Carlisle Castle

Carlisle Castle is another old one, with much history, rather more of it about captives than warfare. We embedded ourselves in a turbuss tour, conducted by a member of the English Heritage staff at the castle.

Entrance, curtain, and tower of Carlisle Castle

One of the better tours we have been on...this
guy covered Carlisle from the earlier
Plantagenets to Bonnie Prince Charlie...about
800 years of English/Scottish history, in less
than an hour

The Keep

In the Keep, two small windowless rooms housed 60
prisoners, awaiting trial and execution, from the Battle of
Culloden (that's where the English put an end to the Jacobite
cause and the Pretender)

The only source of water was moisture
seeping through these two stones; you can
see where the prisoners licked them smooth

The executions were unusually brutal for the times, more on
the order of the Wars of Religion; in any case, tradition has
it that this is the source of "The Bonnie Banks of Loch
Lomond," that is, the prisoner taking the low road, the grave,
and his beloved the high road, life, back to Scotland; so they
say

Foundation remains of the tower where Mary Queen of
Scots was held for a time

Thank you note from Elizabeth Regina to the
castle master for keeping the Scottish (by
then, ex-) Queen safe and sound

Top floor of the Keep, very old graffiti by
castle guards keeping their watches

They don't build them like that anymore
department: downspout dated 1717...