Day 32 - Sunday, July 14, 2024 - Back to Edinburgh Scotland

By Ellen Outten

The church at Linlithgow.  Still active and holding a church service while we were there.

Today we were back in Edinburgh Scotland. The nice thing for today was one, the weather and two, that we went someplace different than a few weeks ago when we were here in Edinburgh.

Our cruise ship sailed under these bridges on our way into Edinburgh Scotland this morning




We opted for the included tour to Lilithgow Castle. Our bus left at 8:30 and it was a short ride over their newest bridge, the longest suspension bridge in Europe, to Linlithgow. 









Fountain in the courtyard of the castle

The unicorn is the Scottish national animal

Close up of the unicorn in the fountain

Our guide walked us to the castle and gained our entrance. Guides, quite often, or not permitted to give tours inside the public buildings that have their own tours. This was the case today and we were actually just let loose to walk around the castle all by ourselves. 

The castle was one of the principal residences of the monarchs of Scotland in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Mary Queen of Scots was born here and in the line of succession, she was cousin to Queen Elizabeth, mother of the present King Charles.

As we entered the castle, we immediately encountered a spiral staircase and as you would expect, nothing is smooth.   It's all ancient stones that are uneven. 

It was really kind of neat to be able to just walk where we wanted to walk and quite often as I walked through doorways or arches I found myself at a dead end that had been blocked for passage or by iron gates that didn't allow me to go any further either. 

The castle has no roof as it was burned in a fire in 1746.   There is nothing in the castle other than the rough walls and the stone that has survived over time. 

Exterior pictures of the castle 

This would have been the main entrance to the castle. With a drawbridge being raised and lowered from that central arch.


The grounds in front of the main entrance to the castle were absolutely beautiful. So pretty, so green



Wayne and I taking pictures of each other as I was walking around inside the castle and he remained outside by the fountain

I really enjoyed walking around the castle until I was ready to leave. And, then I couldn't find my way out for quite a while. I finally stumbled on one of the tour guides and he had to show me the way out. 

Interior pictures of the castle.


Down that hole was the actual dungeon.








We were at the castle for approximately 2 hours. Wayne managed to walk up to the castle, a nice long uphill climb but didn't go stumbling around inside the castle. 

I found Wayne after I finally managed to extricate myself from the castle and walk back down the hill. I joined them for a morning cup of coffee and an English scone. It was such a nice day, we were able to sit outside and enjoy some warm sunshine that we haven't had for quite a number of days.
The names on these plates are hard to read but they start with Mary Queen of Scots and then list the Royal hierarchy through the ages.



This last picture shows on the far right Queen Elizabeth and King Charles being the last in the line of succession

The little town of Linlithgow was all decked out. Flowers were in abundance everywhere. All of these little villages and towns compete for the prettiest town in Scotland awards p

Wayne can't resist a flower

Cute sign.  Let's get chatty. 

Tomorrow we are on to Inverness Scotland. Our last day in Scotland. This will be a new town and we are told a fairly larg town for the Highlands, this area of Scotland..




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