Scotland

OK, so we are done with our travels for now, but I will go ahead and blog about our Scotland adventures. First of all, I will deal with the things pertaining to Braveheart that were debunked for us by the Scots.



This is a view from the highway of Stirling Castle, home of Robert the Bruce. The story we were told about the movie Braveheart and all its inaccuracies were eye opening in the least. One thing that actually made me feel better about the history was that Robert de(the) Bruce did not betray William Wallace as depicted in the movie. He also later became King of Scotland. Historians believe he died of leprosy whereas the movie portrays his father as the leper.
Some fallacies of the movie about William Wallace:
1. He was not of humble farmer lineage. His family were actually lesser nobles.
2. A lot of photo work was done to make Mel Gibson look larger than he is because the real William Wallace was a huge man of 6'7" or 6'8".
3. The main battle of Stirling where he defeated the English is depicted in a large open field. The Scots say Wallace never fought that way until the battle in which he was defeated. He was more of a gorilla fighter. The battle is actually the Battle of Stirling Bridge. The river and bridge are rather obviously missing in the movie. In actuality more Englishman drowned in the battle than were killed by the Scots.





This is the memorial to William Wallace.


This pic was taken from Stirling Castle. The Wallace memorial across the valley is about where Wallace and his men were for the Battle of Stirling Bridge. You can see the river below the memorial. They used the bridge and the wetlands around the river to their advantage to defeat the English.
4. William Wallace was never called Braveheart. (long story short) Robert the Bruce got into a scuffle with an old enemy and killed the man inside a church. For this he was excommunicated from the Catholic church. He later went to Rome and promised the Pope that he would raise some men and go on a Holy Crusade to make amends. A deal was struck and he eventually became king of Scotland. He never got the opportunity to fulfill his promise to the Pope, but he made and old friend promise that if he died that the friend would cut his heart from his body and take it on a crusade. He felt that this feat would help him spend less time in purgatory for his actions. In a crusade battle against the French when his friend's men were wiped out, the friend flung the heart of the Bruce toward the enemy and shouted, "go forward brave heart." The French were so moved by this that they returned the heart to Scotland and it was buried at Melrose Abbey. So, the "brave heart" was actually Robert the Bruce.




This is the ruins of Melrose Abbey where the heart of Robert the Bruce is buried.



More of Stirling Castle complex.


Stirling Castle.



Robert the Bruce memorial outside Stirling Castle.

The Scots that told us about al the inaccuracies of the movie also said Mel Gibson was very upfront about taking license with the real history. They said that most Scots were not really upset with the fallacies of the movie since he said all along he was not trying to tell the actual history as much as painting a portrait of the Scots and their past and their land. The year after the movie was released (1995), Scottish tourism jumped 200% and has remained high ever since so many feel a gratitude for the attention even if not an accurate picture.