Bothwell Castle and the Clyde

[mothwing]

"So, is this your daily dose of culture?" 

And how! Yesterday, we went on a hiking tour from Blantyre to Uddingston, which are two railway stations in the south of Glasgow. It is a beautiful, beautiful walk along the banks of the Clyde which passes a castle. We had absolutely awesome weather an absolutely wonderful time. There were some minor annoyances, though, like the guys at home in Partick not understanding what exactly our plan was for ages and therefore not being able to give us information on what the best ticket would be. 
And it is a cultural thing. Weegies do not walk. They are purely urban creatures and hence dependant on the merits of a very dependable bus system. I've seen it every day - give the choice between waiting for the next bus for ten minutes or walking to the nearest shop in about five minutes, the average Weegie will take the bus. But those troubles were soon sorted out and we were off. After spending some lovely time in the David Livingstone Memorial Park and crossing the David Livingstone Memorial Footbridge, we had a wonderful time hiking along the Clyde, so much like the Ankh in the inner city, so beautiful out here. 

The footbridge sported a sign I have to admit I still don't quite get, linguistically. The content is clear, but does this make sense to anyone? Linguisticall? What is going on on that sign? 

I mean - "has not to be used"...? Strange... 








This is the castle. Bothwell castle, which dates back to the 13th century, built by Walter of Morey and which was rebuilt by none other than Archibald Douglas!! 

The custodian is a lovely old man who gave us a concession even though we are not senior citizens. This kind of thing never happens to me, it only ever happens to Crocky and the likes of her, so I was so astonished that I gave him the money for adult tickets because I thought I had misheard him. So nice! We were more or less the only visitors. Such a lovely castle!

Big one of the southern front. Behind this wall, there is a cathedral (site of) and, at the back, barely visible, a large donjon which was added in the 15. century by the Earls of Douglas. Yes, ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS of the "Black Douglas" clan, the one Theordor Fontane wrote his ballad about, my German friends! 

Remains of the donjon from outside. 

Front facing the clyde seen fron the donjon. The tower is the one in the picture above. 


 Remains of tower and cathedral (site of), which was located on the first floor, apparently. The private quarters of Walter of Moray, who started building the castle in the 1240ies, were on the third floor. This is the southern wall, the one with the tower. 

Looking up in the tower. 

Entrance to the tower in the south-eastern front.
Tower as seen from the Great Hall. There used to be a first floor or at least a gallery which served as a small minstrelsy of sorts. 

The donjon with the sun as seen from the Great Hall.
 The donjon as seen from the Great Hall. Well, its upper half.
The windows of the gallery (I hope. I should have read those interpretetive signs more closely...) 

Courtyard with tower, gallery, cathedral (site of), grass and dalmatian. Well, off to the donjon. The pictures of the prerequisite dungeon did not turn out at all the way I wanted them to, so they won't be in here.
There is always time for daisies.
Did I mention I am scared of heights? And narrow staircases without a proper stairrail? These were no picnic for me, I can tell you. I guess Crocky grew tired really quickly of all the "OMG, I'm gonna fall and break my neck! I'm gonna drop the camera and then stumble and fall and break my neck! I'm gonna stumble and land on you and break our necks!!!"
Some hallway which leads from the interior of the donjon to the latrine tower. The lord be thanked for WCs. 

 The southern tower as seen from a cross-shaped arrow slit in the donjon. 

The donjon as seen from the donjon.
Window in the door to a store room in the southern end of the castle.

Statue of Livingstone being attacked by the lion. Shame it wasn't Stanley. The lion could have fed on him, for all I care. 

The statue again.
Sigh. Lovely break. A great copper beech above us, the park and most of the way ahead of us.
The Clyde as seen from the David Livingstone Memorial Footbridge. I love that name. David Livingstone Memorial Footbridge. Takes ages to type out. 

 Again the Clyde from the David Livi... the bridge. And that plasticky-looking greenery is not my fault, it's the very way mother nature chose to present it to us. Too much sun.

Further downstream.
Our path. Nothing better than a path with sunspots. 

Above.
Next to us. 

Curious plants.

 Since I didn't manage to take a picture of the prettily glittering water, here's a few second-video: 


[ Banks of the River.

Once the forest cleared on our way home, this was pretty much what was next to us all the time. Sigh. Pretty landscape. On our way back, in Uddingston, we asked the nice man behind the counter if we could go back with our tickets. After saying he did not see why not as it was cheaper to go from Uddingston to Partick than from Blantyre to Partick, he started actually to provide us with excuses we could tell the ticket inspector if they should ask us why our tickets were Blantyre-Partick and not from Uddingston. He also asked us why we weren't in Blantyre and was absolutely surprised when we told him we'd walked. "Aw, then jis tell them the truith, shid be fine," was his response. 

Weegies are so lovely. I wish the employes of the public transport at home would be as nice. Well, in short, it was a lovely, lovely day!