Kathleen Laundy     Costume Designer
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Aggie Players Archive
  • Alumni Wall of Fame
  • Artists Memorials
  • Awesome Costumes
  • Blog
  • Cosplay
  • Costume Links
    • Education
    • Resources/Organizations
    • Ren Faires
    • Comic Cons
    • Designers
  • Courses Taught
    • DRAM 1342 Costuming
    • DRAM 1341 Makeup
    • DRAM 2331 Intro to Design
    • DRAM 1310 Theatre Appreciation (Online)
  • Current Season
    • Steel Magnolias
    • The Gods of Comedy
    • The Addams Family Musical
    • Die Fledermause
    • Love/Sick
  • Everything Else Links
    • Dramaturgy
    • Texas Theatres
    • Scenery/Lighting
    • Performance
    • Artists
    • Etsy Shops
    • Music
    • Life Hacks
    • Businesses
  • Makeup Links
  • Other Artistic Outlets
  • Presentations
  • Press
  • Production Archive
  • Professional Development
  • Reading List
  • Write to Me
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Aggie Players Archive
  • Alumni Wall of Fame
  • Artists Memorials
  • Awesome Costumes
  • Blog
  • Cosplay
  • Costume Links
    • Education
    • Resources/Organizations
    • Ren Faires
    • Comic Cons
    • Designers
  • Courses Taught
    • DRAM 1342 Costuming
    • DRAM 1341 Makeup
    • DRAM 2331 Intro to Design
    • DRAM 1310 Theatre Appreciation (Online)
  • Current Season
    • Steel Magnolias
    • The Gods of Comedy
    • The Addams Family Musical
    • Die Fledermause
    • Love/Sick
  • Everything Else Links
    • Dramaturgy
    • Texas Theatres
    • Scenery/Lighting
    • Performance
    • Artists
    • Etsy Shops
    • Music
    • Life Hacks
    • Businesses
  • Makeup Links
  • Other Artistic Outlets
  • Presentations
  • Press
  • Production Archive
  • Professional Development
  • Reading List
  • Write to Me
  Kathleen Laundy     Costume Designer

Blog

Just me talking about costume-y kind of stuff

Edinburgh Castle

5/28/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
We bought timed entry tickets to the Castle the night before.  We're allowed in at 9:30, so we had an early breakfast and then began to hike.  We climbed up the Playfair Steps and this time I counted them (85).  Like I mentioned yesterday, the street that goes to the Castle also goes straight up.  It's cobblestone and has a handrail which we used to pull ourselves up. The climb was so difficult for us, I couldn't imagine English soldiers hiking there only to attack it in full armor.  I guess that's why it's the most besieged castle in Great Britain. It's much easier to starve the defenders out than attack a castle on the top of a volcano!

Right in front of the entrance to the Castle is the Tartan Mill, which I desperately wanted to visit.  I'd researched it two years earlier when I started making kilts for the family.  But we didn't have time to visit it properly before our timed entry, so we saved it for another day.  The Castle was a lot like the Tower of London with the exception of it being built on top of yet another EXTINCT VOLCANO!  (430' above sea level and 260' higher than the surrounding landscape.)  We were so high up in fact, that there was no wifi signal and there's free wifi everywhere in Edinburgh.  That was one of the nice things about Edinburgh compared to London--no free wifi on the mean streets of London.  β€‹

Here's a model of the Castle, so you can see just how extensive it is and also how it's just sitting right on top of a giant volcano!
Picture
The cool thing about this castle was that there had been a castle there since the 11th C.  We bought the guide book but now that we're home and I'm actually writing this in September, I can't find it anywhere. I'm writing all this from memory and my journal entry, which was pretty brief. 

The castle had many cannon guarding every wall, plus the biggest one ever that was named Mons Meg.  it weighs 6 tons and could fire a 330 lb. stone up to 2 miles.  
Picture
Picture
Besides Meg, there was also several WW2 anti-aircraft missiles. One of them shoots a blank every day at 1:00pm so that the townspeople can set their watches by it. β€‹
Picture
Picture
 The nicest part was the dog cemetery.  Officers are allowed to have dogs and when they die, they bury them in the dog cemetery. β€‹
Picture
Picture
Mostly the castle housed a memorial to WWI and WWII soldiers, which was sad.  
Picture
Picture
But also, prisoners were housed there for a time, so we got to see the dungeons.  There were giant fake rats decorating the place with recordings of "prisoners" talking to each other in many different languages. They were actually pretty nice. They weren't isolated from each other, they got hammocks to sleep in, they got to hang their laundry up to dry, and they got fed pretty well. β€‹In 1811 49 French prisoners of war hacked their way through a wall and lowered themselves down on ropes.  All but one escaped that way.  They didn't mention if that one guy stayed behind or fell to his death.  The hole is still there. During WWII they continued to house prisoners of war here. I guess none of them were brave enough to escape that way.
Picture
Picture
Just like the Tower of London houses the British Crown Jewels, the Edinburgh Castle holds the Scottish crown jewels, which we got to see, but were not allowed to photograph. There was kind of a costume gallery showing the history of the Scottish Kings on the way to see the jewels.
The oldest part of the Castle is St. Margaret's Chapel, which had some lovely stained glass.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

The Map

Picture
It cost $17 each for tickets to the Castle.
Click to set custom HTML
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All

    Archives

    December 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    October 2021
    June 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    October 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly