Linlithgow and Falkirk

Friday 28th June

Today being our last day in Scotland, we decided to visit Linlithgow Palace, a place we had never visited in spite of its being only 15 miles from Edinburgh, where we lived for 5 years. The palace is best know for being the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots, but it seems to have had a very long history before that, and a lot less afterwards.

Apparently the site was first occupied at least 2000 years ago; remains of a cranog have been found in the Loch. A royal manor is known to have existed on the site since the 12th century. Edward lst (Hammer of the Scots) invaded Scotland and, finding the manor had potential as a military base, fortified it in 1302. It was re-taken by the Scots some years later, and restored as a royal residence. In 1424, King James lst of Scotland decided to turn it into a grand palace, and it was later added to by James lll, James lV and James V (father of Mary Queen of Scots; he was also born there). Mary herself sometimes stayed there during her reign, but when her son James Vl of Scotland became James l of the two kingdoms, the royal court moved to England and Linlithgow was little used and fell into disrepair. James had some repairs made, but the palace continued to be unused and parts became quite ruined. The final blow fell when the Duke of Cumberland had it burned down following the defeat of the Scots at Culloden. So now it is just a ruin, but one which gives some hint of the magnificence in which the Scottish monarchs lived.

This is the outer gateway or fore gate, an impressive entrance to the outer enclosure surrounding the palace. It was created for James V in 1535.

James belonged to 4 European chivalric orders, so he had these memberships displayed in the armorials above this entrance arch. He obviously hoped to impress visitors with his importance and international allegiances!

Once through the gate, you travel across the outer enclosure up a sloping approach to the palace itself.

This is the south front which became the main entrance around 1535. The big arched windows you can see on the first floor lit the royal chapel behind them. You go through the gate and into the courtyard, dominated by the fountain. 

The fountain was also created by James V, around 1538. He wanted to declare his power and sophistication. The crown on top represents the King’s superiority, and there are sculpted figures, some mythical, some symbolising James’ status as a patron of all the arts. 

The courtyard is surrounded on all 4 sides by different quarters representing building contributions by different monarchs. We started in the west quarter, to the left of the entrance gate, though that isn’t the earliest part. It contained the king’s lodgings, hall and presence chamber, installed here by James lV, though it was hard to understand all of them from the little that is left. 

This was the presence chamber, where James V added the ‘ladder window’ to bring more light in, as he thought it was too dark. You can see that the upper floors as well as the roof are missing. Most of the building was at least 4 stories high, but the roof is missing and most of the upper floors, though there are some remaining on the first floor in some quarters. 

We climbed one of the towers for magnificent views over Linlithgow and its Loch. The towers are largely intact and you can climb right to the top.

The Loch was formed during the last Ice Age. The glaciers retreated, leaving a huge block of ice. As it melted, sediments built up and a water-filled depression was left. It’s an important area for wildlife, and also for the local population. Depending on the size of your screen, you might be able to see the rowing boats out in the Loch; no doubt they are popular on such a lovely warm day.

This view of the palace interior from one of the tower windows, gives some idea of the size of the place. These are the top three storys of 4 or 5.

You can also see the ruined state, and appreciate how difficult it must be to stop the place from falling down completely. There are far too many plants growing in the ruined walls, which can’t be doing them any good.

The earliest part of the building is the East quarter, and it contains the Great Hall, built by James l for feasting, celebrations and grand gatherings.

I’ve had to lighten this photo considerably because the far end is in such deep shadow and I wanted to point out that those 3 huge square things at the far end are in fact part of a huge fireplace that occupies almost the entire wall! If you look closely, you may be able to see that the fireplace canopy projects out from the wall, and is held up by the 4 pillars. The fireplace in the kitchen next door to this hall is equally enormous, quite big enough to roast a whole ox!

After spending a couple of hours exploring the palace, we went to the adjoining church, St Michaels, which is a similar age to the palace.

Although there has been a church on this site for over 1000 years, this one was mostly completed around 1490, though the apse was added later. The ceiling used to be of wood, but this was found to be rotted and was replaced with the current plaster in 1812. There are some very interesting parts to this church - like the fact that what is now a display case at the back of the church used to be a lepers’ squint. Lepers were not allowed in the church but were allowed to watch the service from outside, through the squint which was a little window at a lower height than most church windows. There are also marks on a pillar at the back where Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers sharpened their swords, as well as bullet holes.

You can see the results of the reformation on this church. The outside used to be adorned with a great many statues in specially created niches. The statues were smashed at the reformation, but the niches remain, some of them with remnants of statue inside.

By then it was long past lunch time, so we visited a nearby café for a quick lunch, then made our way to Falkirk to see the Falkirk Wheel. This is is a rotating boat lift, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal for the first time since the 1930s. These canals were previously connected by a flight of 11 locks, but the locks fell into disuse and were dismantled in 1933 and the canals were subsequently filled in. 

The British Waterways Board planed was to regenerate the canals and reconnect Glasgow with Edinburgh. Planners decided early on to create a dramatic 21st-century landmark structure to reconnect the canals, instead of just recreating the flight of locks.

The wheel was opened by the Queen in 2002 and raises boats by 79 ft. It is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world, and one of only two working boat lifts in the United Kingdom. It really is an amazing sight.

This is what it looks like as you approach it. The upper canal runs along in what looks like a concrete trough, and the boats will be lowered from there to the pool below. At the same time, boats from below will be raised to the upper canal.

This is the start

The boat nearest the camera is waiting its turn to go into the lift. There is already a boat in there, an orange coloured one, just under the blue circular sign that says Scottish Canals, and the boat waiting is too wide to fit in alongside it. There are two boats in the upper canal, which you can’t see yet.

Then the wheel begins to turn. This is the half way position

You can see the orange boat going up on the left. The two boats which were in the upper canal can be seen now, one has a pink roof and the other is a traditional canal narrowboat, so narrow that it can fit alongside the pink boat.

The next photo shows the cycle nearing the end.

The orange boat is nearly up to the top canal, and the two other boats are nearly down to the pool.

This is the final position.

The orange boat is at the top and is about to sail away. At the bottom, the narrowboat has already left and is sailing away, and the pink boat is just waiting for it to get out of the way. Once both are out of the way, the boat nearest the camera will go in and be taken up - though it may have to wait for something else to be ready to come down. It was getting late, so we didn’t wait to see. 

We drove back to Edinburgh and made our preparations to leave. Tomorrow, we go to visit family in Cheshire.