If These Walls Could Talk

Another day, Another castle. People have asked me if I get tired of seeing so many castles. I don't understand the question. Each one is as different as flowers in a garden So it is with castles in Britain. There are similarities yet each has its own story to tell.

Carlisle Castle in Cumbria was built to protect England’s borders from the threat of invasion from the north. But not from the Scots as you might think, from the Picts who predated the Scots. And who did the building? Why the Romans of course.

More of a garrison and fort then a castle the foundation was laid in the first century AD to protect the Empire in the North. Although the fall of Rome left the site in ruins it was re established in 685. The Castle was reinforced in 1092 and continued to be expanded and strengthened to withstand attacks from the English when the Scots who controlled it and attacks from the Scots when the castle was in English hands. It even withstood an English on English attack during the War of the Roses.

Along the Ramparts

William Wallace, Richard III, Mary, Queen of Scots and Bonnie Prince Charlie were all here as conquerors, defenders or prisoners.Some of the most intriguing stories however come not from the famous but the anonymous. Were the carvings in the walls of keep done by prisoners as first believed or merely the work of bored guards? In the dungeon below, indentations in the limestone walls show how desperate prisoners literally licked the walls for water, surviving long enough to be executed or sent to the West Indies as slaves. Was this, as many believe, the place where the lyrics were written to the well known song Loch Lomond?

So many stories. The same and yet different stories of struggle and sacrifice, hardship and hope, victorious and vanquished.

Another castle? Yes please!

carvings in the keep