Linlithgow Palace photos

Doug Monkey near the entrance to the palace

I brought Doug with me when Neil and I went to Linlithgow (at my behest). He said it was really cool, but hadn’t been there in years.

The palace was so quiet — there weren’t too many other tourists about. And I have, shall we say, an overactive imagination. Thus I wasn’t super keen on going into the small rooms and corridors with minimal lighting, in case I ran into someone dressed in period costume. I’d've had to change my underpants if I had. I did wander up and down the towers (and managed to get lost in a palace that doesn’t really have floors or ceilings or even roofs for the most part), but only the roof on the Queen’s tower was open to the public.

The thing that really got me was how icy cold it was — even with wooden floors and ceilings, they must have had fires going 24/7. I was imagining what it was like to live there, walking through those dark narrow corridors. Can you picture yourself being one of the permanent household staff who had to maintain the palace day after day? Or the people who worked in the brewery?

It was an awfully windy day, Doug was getting blown off sills and seats, so I didn’t get many photos. Hehe. Flickr set here.

• 22 Jan 2007