Castles, and more castles!!!

We have seen a total of 5 castles now, Edinburgh, Urquhart, Huntly, Lochleven and Sterling.  They are unbelievable, its hard to image something so old still exists!  They are hundreds of years older than our own country!!!  Some are in better repairs than others, but thats besides the point.  Yesterday we traveled from Inverness back to Edinburgh, stopping at Huntly and Lochleven on the way.  It was cold and rainy, but we still trooped out and about.  Saw a lot of the beautiful landscape along the way through the raindrops. 

Anyhoo, Huntly was our first stop.  It had more of the castle keep standing than Urquhart did, we were able to walk around the grounds and into the keep, exploring the great hall and earl and his lady's rooms, as well as the brewhouse and bakehouse.

  Above the door leading in there was a large stone carving that depicted 3 coat of arms in order of importance, the first one right above the door was the earl's own arms, above him was James VI coat of arms and above that was a crucifix.  It is over 600 years old and in realitivly good condition. 

A 2.5 hour drive later we arrived at Lochleven in the town of Kinross.  A nice little town with a large lake, or loch, which has the castle ruins on an island in the middle.  We took a boat out to visit.  This is the castle where Mary Queen of Scots was kept for a time and reminded me of a storybook castle with its round tower in the corner where Mary's apartment was and the large rectangle keep with turrents and ramparts surrounding it.

  There were large pheasants running around the grounds as well.  The views across the loch were wonderful.

Today we went to Sterling Castle, which is in the process of renovation, so we couldn't see a lot, but what we did see was nice.  A lot of battles have been fought around Sterling, who ever holds Sterling holds the country.  We spent a long time roaming the grounds and seeing everything we could see.  You'll have to see the pictures, cause its really hard to describe a lot of these places its best just to show them.  I hope you enjoy them!!!

Tomorrow we have tickets to see Mary Kings Close, an underground tour of the city that was around during the time of the plague, should be fun!!  And then we are off to Carlisle to see Hadrian's wall and probably another castle.  So thats about it for now!