Climb up to Edinburgh Castle with Scotty

Welcome back to the adventures of Scotland The Brave in Scotland. (Click these links for other places Scotty saw: London, Stonehenge and Bath, Plymouth, Glastonbury, Lake Windermere , Gretna Green , Loch Lomond, Glencoe , the Isle of Skye , and Blair Athol castle.

Scotty was happy to now stand atop this castle of castles, Edinburgh Castle, and survey the city below. But first, you have to get up there. The castle is enormous and has a whole hilltop to itself, and it towers, or looms, over the city.

It sits on rocky outcrops which are high enough, and then climbs even higher. That means a big climb uphill. Fortunately, Scotty had arranged to be carried by his Guardians.

HINT: CLICK on the images to make them bigger and with more details on your device.

So up the hill they slogged. People had dressed for ‘Scottish weather’ but it was a fine hot day and many of them laboured up the inclines.

And whenever they had seemed to finally arrive at the main fortress, there were yet more sloping courtyards with more buildings above them. Why so many buildings? Well the castle began as a stronghold against the dastardly English.

And strongholds have storerooms and such like. They added a church too. (see pic below). Eventually, James IV of Scotland became King of England too after Good Queen Bess died. Just like that, the English were no longer officially declared dastardly.

So what to do with a castle that was no longer needed? From the time of James (Sixth of Scotland and Oneth of England), the castle also functioned as a royal residence and so yet more halls and kitchens and so forth were added.

Scots soldiers were recruited into the British’ army and one regiment set up their army barracks in the castle. So more rooms were added to accomodate the Royal Scots Dragoons. Scotty hoped against hope that ‘dragoons’ was a mis-spelling and that in fact it had been a barracks for DRAGONS.

Being a castle, there are also ramparts and gun platforms. This massive old gun is called Mons Meg. She is very heavy. How on earth did they get it up there? (Flown in by a squadron of dragons, in Scotty’s opinion).

Scotty found a smaller cannon to aim instead. Centuries ago, it was supposed to aim at the dastardly English, but these days it has a clear shot at the city. Scotty hastily got off the cannon in case he accidentally fired it.

There are many fascinating details in the castle and here are just a few.

Mary of Lorraine, who ruled as regent for 6 years, Mary ‘Queen of Scots’, and that James IV of Scotland, who actually became King of England too are all honoured here.

You can see the Crown Jewels of Scotland here too, but we show no pictures here as they are not allowed, and you are not allowed to help yourself to them either. Bother.

The royals, however, had found the place to be cold and uncomfortable and preferred to stay at the bottom of the hill, at Holyrood Palace.

Scotty couldn’t visit Holyrood because the present King, who Scotty had missed seeing at Buckingham Palace, was briefly King-ing in Scotland at the time and he was staying in the palace. So small bears, and people, weren’t allowed inside to look. Bother.

Next episodes: Scotland the Brave leaves behind brave Scotland and travels down to England again, seeing York and Stafford on Avon. Don’t miss his visit to Isle of Man.

BOOKS with Scotland in them (our Scotty, that is)

Scotty is the star of a very special book called When A Brave Bear Fights Cancer: A Get Well Soon Gift by Carola Schmidt. In the book, Scotty a little bear who gets a bad sickness called cancer. The book is to help kids feel much more brave when they are getting treatment. Available in paperback and Kindle. Look for the brave little bear on the cover.

Scotty in books by Mawson

You can also see Scotty in all the books by Mawson. One is called It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In (in that one he delivers the post) and another is She Ran Away From Love (he delivers the post again.) In Dreamy Days and Random Naps you can see him being a king and also a superb guitarist. Don’t miss that one! You can find Mawson’s books on this Link here, and on his Writer-Bear Page on Amazon.This is what the books look like:

You have wandered into Mawson Bear’s web-den. Mawson is the Writer-Bear of It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In  and Dreamy Days and Random Naps and She Ran Away From Love. Mawson’s Guardian is co-creator of When A Brave Bear Fights Cancer, by Carola Schmidt