Thursday, September 6, 2012

Medieval Fieldtrip: Elcho Castle

We stopped en route to Elcho Castle to get sandwiches at a local bakery, to eat at the castle, which we did after scampering around it like happy children. 

The castle was built at the end of the 16th century, at the end of the period for castles. The defensive-looking bits and bobs were all just architectural show, and was not necessary. 

I was so looking forward to this castle, as in previous years we've been able to dress-up. I asked about it, and the lady in the gift-shop said the clothes had been taken away. I think she felt sorry for me, though, as she brought out some capes that they still had for kids, and we dressed up in the capes and caps and frolicked around!


A glimpse of spiral staircase!

Some of the plaster decoration which still remains.

An artists rendition of how the room might have looked.



More plaster remnants.










Dressing up!










Talking Steve Driscoll into donning a cape!





2 comments:

  1. That castle is TO DIE FOR!!! I love all of these ruins, and I especially love that you get to go into some of them! (Quick question--are these things included with the cost of your tuition??)

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  2. That castle looks familiar! I think I've been there! Isn't that the castle they used in Monty Python's Holy Grail? The costumes are so fun! On my highland tour I had to beg the driver to stop here. Only me and another person on the tour wanted to see it. The driver gave us 20 minutes! So, we really did scamper around and saw the castle as quickly as we could. I got stuck behind a Scottish wedding party taking pictures and blocking the stair case out. Eventually I just had to say, "Excuse me! And, oh! Congratulations!" They laughed good-naturedly at me. haha! The castle was so fun.

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