Living and Learning in St Andrews: Our Second Expedition! Linlithgow Palace

Yesterday, Liana and I took our second expedition to explore Scotland, together with our friends Garrick and Andrea. This time we headed south across the Firth of Forth to check out Linlithgow Palace, located in the town of Linlithgow (surprise surprise), about a 20 minute train-ride west of Edinburgh.

Since the days are already getting to be quite short this far north (it's dark now before 4:30), we wanted to get an early start to make the best of the daylight. We caught an 8:40 train to Edinburgh from the nearest train station to St Andrews, which is in the town of Leuchars. From Edinburgh's Haymarket station we then took the quick ride to Linlithgow.

Linlithgow means 'the loch in the damp hollow', and it is aptly named. This incredible late-medieval / Renaissance (depending on the section) palace stands on a promontory above a beautiful loch and "peel" (royal park), making for quite the impressive setting.

Looking up towards the palace from the loch.

A little history about the palace:

David I (1124-53) was the first monarch to build a residence here; he also founded the town.
In 1424 a disastrous fire swept through Linlithgow (the town and the palace), and James I (1406-37) began the task of rebuilding the palace.
Over the course of the next two centuries, James' heirs completed the building (additions were made by James III, James IV, James V, and James VI [1618-24]), creating a quadrangular palace, with four ranges grouped around a central courtyard.
In 1503, James IV gave the palace to his wife Margaret Tudor (daughter of English King Henry VII) as a wedding present.
Both James V and his daughter Mary Queen of Scots were born in Linlithgow Palace.

After arriving we spent the next couple of hours simply exploring this incredible building. It is impressively large, remarkably intact, and completely wide-open to wander. Up stairways, through long halls, atop towers, in fireplaces... it was awesome. I could not put my camera down! We were thankful to have another sunny day for sight-seeing, which meant that the light was incredible, as the sun brought out the natural warmth (referring to colour, not temperature!) of the limestone and the vibrantly blue sky provided the backdrop.

The central courtyard, featuring James VI's fountain

From Queen Margaret's Bower (where she allegedly awaited the return of her husband James IV from the Battle of Flodden, in which he was killed) the view was... well, I'm running out of descriptive words. Bright blue sky, deep blue loch, golden leaves on the trees. I'll let the photos do the talking (more at the end of the post).

Once again I was thrilled by the experience of living history - exploring a place in which hundreds of years of life have been lived. A lasting sensory experience will be the deep cold - any part of the castle that remained in shadow (so, pretty much 92% of it) was bone-chillingly cold.

Liana certainly thought so. At least she dressed appropriately!

And it's only November! How they managed to keep those giant stone buildings anything close to warm is beyond me. I'm guessing the several massive fireplaces were well-used.

The HUGE fireplace in James I's great hall

After a couple of hours checking out every nook and cranny of the palace and its grounds, we poked into the neighbouring St. Michael's parish church (founded in 1242) which had some wonderful features. Its modern spire, replaced when the original was deemed hazardous, is meant to resemble the crown of thorns; inside, a stained-glass window installed in commemoration of the church's 750th anniversary is probably the most beautiful modern window I've ever seen.

We had lunch at the Four Mary's pub in town and then caught a train back to Edinburgh, where we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening. I won't spend time talking about that here, as we mostly just wandered, poked into some shops, and grabbed dinner later on before heading back to St Andrews. I figure there will be later opportunities for a specifically Edinburgh-focused post, so I'll save my comments. A couple of shots, though:

Some Christmas decorations are out already!
Great day, great people.

All in all, it was a great day. Garrick and Andrea are a ton of fun to spend time with, and we're glad to have the opportunity to share these experiences with new friends. Not sure what the next outing will be, but one thing's for sure. I'm looking forward to it already!