Borthwick Castle, south of Edinburgh

Wow, this place is magnificent.  We wanted to stay one night in a real castle, and mom decided Borthwick was the place.  Here's how it looks upon driving up:

Here's part of the information we got upon arrival:

“Sir William de Borthwick built Borthwick Castle in 1430.  He was granted a Royal Charter by King James I of Scotland to build it. . . . but it was noted that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would pay for its construction.  This was because Sir William had been a hostage in the release of King James I in 1424, he (King James) having been abducted by Henry IV of England when he was just two years old and kept more or less prisoner in the French Court.  One of Sir William’s ancestors was one of the knights who carried Robert the Bruce’s heart to Jerusalem.  (A) feature of strength is the extreme thickness of the walls tapering from 14 feet in the dungeon area to 9 feet thick in the garrison.   There are some 30,000 tons of masonry in the building, of which 12,000 tons was quarried locally.  (Another ) feature of the Castle which makes it so unusual and so strong is the vaulted ceilings.  The Great Hall has a pointed vault some 30 feet high.  Above this there is a second chamber almost the same height with a rounded vault, which is currently divided into two levels.”

We toured everything from the top (our room, the Sinclair room) to the dungeons.  Originally the castle has only ONE door in, and it was about 4 feet high.  That was on purpose.  You had to duck down to enter, exposing your head and neck.  To defend the castle against invaders, all Lord Borthwick had to do was station a knight at that door with a sword and. . . .off with your head if he didn't like you.  There's also a trap door that drops to the dungeon about 27 feet below.  We went to the dungeon, but we went down some narrow, winding stairs like this to get there, rather than the more abrupt trap-door route:

Note the direction of the stairs.  This was on purpose.  If you're coming UP the stairs, you'll run into the central pillar if you're a right-handed swordsman, as most of them were, making it more difficult for you to make an effective attack.  But if you're heading DOWN the stairs, as a defender would be (guards slept in the upper reaches), you can use your right hand with impunity because there's no central pillar in your way.  Very ingenious.  

Here's a picture of the Great Hall, where dinner and breakfast are served.  The walls of the castle are 14 feet thick here!  Originally colorful tapestries were hung on the walls (the holes to support them are still there) and there are faint, faint traces of sayings that had been painted on the walls back in the 1400's.  The fireplace is immense at the other end.  This is the reconstructed minstrel's gallery.  The ceiling is a pointed vault, over 30 feet high.

Our room, being at the top, required 37 + 78 steps to reach:  37 steps from the parking lot to the entry door, and then another 78 steps from the main floor to our room.  I carried mom's bag for her a couple of times, and finally got some exercise!  the walls at the top are a mere 9 feet thick.   I felt so unprotected!

Just up the road from the castle is the Borthwick Parish Church.  The original was built in the 1430's like the castle, but has burned down a couple of times and been re-built.  However, the stone effigies of (they're pretty sure) the original Lord and Lady Borthwick from the 1430's have survived, and are currently lying in state inside the church.  Apparently they're planning to create a vault or something and put them there in the future. For now they're gazing up at the church ceiling.

So that was our trip to a castle.  More on that later, including pictures of our room.  For now, we've made it safely to London, and it's time to SHOP!