Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time Part 4 The William Wallace Statue

The Wallace statue was commissioned by the 11th Earl of Buchan, David Stuart Erskine.  It stands 31 feet tall and is carved from Red Sandstone.  John Smith of Darnick was the artist.  It resides on the grounds of Bemersyde House in what used to be Berwickshire.

We parked in an unpaved parking space just big enough for 3 or 4 cars and took a 10 minute nature walk along the way to reach the statue.  I was surprised by it's size. It always looks smaller in pictures.

This is a stile.  We were in the heart of Sheep country and when you want to climb over a fence and there's no gate handy you just step up on the stile, swing your leg over the fence and step over it. Pretty handy. 

 

Besides the statue there is an urn set nearby commemorating Wallace with a poem written by the Earl of Buchan engraved in the base. It reads

 "The peerless knight of Elderslie  

Who wav'd on Ayr's romantic shore

The beamy torch of liberty

And roaming round from sea to sea

From glade obscure from gloomy rock

His bold companions call'd to free

The realm from Edward's iron yoke 

.   

On the way back to the bus we got into a debate about the movie Brave Heart and how close it depicted things that happened at that time.  William Wallace did not sleep with Edward Long Shank's son's wife. She would have been 5 or 6 at the time of the rebellion.  Edward II did have homosexual tendancies and never lived up to his father's expectations.  But he did father 4 children with Isobella of France.

And on a more humerous note. A local sculptor, Tom Church, was so inspired by the movie Braveheart that he carved a statue of William Wallace and titled it Freedom. The statued looked just like Mel Gibson. Some of the local youth so hated the statue that they poured paint on it and gouged it's face off. The sculptor repaired the statue but in order to preserve it, it now resides inside a metal cage to keep it from being defaced again. Thus losing it's Freedom.    

We moved on to Scott's Walk.  A beautiful overlook.  Sir Walter Scott lived in the area and walked the path each day.  When he grew too old to walk he often drove a small cart over the same route. At his death the procession to the cemetary took him over the same route and paused above where we took pictures. It was his favorite view. 

 

Until tomorrow.

Teresa J. Reasor