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Thursday 25 August, from Dumfries to the Lake District

Great Britain 2005 - part VI

Elisabeth & Teije
2006-08-27 12:14:03

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We are not very far from the Lake District, our goal for today, but we can't leave Scotland so soon. So we drive through the town of Dumfries to visit Caerlaverock castle. The day starts warm and sunny, and we enjoy it when we walk in and around this unique castle. In front of the castle is a catapult, a medieval canon with which rocks were fired at castle walls to penetrate them. They were often used in the siege of a castle or town.

The castle itself is unique because of its triangular shape. It doesn't look very big from the outside but on the inside we can see there must have been quite a large number of rooms. The castle was build in 1290, but totally rebuild in the 17th century. And it was destroyed again, as so many other castles in the border area with England.

Drawings show the difference between the life in the castle in different ages and what is most clear is that there apparantly lived more people in the castle in the 13th century than in the 17th. Maybe people needed more room then or they had the luxury that they could use more room. But further we don't see many differences. Now we are another 400 years later and what would we do without electricity, central heating, flushing toilets and showers!

After this extensive visit we drive further along the coast to Gretna where we see this cathedral. Somehwat more to the south lies Gretna Green, on the border with England. Despite the fact that Scotland and England are both members of the Untited Kingdom, Scotland still has its own legislation in several areas and marriage is one of those areas. In England therehad always been severe rules: one had to obtain approval of the marriage and marry in church, while all of that wasn't necessary in Scotland where girls could even marry when they were 16.

For that reason a sort of marriage-tourism started to rise, to Gretna Green and other villages along the border. The village blacksmith performed ...