Hey, that's great! You'll be coming to my neck of the woods then.
I'm sure your dad has it all planned out (a trip to Stirling to see the Wallace monument would be a sure thing). I wonder if he has Roslin Glen included in the itinerary at all? Roslin Glen is well known for its chapel (Roslin Chapel, of course) and the Templar Knights, especially since The DaVinci Code came out. But there is more to Roslin Glen than that.
Something that most people (even the locals) don't know is that William Wallace fought in Roslin Glen. This was after Wallace's defeat at Falkirk, and he was no longer a knight. John Comyn (who was a good friend of Wallace) led 8,000 Scots against an English invasion of 30,000 soldiers. Using terrain and strategy to their advantage, the Scots fought 3 battles in Roslin Glen and defeated the invading army. A full account can be found here:
http://www.lordbothwell.co.uk/roslinglen.htmlThere is a place in the glen called Wallace's Cave, where Wallace and 70 other Scots hid from the English at one point during the fighting. I've walked Roslin Glen many times (it's a gorgeous area) and have looked at the cave. I don't know how 70 men crammed themselves in there!
It's a great place just to go for a walk, but there are many reminders of what has happened there. There are places in Roslin Glen called Killburn (where it was said that the water ran red for days), the Hewin (you can imagine what happened there), Stinking Rigg (from the smell of the dead), Shinbanes Field (where most of the dead were buried, and farmers plowed up bones in later years). Of course, these days you will find no evidence of the battle besides these names and the monuments erected there.
There are a couple of castles there, Hawthornden (which is private and only viewable from a distance) and Roslin Castle (which is also private, but you are allowed to walk right up to it). Roslin Castle was one of the 3 castles that the English were trying to lay siege to. It's now mostly a ruin, but it's still beautiful. And there's a really cool bridge to cross to get to the castle. I highly recommend it.
I hope that you and your family have a good time in Scotland. Who knows, if you come to Edinburgh, we may even pass each other on the street (or in a certain glen, lol) without even knowing it!
Edited for spelling and to say that no offense is meant to my wonderful English friends.
Topic: On Scotland and Wallace (Read 1241 times)
