Scottish Tales

“Half a capital and half a country town, the whole city leads a double existence; it has long trances of the one and flashes of the other; like the king of the Black Isles, it is half alive and half a monumental marble.”-Robert Louis Stevenson- Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes

My first impression of Edinburgh was – Am I turning the pages of a story book? Or am I going through paintings made by children? Everything is so picturesque- beautiful undulating roads, rows of picture perfect houses complete with chimneys and fences, flower pots, gardens, little steps leading on to the front doors, perfectly cobbled sidewalks, ornate street lamps, and even rainbows in the sky. As my eyes scan the cityscape, they rest on a perfect castle, complete and not in ruins, atop an old volcanic hill. Edinburgh Castle dominates the whole city whose main road, running from its base to the Royal Palace of Holyroodhouse, is called the Royal Mile. All other roads, alleys (wynds) or thoroughfares (close), each with its unique name, eventually lead to this one road. What else do you find in every turn and square? A gigantic monument erected in memory of their greatest writer Sir Walter Scott, a stained glass window in the Cathedral of St. Giles dedicated to their national poet Robert Burns, statues in honour of Kings, Queens, poets, men of science, illustrious citizens who left their mark in the annals of history, churches, museums and even a memorial in honour of a loyal, little dog named Bobby who was and is loved by all to this day.

It is a pleasure to walk on the streets of Edinburgh- no dirt, no crowd, no grime, no pollution, no jostling, no rubbing of shoulders. In case you feel you do not wish to walk anymore, there are small bus-stops with bus numbers, routes, timings all clearly enumerated, where colourful double-decker buses come and stop every few minutes and a tap of your travel card on boarding will take you to your destination. Smart, sleek trams, too, are there. And if you want to go a little away from the city, you can always take a bus or train. The Edinburgh Bus Station at St Andrew’s Square and the Waverley Railway Station are complete with their elevators, escalators, waiting halls, ticket counters, ticket vending machines, gates and lounges and in no way less than any good airport. Unless, of course, you choose to drive your way through the Scottish Highlands right up to the Isle of Skye which is, undoubtedly, the best option.

Pubs and cafes adorn every nook and corner. As you stroll down the Grassmarket and Lawnmarket you come across interesting names of pubs like The World’s End, The Last Drop, Beehive Inn, The White Hart, Auld Hundred and some story to narrate about their original owners or their famous patrons. The pubs and taverns are where they gather to enjoy their drinks, talk, laugh or watch the day’s match together.

Colourful shops, selling Harry Potter and Game of Thrones merchandise, adorn Victoria Street and as you go uphill, turn around and see the curve of the road you realize where the inspiration of Diagon Alley came from. The Elephant House Café, re-christened ‘the birthplace of Harry Potter’, still stands though shut for the time being due to a recent fire. Where else did Rowling seek inspiration? No better place than the graveyard of Greyfriars Kirk which is dotted with tombstones of Thomas Riddel, Anne Potter and McGonnagal. Do the names ring a bell?

Charlotte Bronte after a visit to Edinburgh, writes in a letter to a friend in 1850 comparing the city with London and even alluding to Scott’s “mine own romantic town”:“My dear Sir, do not think that I blaspheme when I tell you that your great London, as compared to Dun-Edin, ‘mine own romantic town’, is as prose compared to poetry, or as a great rumbling, rambling, heavy Epic compared to a Lyric, brief, bright, clear, and vital as flash of lightning.”

In this fairy tale city, you come across the most interesting story-tellers. They are the smart young tourist guides who walk or drive you around and regale you with history, folklores and anecdotes all peppered with a dash of the brilliant Scottish humour. They truly love their country and can also laugh at themselves! Stories are there all around- you just have to stop, stand, listen or read them. You may find them outside the church walls or even on the walls of the Scottish Parliament or Waverley Station.

For instance, there is Deacon’s Cafe and Deacon’s Tavern on either side of the road at a very important crossing on the Royal Mile. The Cafe sells the most amazing scones to go with their special Brodie’s Cocoa (hot chocolate with a shot of whisky). In the evenings it’s the turn of the Tavern, which is so popular that if you are unable to seat yourself before the clock strikes six, you can come back another day. Now, who was Deacon Brodie? William Brodie was a wealthy cabinet-maker in the late 18^th century, a member of the Town Council, and Head or Deacon of the Incorporation of Wrights and Masons. An upright citizen by day, he had a secret life of his own. At night, his life was more colourful. He was the leader of a gang of burglars and, with his associates, broke the very locks he had fixed on cabinets and doors during the day. However, his last crime was the raid on His Majesty’s excise office and that proved to be his undoing. He was hanged and, despite him bribing the hangman to ignore the steel collar on his neck and removing his body immediately, fate did not support him. His life proved to be a source of inspiration for another famous Scottish writer, R.L.Stevenson and his protagonist with a split personality in The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde.

