Baden-Powell Council BSA
at the
2012 Blair Atholl Patrol Jamborette

Day 6 - July 15th - Kingdom of Fife
























Our first stop on Day 6 was St. Andrews Castle, just a short walk from the Scout Hall. 

Unlike all the other castles we'll see this trip, St. Andrews was built by and used by Bishops of the Church, not nobles or kings. Bishop Roger of St. Andrews built the original castle here in 1189, and it was rebuilt several times by his successors. 

The castle gatehouse. 

Gabe looks down into the Bottle Dungeon - miscreants were lowered by rope, to live out their lives in this hole. 

When the castle was under seige in 1546 by the Earl of Arran, a tunnel was dug by the besieging forces. A countermine was dug by the Protestant forces inside, breaking into the tunnel and ending the attempt. The tunnel and countermine can be explored today - as Warren here proves. 
The ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral are not far from the Castle. 
We walked over and spent time at the small museum and wandering around. 

We were supposed to go to a Highland Games in Stonehaven that afternoon, but the games were canceled due to flooding. Luckily, I received an e-mail from the organizers just before we left America, so we didn't drive all the way to Stonehaven. Instead, we drove to Thornton, which also had a Highland Games scheduled - the same one we attended in 2010. 

When we arrived in Thornton, though, we discovered that those games had also been canceled due to flooding.

The only place in Thornton to eat on a Sunday was "Bella, the Cake Fairy" - which turned out to be a fantastic choice for lunch. Bella and her family welcomed us in, and the Scouts ate well. 

The lunch worked out so well I decided to splurge on cupcakes for everyone, which was a great hit. 

The Secret Bunker was our "Plan B" for the afternoon. Not that it could be that much of a secret, with road signs pointing the way all over Fife, and this truck advertising the facility...

The underground Bunker is under an innocent-looking farmhouse. You go into the house, and then down a long ramp into the Bunker itself. 

From here, the government would, theoretically, have governed a post-holocaust Scotland.

 In this room, Josh and Gabe watch the RAF Wrens plotting the flights of fighters. The fact that the Bunker obtained their mannequins from a defunct fashion store only detracts slightly from the effect - all of the personnel are in slightly contorted postures, and look just a bit weird, but maybe the Scottish military planned to recruit supermodels, who knows?
We drove down from Fife to Edinburgh, to stay for the next two days with the 88th Haymarket Scout Group - and, once again, "thanks for the hospitality!"

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