Mary Queen of Scots Castle Keep

Today on my home territory country ramble, I stumbled accross the body of a poor badger laying in the undergrowth. Hopefully it was not killed or poisoned, but perhaps died of natural causes. These little creatures are becoming rarer than us deerhounds. On a positive note tho’, in the sky above flew a buzzard. It’s good to see these birds of prey on the wing - no doubt, after the carrion.

Unbeknown to most, the woodland where I, and almost no-one else walks on a daily basis is the former Castle Wood. Known so, because underneath all the overgrown mounds of earth, trees and shrubbery, the ruins of an old castle keep lie burried. This was where Mary Queen of Scots (the beautiful Queen, so envied by Queen Elizabeth I, the virgin queen of England) used to change her horses, when she rode from her palace home at Linlithgow to affairs of state and I believe romance in Edinburgh.

A great keeper of deerhounds - I’m sure some of my ancestors would run along through here, with them possibly having enjoyed a Forth Valley hunt or ‘trae’.

I think the ‘time team’ should perhaps be encouraged to come along and possibly get their archaeological paws dirty at this historical site.