Road Trippin' with Sayard and Nicola

Here we are in North Berwick, a quaint little harbor town south of the Firth of Forth, and about 20 minutes outside of Edinburgh. There has been a harbor in this town since the 1100's.

Here Nicola and I are standing in front of the ruins of St-Andrews Kirk. This town saw a stream of pilgrims passing through on their way to the city of St-Andrews. They would stop and visit this Kirk on their way. (Kirk is Scottish for Church)

This is Dirleton Castle, which was built late in the 13th century. The original building was destroyed in 1314 by the Scottish hero Robert the Bruce, as he was wanting to keep it out of the hands of the English during their fight for independence. It was rebuilt several times throughout the 14th and 16th century. The ruins you see today was the work of the evil Oliver Cromwell, who bombarded the castle with canons in retaliation to the Scottish uprisings against England.

Isn't Nicola doing such a great job of guarding the castle? She is in my History class, and was nice enough to take me on this lovely excursion through the Scottish country side.

Here I am standing in the courtyard of the castle. I was quite excited to be here, as it was my first taste of a real old castle. Inside was gloomy, grimmy, and a bit scary just as any good castle should be. I had a great time running around imagining what it must have looked like back in the day.

Majestic.

The castle is surrounded by quite a famous garden. It has won a spot in the Guiness Book of World Records for having the longest herbaceous border....what ever that is?????

Here is the inside of Rossyln Chapel, famous thanks to the book 'Davinci's Code'. This is the front part of the chapels ceiling. The building is covered in intricate carvings, and one could spend hours looking at each nook and cranny.

Rossyln Chapel was built in the 15th century, and has strong connections with the Knights Templar. Many believe that the chapel is home to the Holy Grail and other Holy treasures brought back from the Crusades by the Kinghts Templar. There is also rumored that beneath the chapel is buried 15 to 20 knights dressed in full armour. The mysteries of this chapel has intrigued people for centuries, and plays a key role in why the chapel was left unharmed during the reformation. This is the back end of the Chapel's ceiling.


This is the famouse Apprentice pillar, where it is said the Holy Grail is buried within. Another interestng story is associated with this pillar. An apprentice decided in his masters absence to carve this pillar. When his master returned, he was so angry and jealous at the young man's masterpeice that in a fit of rage he murdered the boy. Spooky stuff.

Due to some renovations being done on the chapel the outside is covered by a barn like structure. While I couldn't get any nice photos of the outside, we were able to climb up the building and get a view from the top of the chapel. This is a view towards Penicuik, where Nicola is from.

Sayard at the front entrance.