Skulferatu #122 - Wallace's Cave, Roslin, Midlothian

 

‘Mud, mud, glorious mud

Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood

So follow me, follow

Down to the hollow

And there let us wallow in glorious mud…’

 

The chorus to Flanders and Swann’s Hippopotamus Song is what came to mind as I took a walk along the paths of Roslin Glen.  Though I was out on what was a pleasant and sunny day, the night before it had poured and poured, and the narrow paths leading around the gorge were thick, squelching mud. To a chorus of bird song and the burbling of the river below, I slipped and slid my way through a mire of dirty brown ooze.  Not that I was complaining, I’ve always found that a walk through the woods makes me feel quite relaxed, no matter how manky it is.  It is probably something to do with the trees, their movement in the breeze and their calming aura.  Or maybe something to do with a primordial memory of the forests our ancestors once inhabited.  Whatever, a walk in the woods is always very calming.

 

In the woods at Roslin Glen

 

In the woods at Roslin Glen

 

In the woods at Roslin Glen

 

A frog

 

So, I sploshed my way along the path saying hello to a frog or two on my way, and then came to a set of very wet and slippy looking stone steps that led down the embankment of the gorge.  However, despite the way they looked, I found that grip on them was no problem, and it was easy to walk on down them.  They then led to a narrow, trodden earth path that brought me to the entrance of a cave.  This is Wallace’s Cave, named after William Wallace, you know the one, the guy with the painted blue face who looked a bit like Mel Gibson, though was probably slightly less antisemitic.

 

The reason the cave acquired its name is that there is a local legend that William Wallace hid from the English army here.  The story goes that Wallace and his followers had been in a battle against the English where they had been massively outnumbered and outmanoeuvred.  After being heavily defeated, they had then fled into the woods around Roslin with the English army in close pursuit.  Wallace and five of his companions then split off from the rest of his followers and made their way down to the cave.  There they hid for six days and nights while the English army scoured the woods for them, cutting down any man they found.  In the early morning of the seventh day, Wallace and his companions, who were now starving and half dead with hunger, left the cave and managed to make their way out of the woods and to a place of safety.

 

Stairs down the embankment to the cave

 

Stairs down to the cave

 

The cliffs above the cave

 

Entrance to the cave

 

Entrance to the cave

 

The cave is man made and dates from prehistoric times.  Carvings found outside the cave on the rock face and inside the cave itself, are believed to date from the Bronze Age.   However, when, and why the cave was carved out into the stone of the embankment is not known.  Whatever purpose and function the cave served for the prehistoric people who created it are now lost in the mists of time.

 

Inside the cave

 

Inside the cave

 

View out from the cave entrance

 

Inside the cave

 

Venturing inside the cave I found it to be quite a pleasant and sheltered space.  It was also quite dry; unlike many caves I’ve visited before.  In one of the recesses in the cave I found some of the plumpest, juiciest spiders I’ve seen in a long time.  They hung from the roof like luscious Gothic blackberries.  I imagine if Renfield had been locked up in this cave rather than the asylum, he would have plucked them from their webs and gobbled them up.  I was half tempted myself, and did wonder if maybe Wallace and his companions had munched on a few of them during their stay here.

A plump, juicy spider

 

Carvings outside the cave

 

Before leaving, I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me on my walk on a mossy ledge by the entrance of the cave.

 

Skulferatu #122

 

Skulferatu #122 on a mossy ledge

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #122

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are -

 

Latitude 55.856336

Longitude -3.151793

what3words: satellite.newlywed.drifting

 

I used the following sources for information on Wallace’s Cave –

 

Rutherglen Reformer - Friday 27 November 1885

 

Historic Environment Scotland - Wallace's Cave and rock carvings

 

Canmore - Wallace's Cave

 

Lyrics from ‘The Hippopotamus Song’ –

by Michael Flanders & Donald Swann, from the album ‘At the Drop of a Hat’

1960

Skulferatu #116 - Bilston Glen Viaduct, Loanhead, Midlothian

 

I do love wandering around bits of our industrial past, whether that be an old railway, a derelict factory, old mineworks or a repurposed power station.  On a stroll from Roslin to the outskirts of Edinburgh, I walked over a piece of our industrial heritage – Bilston Glen Viaduct, or as locals refer to it, the Bilston Climbing Frame.  Wandering down a steep and narrow path under the viaduct I could see why it had acquired that name with the criss-crossing of the iron lattice work underneath.

