In Search of William Wallace

Today I accompanied Josh's class on a trip to Stirling Castle. I had agreed to do this weeks ago after his teacher had phoned to ask me to help out. I think I agreed out of relief when I realised she wasn't on the phone to tell me he was in trouble - not that she's had to phone before.
After days of beautiful weather it was damp, cold and misty and many of the children were a little cold - what mother sends her child of to a cold, drafty castle without hat and gloves. The cold was soon forgotten when Sir William Oliphant of Aberdalgie appeared to show them around and tell the story of how, in 1304, he held the castle for 3 months with only 140 men against the English tyrant, Edward I, and his army of 7000 men. When supplies ran out and William could see no end to the siege he surrendered to the English but Edward held them in the castle for a further few days so the construction of one of his war engines, a giant catapult named the War Wolf could be finished and he could test it out against the huge castle doors - it turned out to be very effective and destroyed the castle entrance! A demonstration of weapons of the middle ages seemed to appeal to all the children, what a blood thirsty lot they are!
I've taken lots of pictures of Wallace's monument and some of the castle from the monument and I should have been able to get a great shot of the monument from the castle but the weather was against me. I had hoped to make up for this with a picture of Robert the Bruce as we left but we had difficulty getting the children out of the gift shop and had to run for the bus so this is as good as it gets!
Far too much excitement for one day, in my weakened state I'll now have to lie down for a while.