Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Castle National War Museum of Scotland (2/3)

 

There were also paintings of battleground in side the War Museum of Scotland. Above happens to be a famous one, although I can't say which battle was it as I have zero knowledge of war history of Scotland. 

Here are some information about the significant of bagpipes in the war regiment. I think Scots are a very proud people in terms of their country, their heritage etc. If they are from the Highland, there is also a whole history behind the family and clans of the Highlands. My social media is lite with information about Scotland ever since my first visit, and I've learnt more about the Gaelic language as well as it's origin. On my upcoming trip, I will be visiting the Orkney Islands, and that too is something new to me. I am not sure if those are considered the Highlands since my local tour starts from Inverness, but the island of Orkney with it's Viking roots and culture is fascinating for me. I love ancient stones and religion. Something more raw than before Christianity. 

Not sure why I'm putting this photo here. I just thought of capturing it. It kinda reminded me of my ex-colleague Claus who isn't even Scottish. But learning more about the roots of Scotland, perhaps there are some similarity. My ex-colleague was Danish, and now that I learnt more about Orkney, I can see why the painting reminded me of him.

There were also these lovely drawings of Scottish soldiers. For some reason I love taking photograph of these information and putting them on my blog. I don't post these on my social media cause they would probably bore people to death. But on my blog, it's like my little travel gallery, and I love posting lovely things I see in museums or anywhere on my travel here. All these are beautiful to me, and it helps train me to appreciate the beauty I see around the world!

I also like cartoon looking pictures. Can you guess who these two are?

I can't draw well, or paint. I do try! I realised when you try doing or making something, it helps you appreciate these work of art or craft more. Someone put a lot of effort into these. It ended up in a museum. And now I have it 'forever' on my blog where I can always come back to admire them. "Forever" as long as they don't take down my blog. If they do, I hope they do so after I have passed. 

Portrait of people I don't know. Someone took the time to draw this. Black and White too! How lovely. I was recently at an Impressionist Exhibition and saw many self portrait. Perhaps I could consider making one of my own one day! It's such a reflective thing to do!

More black and white pieces. I love it when these are drawn by black pen. How do you not make any mistake while drawing these with a pen? Back then they surely don't have erasable pens like they do now. 

There were also needle works on display, mainly of the national flower the Thistle. 

I have yet to see a real Thistle. Not sure if I would even be able to tell if I did see one. I read that it's rather thorny. But they make them look so pretty in these needle work.

Here is another one, this time I think it's with pink roses. This one is more United Kingdom in spirit. I used to be confused between England, Scotland and the United Kingdom. Now I know better! And frankly, I think Scotland should just be an independent country by itself. Why United Kingdom? Any benefits to it? Is it like belonging to ASEAN? From what I gather, it seems more than that.... so I can understand when I read about some of their political parties voicing views about separating from England. 

Lastly, here are some cool books I saw on displayed there. Books on war. For some odd reason, I may not like reading history much, but I do like reading about strategy of war. I think it's due to my love of playing chess, and I guess, learning to manipulate your enemy, lol. I'm not good in either, but it's still fascinating to me.

They also have a book called Modern Art of War. I wonder if they knew about China's Sun Tze Art of War at that time when this book was written. Were the theories different from Chinese Art of War? I guess I could go search for the books to read them. It is amazing how many books you could read if you only have the time, and make the time to read them. My to-read books are constantly nagging me.

And the final photo here, a Gaelic Bible, so that I pay also pay homage to the Highland people of Scotland. Seriously though, when you cross into the Highlands, it felt like a totally different world! Hmmm, maybe that's how one would feel if one travels of West Malaysia to East Malaysia? Lol. I've only ever visit Kuching for a few hours stopoever once on a cruise. Maybe I should consider visiting again to really explore the 'highlands' of Malaysia since they always say it is different there.....

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Castle National War Museum of Scotland (1/3)

 

Now we start out journey exploring the museums inside the castle. I have only 2 museums in my collection on the lower castle ground. Yet we spent almost 2hours exploring them. It was pretty much information overload! The first museum we walked into was the National War Museum of Scotland.  

I saw this sign at the entrance of the museum and thought it was so artistic. Note, there is a gift shop at the entrance of the museum, and they sold pretty lovely jewelries and souvenirs. If you want to get yourself something nice and authentic, I would recommend getting it here. The price is on the higher side though, but at least it's authentic. I didn't get anything, cause I wanted to save up to get some Celtic jewelries and maybe a book, and I needed to do that at the end of my trip. 

It was a war museum, but what greeted you when you stepped in were friendly soldier looking dolls. I thought they were rather cute! They looked like something out of my children's story books! Were they trying to tone down the perception of war? Granted that countries during that period was always at war with someone or themselves....

Perhaps because I was Asian, I didn't quite appreciate the information or history surrounding the wars in this area. I did learnt a lot about Jacobites and clan wars of Scotland, and although I find them fascinating, I doubt I will appreciate visiting their battleground that much. Luckily the war museum also showcase other artefacts related to the armies and national pride, which I can appreciate.

Uniforms and items used during war time were on displayed.

