Bill Potter’s Scotland Adventure Recap

ummarizing the historical tour of Scotland gets more difficult every year, not because of the wonder of the sites we visit, or even the messages that increase our understanding or contribute to our sanctification. The difficulty lies in our inability to convey the personal and relational joys of meeting new friends, getting to know them well, saying goodbye when we don’t want to leave, and hoping that in God’s good providence we’ll meet again. Each person must fill in the gaps for himself or herself in remembering the many brief moments of insight, revelation, and affection that characterize the experience of many of us.

Week One: The Lowlands

Day 1
After the meet and greet of Sunday night and getting the brief of the week from Kevin, Colin and Bill, and regaled in song by our very own troubadour, Sam, we adjourned till the morning first ride to survey the ancient and modern, or as they say, “The Old City and the New City,” of Edinburgh. Colin especially delights in conveying the majesty of every kind of architecture found there and see the memorials to the men who helped make their own life and times so significant, such as Thomas Chalmers, Sir Walter Scott, or Eric Liddell. We tried to look in on the Queen but she apparently had not been informed of our coming. We concluded our day with a visit to the magnificent Edinburgh Castle, home to the Royal Scots Dragoons, the War Memorial, Mons Meg, the Honours of Scotland, Royal apartments, War Museum, dungeons, and more.

Day 2
Day two found us with our classic walking tour of the city and a day of remembering the Reformer John Knox at the church in which he preached, St. Giles, his home down the Royal Mile and his lonely but distinctive grave-site in the parking lot behind the church. We heard of the powerful influence of Adam Smith next to his prominent statue hard by St. Giles and of the philosopher that specialized in stirring up dissention and opposition to the Faith in the 18th Century “Scottish Enlightenment”, David Hume. We had the distinct privilege of viewing the Ayrshire copy of the National Covenant hanging at the Free Church New College.

Our afternoon was well spent recounting the tales of the Covenanters and the “Second Reformation” in Scotland. We visited the Martyr’s Monument in the Grass Market, located on the site of executions, Magdalen Chapel (pronounced Maudlin) which has a rich history of mercy and grace, and finally the Grey Friars’ Kirkyard where many Covenanters are buried near the monument commemorating them, especially naming the Marquis of Argyll, Rev. James Guthrie, and Rev. James Renwick. We also visited the grave-sites of George Buchanan, the great Renaissance scholar and tutor of James VI, and of Alexander Henderson, the successor of John Knox. We also saw the prison pens where the POWs from the sanguinary battle of Bothwell Bridge were kept till trial or death.

Day 3
On the third day of our adventure we boarded the coach to the strategic and historic town of Stirling. Central to the Scottish independence story, Stirling boasts the Wallace monument, which we climbed, on the Abbey Craig. Looking down on the Stirling Bridge battlefield, the town, and the castle, we viewed the past from the height of angels (with cell phones and cameras of course.) We visited the great Castle of the Realm, fought over too many times to count. In our tour of the Church of the Holy Rude, where one of the first martyrs for the Covenant, James Guthrie, was pastor, we were treated to the first of several delightful string concerts by the Fineout duet. From the church to the battlefield we moved to stand on the ground where Robert Bruce defeated Edward II at Bannockburn, the battle that meant the most for securing Scottish independence from their larger and more powerful and power-hungry neighbors to the south.