 

Bollards by the viaduct

 

Path across the viaduct

 

Wooded area of Bilston Glen

 

Underneath the viaduct

 

The criss-crossing iron lattice work underneath the viaduct

 

View of the viaduct

 

View of the viaduct from Bilston Glen

 

Bilston Glen Viaduct is an old iron railway bridge above the steep gorge of Bilston Glen. The Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway used to run across it.  This railway carried coal and ironstone from mines at Penicuik, Roslin, Bilston, Loanhead and Gilmerton.  It also carried passengers to Roslin.

 

The viaduct was built in 1892, and replaced an earlier one built at the same spot in the 1870s.  It appears that there had been concerns about the earlier bridge due to movements of the ground caused by the mineworks.  Concerns were also raised about the design of that bridge, as it had been designed by Sir Thomas Bouch, the designer of the infamous Tay Bridge that had collapsed in 1879.

 

Bilston Glen Viaduct was built with a single deep wrought iron span supported on low piers with granite abutments at each end to support it.  The separate pieces of the bridge were all made in Glasgow and then brought out to the site where the bridge was then assembled.  As the viaduct is made of iron it expands and contracts in the heat.  On a hot summer’s day, it could be up to 2 ½ inches longer than it was on a cold winter’s day.  To avoid this damaging the supports, the bridge was fitted with expansion mountings.  These allow the bridge to move. 

 

 In 1969 the section of the railway that ran over the viaduct was closed.  In 1999 restoration work was carried out on the viaduct and it opened again as part of the walkway that follows the old railway line.

 

While wandering around under the viaduct, I left a Skulferatu in a gap in the granite stonework of the abutments supporting it.

 

Skulferatu #116

 

Skulferatu #116 in a gap in the granite stonework

 

Skulferatu #116 in a gap in the granite stonework

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #116

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.87089

Longitude -3.150976

 

what3words: herb.windmill.widen

 

I used the following sources for information on Bilston Glen Viaduct –

 

Tourist Information Board at site

 

Canmore

Bilston Viaduct | Canmore

 

Edinburgh and Lothians: Exploring the Lost Railways

Alasdair Wham

2006

 

Skulferatu #109 - Site of the Battle of Roslin, Roslin, Midlothian

I don’t usually write about battle sites, or even tend to visit them, because they tend to be pretty f*cking boring places.  Yet, having said that, on a walk along the old railway path that runs from Roslin to Loanhead, I came across a memorial to the Battle of Roslin and found that lurking in the background of events leading up to the battle, there was a story of thwarted love, jealousy and one man’s desire for revenge.  How true the story is I don’t know, but hey, as they say, why let the truth get in the way of a good yarn!

 

Memorial to the Battle of Roslin

 

Way back in time, in 1303, when the world was a wild violent place with various factions and power-hungry men spilling blood everywhere in their fight for power (nothing changes much), Scotland was in political turmoil.  It had been occupied by the English since 1298, after the defeat of the Scots army at the battle of Falkirk, and was governed by Sir John de Segrave, a knight of the English king, Edward I.

 

While he was in Scotland, Sir John based himself in Edinburgh Castle, where he frequently held functions and official gatherings for the local aristocracy, warlords, people of influence and such like.  One of those who regularly attended at the castle was Lady Margaret Ramsey of Dalhousie.  Sir John was soon besotted with her and hoped to take her as his wife.  Unfortunately, for poor Sir John, his feelings were not reciprocated, and he was spurned by Lady Margaret who instead accepted a proposal of marriage from Henry St Clair, the Lord of Rosslyn.   

