Baden-Powell Council BSA
at the
2010 Blair Atholl Patrol Jamborette

Day 5 - July 17th - Newtongrange to St. Andrews

We started our fifth day of touring at the Scottish Mining Museum in Newtongrange. Housed in the former Lady Victoria Colliery, the museum tells the story of coal mining in Scotland amid a well preserved building complex.  

The museum was holding a Victorian Weekend during our visit, complete with Living History reenactors from the Victorian heyday of the pit's operation. Here, Dennis is interviewed for a job in the mine by the owner... be sure to call him "Your Grace"...	Our tour of the mine was led by one of the coal sorters, Aggie McGhee. She assigned each of us to a job at the pit - although she wasn't at all impressed by our Scouts' desire to stay in bed after 5:00AM
From Newtongrange we went to Stirling Castle.
	Brad (left) and Evan (above) got to hold a kestrel at a falconry demonstration.
The group on our guided tour of the Castle.	At the head table in the Great Hall of Stirling Castle
	We had originally planned to spend an hour or two at the Castle and then go to the Wallace Memorial, but we were so taken by the Castle that after our tour the Scouts decided to stay for the rest of the afternoon. (Left) The panoramic view across the Forth Valley from the battlements makes it clear why the Castle was so strategic.
For dinner we tried something adventurous - an Indian Restaurant in a small town we passed through. It was the first introduction to Indian food for many of the Scouts, but everyone seemed to enjoy the experience.
	We arrived in Saint Andrews around 9:30 in the evening, to discover that we'd arrived on Saturday night of the last weekend of the Open. Half the streets were closed, or set up to be one-way out of town. After several circuits of town trying to follow the GPS' instructions, we called and got help driving to the Scout Hall. It turned out to be on the water, halfway between the castle (left) and the cathedral.  We were met by family friends of one of the Scouts, a professor at St. Andrews University and his wife, who led us on a great late-night walking tour of the town.