Day 23: On the bonny, bonny flanks of south Scotland....

"Whale oil beef hooked!" cried the Irishman as glorious England gave way to Scotland's special beauty (so chumpy you could carve it) with a modest St Andrew's cross on the motorway. Woo hoo!  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  The day started well with a warmish to hot shower, which we had not experienced since leaving Canberra on 21 April.  Excellent!  As we drew nearer to the Scottish border our excitement knew no bounds, hence this rather lame motorway pic (below right) of impending Scotlandia:  

Before that, we managed today to take a couple of motorway snaps of the breath-taking Cumbrian scenery (that I described yesterday in slightly embarrassing, almost Wordsworthian tones) just before our camera battery suddenly collapsed from exhaustion, meaning the rest of today's pics were taken with my trusty Samsung Galaxy S2 phone.  I apologise in advance for this. 







It looks rather plain in this pic, but with the emerald green paddocks full of sheep and baby lambs,
the Cumbrian countryside is very special.  Honestly!

Before we knew it, we were in Scotland, both for the very first time, and both thrilled to bits to see the border modestly marked by the cross of St Andrew, even if this photograph is really, embarrassingly bad!  But it's our only proof, even if you need a magnifying glass to see it.






Our one and only destination in Scotland was Caerlaverock Castle, built in the 1200s.  In the year 1300, that mongrel king Edward 1 (also known as Edward Longshanks because he was 7 feet tall - see my previous blog, wellspotteddick.blogspot.com.au ) invaded Scotland and Caerlaverock Castle was his first victory, despite the valiant efforts of Laird Maxwell and his minions.

The battle in the year 1300 is quite well-documented from the English perspective as an English poet recorded all the drama as it happened.  He claimed that when the Scots eventually surrendered, having been horribly outnumbered, Edward "Pippy" Long Stockings spared most of the heroic defenders and gave them all new livery.  The Scots believe it far more likely he had them all executed. 






Caerlaverock is quite a magical place and such good value.  Only 4 pounds and a bit to get in.   Also, part of their 'exhibition' includes a 10 minute clip of Tony Robinson (from Time Team and Blackadder) re-enacting the epic poem I mentioned before, and really bringing it alive.

The Maxwell family eventually got the castle back but were warned the English would return and indeed they did in the 1600s, driving out the Scottish owners and installing Anglos.                                            
          



                            

Nothing special about this pic. I just liked the angle and the view through the window. This room (that I'm standing in) was the medieval bakery.  Bread was the staple diet for peasants, which must be the reason why I also eat a lot of it. 









And finally from me tonight, before I hand over to Mr Snorkypants (who will wax lyrical about wonderful Lanercost Priory, even though it was not Cistercian!) check out this clump of dandelions.  The dandelions here are so big and healthy-looking, you'd swear they were actual plantings and not weeds.  I will still hate them at home, but I will have a new perspective. 


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My only addition regarding Castle Caerlaverock is that it's triangular, which was supposed it make it more difficult to attack, although Edward Longshanks and his knights of the realm did eventually prevail.  Oh, and the scaffolding you see is quite common these days for roons of this vintage.  It kind of spoils the photo, but on the other hand if it means the difference between it standing and falling down, it's a good job.  A top destination, and we didn't get lost once, which is a first I think.  Our little southern corner of Scotland didn't look that much different to England, although we did hear lots of the distinctive Scottish brogue.  Here's a colonial posing in the front door of the castle, just after you cross the moat.  We have plenty of stuff like this in Canberra of course, but I thought I'd pretend to be impressed just to make the locals feel good.

We then backtracked to Lanercost Priory.  It's actually not that far from the Birdoswald Roman fort, where we were yesterday, but nothing's that far in these parts, which is of course one of its great charms.

Lanercost was built in 1169 for the Augustinian monks and survived peacefully until the 14th century when it was caught up in the uprisings of Robert the Bruce and other sundry Scottish troublemakers.  It was of course dissolved as a monastery in the 1530s, courtesy of Henry VIII [aka 'the Fat Bastard' - Ed].  I say 'of course', since the dissolution has been reported in earlier posts about roons that used to be abbeys.  In a similar vein to Castle Caerlaverock, it was later converted into a stately home, in this case by Thomas Dacre.  Jeez some of these wealthy poms did well, didn't they?

This is the undercroft.  We were particularly taken by the beautifully preserved ceiling.  The other joy about this visit was the weather.  It was sunny and almost warm, in complete contrast to yesterday at Birdoswald fort just up the road.  We actually sat for a while in the sun outside and lapped up the ambience.  We agreed it would be a top spot to lay out your picnic blanket, provided you could be confident that you wouldn't get drowned or blown half way to Manchester.  The other thing we've decided about these attractions is that in the main they are visited by a nice class of pom.  If you can avoid school groups, as mercifully we managed to do today, you'll generally find that you won't be offended by any of your fellow visitors.  In a lot of cases we were among the youngest, a rarity indeed these days.

This is definitely the way to spend an enjoyable day out in the English and (for today anyway) Scottish countryside.  Just you, the history and the sheep (who are present at every attraction we've visited).  Provided the satnav works, the road signage is helpful and you encounter no other technical hitches, it's an absolute joy.  Oh, and there's the weather and the school groups.  Really, what can possibly go wrong?  Thankfully for us, nothing did today!

Anne sticking her oar in again jist to say this is our last despatch from Coombria. Tomorrow we will be reporting in for just one night from Liverpool!  XXX