Keeping up with the Stewarts

I spent most of the last two days visiting castles- Edinburgh (the famous one), Craigmillar(abandoned by its owner), Linlithgow (birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots), Stirling ("whoever holds Stirling holds Scotland") and a look from the outside of St Andrews (religous capital of middle ages Scotland).

My overall impression-castles were more about appearances than somewhere to live. Sure they need to be defensible fortresses and homly but much of their design was to appear impenetrable or to show status.

Craigmillar, just south of Edinburgh, was abandoned when, in the words of a staff member, "castles went out of fashion." Many of the buildings in several of the castles where rendered in a bright and light colour so they could be seen many miles around. The great hall at Stirling castle was the biggest hall in medieval scotland and had status written all over it.

One of the Kings (maybe James IV) at Stirling built a massive chapel just for the christening of his son to show of to other VIPs!

All the showing off aside I wish I was a kid with free reign of these places to run around and play games. They are amazing feats of architecture and construction and would be so much fun to play around. Hmmm, I wonder if I could build a castle in Parkes... and I could be theri lord and protector... until someone else built a bigger castle...

(Incidentally the Stewarts were the clan who held Stirling castle and the kingdom of Scotland for many years)