 

Sir John was not a happy chap when he learnt of this and flew into a bit of a rage.  So, off he stormed to King Edward to ask permission to raise an army to eliminate the ‘threat’ that the marriage between Margaret and Henry would represent.  Edward, who was a bit of a bloodthirsty old sod and always liked an excuse for a bit of killing and maiming, granted Sir John his wish and he was soon on his way back to Scotland with an army of 30,000 troops.  I do have to point out here that the number of troops may actually have been grossly exaggerated in the tales told after the battle, but that’s the figure I’ll run with in my telling of this little bit of history.

 

On arriving in Scotland, Sir John split his army into three separate divisions.  Ten thousand troops marched off to attack Borthwick Castle near Gorebridge, another ten thousand marched off to seize Dalhousie Castle, the home of Lady Margaret, and the last ten thousand, led by Sir John himself, marched towards Roslin and the home of Henry St Clair.

 

On the evening of the 23 February 1303, Sir John and his troops set up camp near Roslin for the night, with the intention of giving Henry St Clair a good thrashing the next day. However, word of the movement of the English forces had reached the Scots and an army led by John Comyn and Sir Simon Fraser marched through the night from Biggar down towards Roslin, where they hid until just before dawn in the nearby woods at Bilston.  Then, early in the morning of the 24 February, as Sir John and his army still slept, the Scots attacked them.  The English troops were slaughtered, with no mercy being shown to anyone.  Well, that was unless you were of noble birth, in which case you could be held and ransomed for a tidy sum of cash which is what happened to Sir John and a group of his knights, who were captured and held prisoner. 

 

Over the next couple of days bloody skirmishes, slaughters and attacks took place between the Scots and the other two divisions of Sir John’s army.  During one of these, Sir John was freed by his troops, and deciding to cut his losses, marched the remains of his army back to England.  According to the legends that grew up around the Battle of Roslin, only two thousand of the thirty thousand English troops who marched into Scotland with Sir John survived.  The rest lay dead and buried in mass graves in the fields and woods around Roslin.  As the Ballad of the Battle of Roslin recounts, their bones would occasionally be dragged up when the fields they lay in were ploughed -

 

An farmers tae this very day,

When they’re at the ploo-in,

Still find shinbanes in the clay,

At the place they call ‘The Hewin…

 

Site of the Battle of Roslin

 

Memorial to the Battle of Roslin

 

Pylons at the site of the Battle of Roslin

 

So, what, you may ask, happened to all the main players after the battle.  Well, the hero of the hour, John Comyn, was murdered a few years later by Robert the Bruce when the two of them fell out.  Bruce stabbed him to death by the high altar at Greyfriars Church in Dumfries. 

 

Sir Simon Fraser also died a few years after the battle when he was captured and taken prisoner by the English army.  On King Edward’s orders, he was taken to London and there was hung, drawn, and quartered, with his head stuck on a spike on London Bridge.

 

Sir John de Segrave lived a long and eventful life, he took William Wallace prisoner and escorted him down to London to be executed, he was then himself a prisoner in Scotland for a couple of years after the Battle of Bannockburn, was freed after a ransom was paid, acquired various lands around England, was appointed as the Seneschal of Gascony, and died an old man while looking after the King’s interests there.

 

As for Lady Margaret Ramsey of Dalhousie, well her story is either lost in the mists of time, which given the lack of records relating to women’s lives in that era is quite possible, or she never existed and was purely made up as a love interest to add a bit of oomph to the tale of the Battle of Roslin.

 

While out on my walk through the once bloodstained lands where so many men died, I left a Skulferatu in a gap in the wall around the monument to this now almost forgotten battle.

 

Skulferatu #109

 

Skulferatu #109 in a gap in the monument wall

 

Skulferatu #109 in a gap in the monument wall

 

Map showing the location of Skulferatu #109

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.862858

Longitude -3.154724

 

what3words: inferior.unheated.dolls

 

I used the following sources for information on the Battle of Roslin –

 

Canmore - Battle Site, Roslin

 

Historic Scotland

The Inventory of Historic Battlefields – Battle of Roslin

 

The Scotsman - Roslin 1303: Scotland's forgotten battle

24 February 2017