Last Year's Troubles

I didn't like to say anything while I was there, but I thought that the Mel Gibson-a-like statue at the foot of the hill on which stands the Wallace Memorial in Stirling was actually a bit naff and more of an insult to the true memory of Wallace. This did not stop my daughter posing on it for photographs and generally behaving cutely for all the Americans/Canadians there. The statue has already been defaced and is actually locked away behind a metal grill at night to stop it being damaged further. These attacks come not from angry Englishmen but from Scots who agree with me. Is this a case of Woad Rage? (Yes I know he never actually wore woad but who said Mel's performance was a bit woaden?) My daughter happily climber all the way to the top of the tower but got a bit frightened coming down. Even an American/Canadian saying that she was the Princess of Scone didn't cheer her up much until she was back down and recovered enough to have her picture taken with the man dressed up as Wallace at the door. Pictures on the eleventh - possibly. Stirling Castle was much more interesting. My daughter has the I-Spy book of Castles and she could double her points for finding out who was born in the castle in 1430. The guides were slightly unsure though we worked out that James II (of Scotland of course) was six in 1437 which may have been about right but all the books say he was born in Holyrood except one which says that the historians were confused about this because he was baptised at Holyrood. James III was born at Stirling but that was in 1451. Mysteries. Every time we go to Scotland we find a mystery. We went to the Abbot House and saw the mural which was only half there and we couldn't work out what the picture was of. It seemed to be a sixteenth century image of classical Rome or Greece. Also at the Abbot House is a recreation of the long-lost jewel-encrusted head-shrine of Saint Margaret of Scotland. The real shrine is rumoured (well by me anyway) to be somewhere on the European mainland - probably in the keeping of someone who know exactly what it is and is just not telling anyone. Put the word out friends and if you know where it is, then tell the authorities in Dunfermline. Of course the real Stone of Scone is in some cave up in the Mountains somewhere as my daughter should know being the Princess of Scone itself (a Stewart at any rate). Us boring old commoners have to get back to work tugging our forelocks and generally kow-towing.