13th July                 Dunfermline - The Bruce Festival

Robyn writes: Just when you least expect it, Scotland can turn on a day of brilliant sunshine. Today was one of those days. The forecast was for it to be cloudy all day but little or no rain and perhaps a top of 19, so we dressed accordingly...and spent quite a bit of the day feeling rather hot as the sun blazed down and it hit 24 degrees or so! (Yes, I know - I fear we are all turning into wimps and will shrivel up and die once we hit the Queensland spring....)

We woke up about 8 and Mikeal cooked a fabulous breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomato and mushrooms. This set us all up extremely well for the big day ahead. We were all finally dressed and ready to go by just after half past nine, and the trip up to Dunfermline in Fife over the Firth of Forth took about 40 minutes. We found the huge Pittencrief Park in the town where the Bruce Festival was being held and, as it hadn't started yet (nothing in the UK gets underway before 11) we easily got a parking place for the car and had a wander around the park - it was gifted to the town by the famous American philanthropist and businessman Andrew Carnegie, who was born in Dunfermline. It's certainly a wonderful asset, as it is huge and beautiful, and is still very well maintained with probably the best kids' play area I've ever seen, a big tea room, lovely paths and gardens and big open spaces suitable for events like today's. It's overlooked by the ancient abbey so is also very picturesque.

 Medieval festival-goers

 An eagle in the birds of prey display - very impressive

The tournament begins

The festival was very well organised and there were lots of things to see and particularly lots of nice things to eat. We all had various types of burgers - I had the "Bruce" burger (a beef patty with roast beef and caramelised onions), Lex and Mikeal the Balmoral venison burger and Cait the wild hog roll. We also had some yummy twirly chips to share. There were several displays - medieval music, falconry, weaving, battles etc. The highlight was the jousting, where they had four 'knights' on horseback doing real jousting - lances were being splintered and it was all very exciting. The fight scenes were choreographed but the weapons they were using could certainly hurt someone if you missed your aim! They also got lots of kids into the arena to march them around carrying weapons as soldiers of the king - it's great the way history is promoted and kids can get involved with days like this having fun. (They had a basket of "severed heads" made of painted foam which were used later in the jousting and several of the kids trotted happily around bearing one of those. Very sweet and filling them with a deep love for history!) Quite a few people were dressed up in medieval costume and it was a big family day out.

 Winners are grinners in the tournament!

 The words "king" and "Bruce" in the top of the abbey

Cait with Sniffly and Cheeky in front of the Dunfermline Mercat Cross

We left at around 2 and headed up to the abbey for a look. The ruins of the royal palace are right next door, as Dunfermline was once the seat of Scottish royalty. Robert the Bruce was buried there in a magnificent tomb near the abbey, but it was later destroyed and his grave was lost. It was found again in 1818 when they were building a new church onto the back of the abbey, so he was reburied there.
Then we walked into the town nearby and had afternoon tea at a nice little cafe. We found a chemist to get a few things and wandered back to the car and the trip home (via Asda once more for vegetables for tea). We are now lazing around on a hot summer evening (must have been 23 degrees at 5pm!) Mikeal cooked (with assistance from Cait and I) a fabulous tea of bangers and mash, which he'd been hanging out for all around Europe.

Tomorrow is sadly our last full day in Edinburgh - I'm going to miss Scotland; I've just loved it. (Okay, I admit we've been very lucky with the weather, but it is still a lovely country and the people are so friendly too.)