Highland sword, with lovely workmanship I can appreciate. It was always like jewelry design. On my maiden trip to Scotland, I also learnt that the Highlands and South of Scotland area like totally different countries! Lol. And to be frank, I prefer the Highlands. It felt really natural and magical there, and that's were all the fairies are, and the Gaelic language and culture is more alive in.

Beautiful art pieces on a sword. I bet these are ceremonial sword? I mean, could you fight with this? 

There were also medals on display, I guess expected of any military museum. 

And the old war flag of Scotland. I got pretty confused with the flags. Why is it red yellow when I thought the colours of Scotland is white and blue? Ah, long history. 

Here's a selfie of me with my toy soldiers :P A Nation in Arms! Like Terry Pratchett's book Men At Arms! 

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Castle Lower Ground View

 

Before we go into details about what is inside the castle, I thought I'll just do a quick post of the views around the castle since I took so many lovely photos of it. For a start, above is the castle square. I call it that cause it's just a large space outside of the castle, but I guess I should use the proper name, which is the Esplanade.  Most people lingers around here, and you can come up at night to see the castle being lighted up. Sometimes there are light shows here, and sometimes performances or ceremonies held here. I thought about whether to attend a Tattoo performance which happens in August, but I think everything would be expensive then, and super crowded, and I don't think I'll have much fun then as I do during the low period. 

From inside of the castle, you could see the side profile of the castle walls. These looked lovely, cause here was where your imagination could run while, and images of stories or books you've read can come alive as you walked through those courtyard or corridors of the castle, with their small towers, stone windows etc.

Here are some photos of the castle ground, specifically those on the edge of the castle. Compare this area to the Forbidden City, it's considered small. But what it lacks in space, it has in character! 

And here are views from the castle. It was nice to be able to spot landmarks from the top of the castle looking down to Edinburgh. Here below was Princess Street Garden and the church in the middle where we had explored the day before. We walked thought the gardens plenty of time while we were in Edinburgh. 

Here is another part of Edinburgh, and you could see the sea at the horizon. I'm not too sure where this location is, perhaps it was  further down Princess Street, where we walked towards Dean's Village? Probably at the new town area since the buildings were all still so modern looking and neat.

Here is another viewpoint. You could see the hills at the horizon. Was it Arthur's Seat? Everything looked far from the castle, but actually, Edinburgh is pretty walkable. We did walk to Dean's Village and back. We haven't been to Leith area, or Southbank area. We tend to walk everywhere, and the city itself has so much to see that I felt that this may be my 2nd favour country to far after Japan! A place where I would love to go back to and explore again and again, if only it wasn't so darn expensive!

Last photo, view looking towards Calton Hill, and you could see the Scots' Monument in the photo too! Landmark is great for navigating the city. So I use Scot's Monument to navigate myself at the new town, and Edinburgh castle can be seen pretty much from everywhere. And once you're at Royal Miles, its pretty straight forward single road to walk. But if you turned into any close or stairs, you could end up at a different part of town just by going up or down stairs! The level game here is insane!

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Castle Lower Ground

 

I can't recall what time was our entry ticket. I think it was probably 930am or 10am as I wanted to visit the Weekend Market at Castle Terrace first. But the guards were nice enough to let us in 15minutes before our allocated time. So after hanging outside the castle square for a while, we made ourselves in to the Edinburgh Castle. It was exciting since we've already visited the outside a few times before actually going inside!

Here is a picture of me walking in. I love that the gates into the castle has two knights's statues outside guarding it. For some reason, Scotland was so much more castle than England. I've only been to the London Tower I think, and that wasn't very castle-ry either. 

But Edinburgh Castle felt proper castle to me. The way it was seated on top of a rock, and the way it was built with a single entry in that looked so majestic. It felt proper castle cause it looked like it was built to protect. And almost every where inside, were little signs like those above, carrying some message, or blessings and protection for battle or national pride. 

A side profile of the knight statue. I do like knights. Not those in shinning armour though, just more like Knight Templars, or Order of the Thistle, or something in that form. Not as a single knight that rescue the princess type, but those underground society type :P

There are signs inside on all the main attraction sights like this one above. I never did like audio tour cause I can't focus on the audio while looking around. But at least with these, I can read as I walk around. I also hate those info QR code where instead of telling you stuff, they make you scan QR codes to read more detailed about the stuff. Dude! Not everyone has unlimited data! And even if you provide free Wifi, not everyone has unlimited battery life! 

As any respectable castle goes, even for a fort, there are canons inside. I like this one that says Argyle Battery. I learnt a lot about Scotland in one single trip. I learnt that a lot of the names in Scotland can also be found in the streets of Penang! Noted that Penang used to be a port belonging to the British. Many names in Scotland reminded me of places in Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong cause they were all Commonwealth Countries.

And here is what the canon was looking out to. See, it's so protect castle! You could bomb anything from miles away. Great for seeing your enemy approaching. Actually, from the location of the castle you could probably see the whole of Edinburgh since the castle sits on a rock overlooking all the flat land below. 

