper to work with my external I was out of it with pain, drugs and fatigue.  Only a few pictures left.)

Everywhere you looked there were windows. The ones that didn’t look down into the courtyard offered some fantastic views of the town and countryside.

Like this view.

This is the courtyard. Quite big enough for a horse drawn carriage to turn around in and a full household staff to be there awaiting the royal arrivals, don’t you think?

I, the woman with the lousy back, knees and ankle, climbed to the top of two of those towers. …As close as I could get before encountering locked gates. I paid for it, of course, but it was totally worth it.

I leave you with one last view of Linlithgow – Linlithgow Pond. The palace is an amazing place to visit and, should you be in the area (or within a train ride of the area) you should visit.

My battery died and I missed many pictures I could have taken, until Val gave me her spare.  I missed out on photographing several amazing things.  But that’s okay.  I refuse to regret the things I didn’t take pictures of because being there was so intense and so gorgeous it’s difficult to regret anything.  My goal for taking pictures is to be able to share the experiences, to show you the things I’ve seen in the ways I see them.  My camera phone isn’t that great, overall, but it’s not that bad either, it gets across my vision more often than not.  

This is a snippet of the sights I enjoyed in Linlithgow and I hope you enjoyed them too.

Now!  As much as I’d also like to share the Willow Tea Rooms with you today, NaNo is in SIX DAYS and I have yet to find a plot.  There’s Kris, my beloved protagonist, but that’s it.  It’s going to be something about animal conservation, biker dudes, wolves (of course) and maybe a woman.  That’s all I know.

Have a great day!  Maybe the Willow Tea Rooms tomorrow, we’ll see.  The ‘rents are coming for a visit tomorrow.  I’m pleased about that.

Muah.