Edinburgh, Scotland - Parliament, Holyrood Palace, Holyrood Abbey

Friday, January 14, 2011

So I have come to realize two things: 1. 7am comes way too early 2. I am definately not a morning person

It's 7:30am and we're off to Scotland!  Since it was really early and the sun wasn't out yet, it was hard to get a view of the landscape as we were on our way to Scotland.  As morning started to inch closer to early afternoon we finally got a chance to see the landscape around us.  It was very green and hilly--we were informed that the landscape had been formed many years ago by glaciers.  As we passed over the River Tweed we were entering the great land of Scotland! 

Our first stop in Scotland was to Scottish Parliament.
The Scottish Parliament is a turbulent one indeed.  The Scots originally had their own Parliament hundreds of years ago which dealt with the relations of continental Europe and other parts of the British Isles.  However on March 25, 1707 they agreed to have their Parliament ceased in order to join the United Kingdom which became known as the Treaty of the Union.
After proposing a bill to Parliament in January of 1998 known as the Scotland Bill, which would allow for Scotland to have their own Parliament, it became a law in Novemeber of that year. 
On May 12, 1999 the Scottish people once again had their very own Parliament.  Although their powers may be somewhat limited, they do have power over education, health and prisons in Scotland.  Queen Elizabeth II still presides over bills and laws,  and is known as the Head of State.

view from the sky

the entrance to the Scottish Parliament on the right,
looking towards the landscape,known as Arthurs Seat

Obviously the above picture of Parliament I was not able to capture myself but the layout of the building is extremely important to the purpose of the building so I am using a stock photo to illustrate the layout.  The architect, Enric Miralles, wanted to the building to arise from the landscape and reflect the land it represented.  So much of the design stemmed from a tree form, which includes shapes of leaves and branches.  To help connect the building to Scotland they were sure to use resoures that were native to the land, such as granite and gneiss, along with oak and sycamore. 
In the Garden Lobby, Miralles wanted the main feature of this room to be the roof lighting which when looking up looked like leaves and/or boats turned up.  This allowed for natural light to flood into the the lobby.


Garden Lobby in Parliament
(we were unable to photograph inside Parliament, so once again
I had to use a stock photo to help illustrate the room)

Following our tour of Parliament we were on our way to the Palace of Holyroodhouse or Holyrood Palace.  Holyrood Palace is the official residence of the monarch, or Queen Elizabeth II when she is in Scotland. 

entrance to Holyrood Palace

front of the Palace with fountain

Unfortunately we were not allowed to document the interior rooms of the palace.  The rooms were decorated as you would imagine--lots of luxurious fabrics and colors.  The rooms all offered their own dynamic to the palace.  The moldings and architecture was beautifully crafted.  Another aspect I was very interested in was the abundance of artwork the castle had to offer.  My favorite room in the Palace had to have been the Great Hall.  The Great Hall was a room where royalty would have their guests come in and they would dance and hosts parties or get togethers.  The room was covered from floor to ceiling with portraits of past royalty.  An interesting fact about these paintings was that they were once ruined during an attack and several of them were damaged/ripped and had to be repaired.  In fact you could actually see in one of the paintings an area that appeared to have been kicked through (as pointed out by one of the security guards).

We continued our tour on where we were brought into the rooms of Mary Queen of Scots.  Her tale is one that is full of drama.  She was born into royalty and at the young age of 9 months was crowned Queen. At five years old her marriage arrangement to Francis II of France.  After his death she moved back to Scotland and four years later was married to her first cousin Henry Stuart, or Lord Darnley.  He too died, suspiciously in a explosion of their home.  She then remarried James Hepburn--who was believed to be the culprit of Darnley's death. Following an uprising against the couple, Mary fled to England to seek protection from her cousin Queen Elizabeth I who in turn beheaded her for treason and for the participation of the murder of Lord Darnley.

The final part of the tour of Holyrood Palace was the ruins of Holyrood Abbey.  This abbey is believed to be constructed 1128 by Kind David I of Scotland.  Originally it is believed to have contained a 6 bay choir with 3 bay trasepts with a central tower above.  An 8 bay nave with twin towers in the west front was also part of the original abbey.

Holyrood Abbey

detail of the ruins of the Holyrood Abbey