There were locations in the castle you could walk into that has exhibition materials for you to read up on. Information mainly on the castle and perhaps wars it had fought on. The The display at these places were kinda minimal, but there were a few museums inside where it was filled with detailed information and lots of interesting artefacts. 

Timeline and viewing location information could also be found. 

And then there are the museums. A single ticket into the castle actually gave you access to plenty of museums inside. Initially I thought I could spend just maybe 2 hours tops inside the castle since many review said it was a small castle. In total, we spent perhaps 4 to 6 hours inside. I think we didn't leave till maybe 2pm or later. I thought I could see everything then watch the 1pm gun salute and leave. But we were only still exploring the lower ground before the time came for the gun salute. After which we spend more time exploring the upper ground of the castle.

Here is me, outside the museum. I think it was the Scotland War Museum. Will have more info about the inside in upcoming post!

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Castle Witches' Well

 

While waiting for our entry time into the Castle of Edinburgh, I remembered to go look for the Witches' Well which was nearby which I forgot all about visiting the previous day. I guess many people would have pass it by if they have not researched about Edinburgh and it's history of witches. It's just right in front o the castle square really. If you come up from Royal Mile towards the castle, it would be to your right upon entering the Castle square. It isn't very visible, and I guess only those who were interested would seek it out. When it comes to witches and fairies, I'm super interested :) And I knew this was one of the places that I wanted to visit.

It is actually just a small well, if you could call it that. I don't recall seeing any water actually flowing out of it. And it's such a small monument that it would be easily overlooked by everything else in Edinburgh. There wasn't anything grand about it. Just a simple concrete small well with some flowers on it. But the significants of it weight heavily in their history. Dedicated to all the women (and some men) that was killed during the witchhunt of Scotland. But just recently, it has been declared that there were no witches in Scotland, only a big misunderstanding in history.  

Here are some information about the Witches' Well.

At the two side of it, there are further illustration and wordings. One is for bad, "The Evil Eye"....

And the other was for good, "The Hands of Healing". Showing that there are two sides to teh story. Duality? Or the non-existence of it. To me, witches has already been about small ladies, ladies that uses their brain and had knowledge of the world around them, either about the weather, or herbs and medicine, animals and humans all alike. They were just wise women misunderstood and feared. And I get the appeal of it, a lot, of wanting to live alone in a cottage in the woods, looking ugly and hideous so that people would leave you alone :P

And if like fated, there was also a beautiful elegant looking cat just seated there guarding the Witches' Well :)  On this trip, I actually bought a super big book about the occult and witches of Scotland! It cost me 30pounds! And I am as surprised as anyone when I walked out the shop with that book on my last day there! Hahahaha. I just wanted something memorable from Scotland. It was either witches or fairies! Perhaps I will go look for a book on fairies on my next trip :)  I actually saw a beautiful one in the Museum of John Knox. We'll see!

Here's a photo of me while we linger outside the castle waiting to enter it at 930am slot.

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Saturday Morning Farmer's Market at Castle Terrace

 

To the Castle! To the Castle! That was our main goal that day! To see the beautiful Edinburgh Castle in every angle! It was hard to get sick of the view. Trust me, I've tried. It is beautiful at every angle. And this day, we saw it from Castle Terrace area looking up. Perhaps a rarer view from where most people see it from, which was from Prices' Street.  

Castle Terrace ground was beneath the castle at the end of this road. Yes, it was actually quite a walk. We had to go there again when we start our tour for Isle of Skye. So this day was also a recce run for us. It was always better to be sure of the location prior to the actual day. I know it's kinda like double work, but the sureness and no-panic required feeling is well worth it for me. 

Finally we were there! We were even too early for the market! Stalls were just setting up. It was quite a small market, maybe just 100m with two rows of stall on each side. 

Here is the start of the stalls. There are sitting places around for you to sit down and enjoy your food too. Mostly it was food products, ready to eat and raw materials. 

It was fascinating because the Castle was just above us here looming over us. It felt so very very medieval day in the market kinda vibe. I was frankly not looking forward to the climb back up to the castle when it's time for us to head there. I already knew the path I have to take, including the stairs leading all the way up!

Browsing at the some of the stall, we saw these wild garlic and recognise them from our friend's garden in Manchester. The leaves tasted like garlic when you chew on them! I thought they were lovely! Like a herb I would love to eat on toast or sandwiches. 

We did bought some products from a few stall. We here meaning mainly my husband. We stopped to talk for a while with a vendor selling sausages and cured meat. She was so enthusiastic about her product that it really rubs off you! We got some sausages from her.

She also sold some jerkies which my husband love. They make a great snack. I'm not much of a fan of these at all. I just enjoyed talking to her and learning more about all the products she made her self.

As usual, the husband also wanted to try all the fermented drinks that can be found at the market. So he lingers at the Buddy shop trying their drinks. It wasn't that bad. 

He also got a pulled pork burger as breakfast which I got to share some, and I bought this super smooth milk from a stall that was famous for them. I knew it was overpriced as compared to the milk I could have gotten from the supermarket, but this was a local market, so I guess the money I spent would go back to the farmers? And the milk was really famous and delicious too! So no regret!