Outside the Greyfrairs Kirk is another pub called Greyfriars Bobby. Its walls tell the tale of Bobby, a Skye Terrier, who has statues erected in his memory both inside the church compound on his grave and also on the road opposite the church entrance atop a granite fountain. His master John Gray was a night watchman for the Edinburgh police. They were always together for two years. On his death, John Gray was buried in the Greyfriars KIrkyard. Bobby spent the remaining 14 years of his life sitting on his master’s grave. The people in the church tried to evict him many times but to no avail. At last, they took pity on him and began to give him shelter and food. Bobby never left his master’s grave, not even in the worst of weather conditions. In 1867 the Lord Provost of Edinburgh paid for Bobby’s dog licence, making him the responsibility of the City Council. Bobby died in 1872, aged 16 years. He could not be buried in the cemetery as it was consecrated ground, so he was buried in the church premises, not far from his master’s grave. Just as you enter through the gates of Greyfriars Kirk you find the grave of Bobby surrounded by beautiful flowers with a headstone reading- “Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all.”

Our guide for the walking tour of Edinburgh Castle was a young Polish-Ukranian girl who came from her homeland as a student at the Edinburgh University but later, like most immigrants living in Scotland, and much to the chagrin of her parents, decided to make it her home and earn her living as a tour guide. With her inimitable ability to tell a tale, she narrated the story of how a group of thirty Scotsmen take it upon themselves to win back the Castle from the English forces in the early 14^th Century. The castle is truly impregnable as it stands on Castle Rock surrounded by the cliff rocks and its own high walls with only one entrance. It has been the scene of countless sieges but only once was it breached. Since 1296 the Anglo-Scottish wars were on. In 1310 Robert the Bruce emerged victorious over the other Scottish clans and decided to regain the castles under the control of the English. Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, and one of Robert’s key lieutenants as well as his nephew, took it upon himself to recapture the Castle from the English garrisons of Edward II. On 14^th March, 1314, on a dark winter’s night, Thomas Randolph with the help of his friend William Francis, the son of a former Governor of the castle who had lived inside the castle and had often gone down a secret path from the castle to meet his girlfriend in the dead of the night, decided to do the impossible. Francis showed the path to Thomas and his group of thirty men. While a part of Randolph’s garrison was used to distract the guards at the main entrance to the castle, Randolph, Francis and his men climbed the rock cliffs and scaled the castle’s walls to enter the castle and take on the English forces in the middle of the night. As our guide narrated a highly embellished story, she added with a wink, that they could have done it as they were Scots, young and   and completely drunk! On winning back the castle, the Scots burnt it down completely so that the English could never recapture it. The original castle, at that time, was made of wood except for the Chapel of St Margaret’s which was built of stone. This chapel still stands and the colour of its stone walls, which withstood the fire, is indeed different from the rest.

No story about Scotland is complete without the mention of the horrific murder of thirty- eight members of the MacDonald clan in Glencoe in the Highlands. The valley or glen gets its name from the river Coe which flows through it. It is known for its unparalleled beauty and its haunting past. Glencoe was the home to the Scottish clan MacDonald. In the Glorious Revolution of 1688 William of Orange (later William III) and Queen Mary II had taken the crown from James VII of Scotland and II of England. A counter revolution had taken place in Scotland by the Royalist supporters of James, the exiled King, which came to be known as the Jacobite uprisings. There was a long standing feud between the clans MacDonalds of Glencoe and the Campbells of Argyll and in the Scottish Wars of the Covenant the two clans found themselves on opposite sides. The MacDonalds were Royalists while the Campbells were on the side of the ruling government. In 1692, in the aftermath of the Jacobite uprisings, garrisons had been stationed in the Highlands to prevent further uprisings by the Highlanders. All the clans of the Scottish Highlands had been given a deadline, 1^st of January 1692, to sign the Oath of Allegiance to William and Mary. The chief of Clan MacDonald, Alastair MacIain, also went to Inverlochy (renamed Fort William) to sign it but as there was no Magistrate there, he had to then go to Inveraray (near Oban) to do it, thereby missing the deadline by a few days. He returned home thinking his clan was safe but he was wrong. Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyons was in charge of the regiment that took the hospitality of the MacDonalds. For a fortnight the MacDonalds gave the troops bed and board. On receiving orders from the higher authorities, the soldiers attacked their hosts in the wee hours of the morning of 13^th February 1692 when they were still in bed. They killed thirty- eight members of the MacDonald clan including their chief. After the massacre, many of them tried to escape and later died on exposure to the elements. Till date the massacre of Glencoe is one of the most horrific and heartbreaking events in the history of Scotland. Though the myth of the clan feud between the Campbells and the MacDonalds is perpetrated through songs and poems, the orders for the massacre had come from the higher-ups in the government and had the approval of King William III himself.

Hospitality was the cornerstone of the Highlanders’ way of life and it was therefore a ‘murder under trust’. No matter which time of the day you reach Glencoe, the strong, icy winds that chill you to the spine, and the waterfalls which stream down the mountain slopes like the tears of Glencoe are a constant reminder to a story of betrayal and murder. The chorus of the old song will reverberate through the stark desolation as the three peaks -Faith, Hope and Charity- will stand witness to this gruesome murder through eternity:

Oh, cruel is the snow that sweeps Glencoe
And covers the grave o’ Donald;
And cruel was the foe the raped Glencoe
And murdered the house o’ MacDonald.

DS