Black Watch Memorial

I visited the Castle today. There was a very long queue for tickets but I'm a member of Hysterical Scotland so managed to by-pass that. When I mentioned it to the guy in the VIP (Ooooo V.I.P!) ticket place he said they were expecting 3000 visitors today & a busy day is 9000.

Flipping 'eck I wouldn't want to be there on a busy day - today was packed by my reckoning.

I was there to visit the "Humanity in War" exhibition at the National War Museum. To be honest I was a bit disappointed, the pictures were block mounted prints, not proper photos, and lacked impact in my opinion.

I also visited the National War Memorial, a really moving place. I've been there a few times before, the first time when I was about 10 or 12 and I distinctly remember the hairs on the back of my neck standing up when I went in. The same thing happened today, that "someone just walked over my grave" feeling. I think the Memorial itself is unremarkable but the stained glass windows are beautiful. There's no photography allowed inside the Memorial, otherwise that's what I would've posted today.

I was very sad to see a name in the memorial book for the Royal Regiment of Scotland. a young man I worked with who was killed on a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2007. His is one of the first names in that particular book.

This is part of the Black Watch Memorial, for soldiers lost in the Boer War, 1899-1902. The relief work on the plinth is beautifully done. The Memorial stands on the Mound, at the junction with Market Street.