Forty Seven Strollers met at Linlithgow Cross
to start a tour of the town. The coordinator had all almost the names on the list but
not necessarily in the right order which caused a bit of confusion! (The chairman's name was missing!)
Our guides told us a bit of the history of
the town, pointing out the coat of arms with the dog on it, and then we went
into the gardens at Burgh Hall to see the ‘green man’ which is a bronze statue
of John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun in his official robes as first Governor
General of Australia. Walking up the hill towards the Palace, we looked at the
boundary wall of St Michael's church cemetery and the plaques which record the direct
line of succession from Mary, Queen of Scots to the present queen. Inside St
Michaels Church we were serenaded by the organist playing ABBA tunes. She then
moved to the piano to play musical songs.
The church has been here from the 12th
Century and was used by the Royal family staying at the Palace including the
christening of Mary, Queen of Scots. It also has lovely stained glass windows
as well as tapestries and a crown on top of the tower to replicate the ‘crown
of thorns’ worn by Jesus.
From there it was outside to listen to the
history of the palace and ‘admire’ the statue of Mary. Moving on down to the loch,
we heard the story of the black dog on the town’s coat of arms. The dog was
left on one of the islands in the loch with its owner to starve to death. The
morale being that we shouldn’t upset grumpy kings who can do what they like.
It was then time to walk along the loch,
trying to avoid the swans, and walking, past the gardens which are long and
narrow and were called Riggs. This was also the site of the leather trade that
used to be here as well as many other industries based around the cattle
market. From horns to hoof nothing was left unused from making shoes and gloves
to candles and soap as well as plaster. We then headed back round to finish at
the Cross and hear about John West who was born in Linlithgow but left to go
chasing tuna.
Our thanks to Helen and Karen who had taken a
lot of time to visit and research Linlithgow for our benefit. We’ll see them
again next year but March will see us back to wandering the highways and
byways!
