THE MAD POET
The Mad Poet's
Ravings
Blairsville Scottish Festival, 20228/29/2022 The Blairsville Scottish Festival is one of the largest events of its kind in the U.S., boasting a gathering of over 39 clans and an attendance of thousands. The festival holds multiple athletic events throughout the weekend, including hammer throwing, tug-o-wars, log throwing, caber tossing and sheaf tossing. Reenactors portraying the Jacobite rebellion hold musketry demonstrations, bagpipe bands play on the green, and over thirty vendors sell their wares; these are just a few of the attractions offered! I had the pleasure of visiting the festival back in June. The first event itself was a somewhat unusual spectacle in the North Georgia mountains: the massed bands of the North Georgia Pipes and Drums, the Atholl Highlanders Pipes and Drums, the John Mohr Macintosh Pipes and Drums, the Alhambra Highlanders Pipes and Drums, and the Appalachians Saint Andrews Pipes and Drums paraded onto the sprawling park green followed by representatives of each of the clans attending the festival. After the opening prayer and singing of the national anthems (both American and British!) the MC officially declared the festivities underway. The path cutting through the park grounds was lined with tents, each one dedicated to a clan and featuring displays of their history and distinctions – the content of one of these displays could probably form its own article! A few notable clans included Clan Campbell (famous for their involvement in the Jacobite Wars, their possession of various castles, and the invention of Campbell Soup), Clan MacLeod (lairds of the Isle of Skye, known for pronouncing their name "mick-loud" instead of "mick-lee-odd") and Clan Bell (a member of whom actually created Taco Bell). I was also able to talk to a representative of Clan Gunn, who informed me that his clan had its origins in Scandinavian settlers in the northwestern Orkney Islands - hence why his clan's tent was bedecked with Viking weapons, armor and the decorative prow of a longship! Clan Gunn's display on their Viking history The festival was resplendent with clan symbolism. From kilts to banners to heraldry, every clan brought its emblem, and both hosts and visitors could be seen in kilts and arasaids. Some carried their tartans on flagpoles, while others simply sported polo shirts with the clan crest – and sometimes sold a few! The clan ambassadors were all extremely open to conversation. If you ever visit a Scottish festival, be sure and have a chat with a few of them. They love answering questions to fill visitors in on their clan’s history and are often quite willing to invite interested newcomers to attend clan meetings… or even join the clans! Clan Murray with their banner Two ways to display tartans One clan rep for the Campbells extended perhaps the broadest invitation possible: “No matter where you come from, if you feel an affinity for a certain culture, that’s a good sign that you could have ancestral origins in it.” The Clan Gunn representative was also able to extend an open invitation and back it up with historical precedent: “Large clans would accept individuals or smaller families into their ranks. If you could farm or fight, they’d take you, you could live on their land and enjoy their protection and your family became a ‘sept’ of the clan. They didn’t care who you were.” A furry clan member braves heatstroke to display their Scottish pride The Jacobites return to restore Prince Charlie The event itself was open to a broad variety of merchants and entertainers. A blacksmith shop was dealing in wrought iron pans, decorations and tools. Multiple Celtic stores had tents filled with Scottish memorabilia such as the usual t-shirts or water bottles, while others sold dirks, sporrans, yards of tartan, shot glasses, bagpipes and books. One craftsman's booth sold traditional archery gear, mostly consisting of Cherokee flatbows and longbows. I was able to talk to the owner of the booth, and he showed me his most prized piece - a six-foot English yew bow tipped with cow's horn, in the authentic style of the medieval weapon. This bow was (of course) not for sale, but he was able to sell me a nicely stained hickory longbow. Sheepdog demonstrations took place at the height of the festival. The dogs on display, mostly border collies bred in Britain, astonished the crowd by driving half a dozen sheep through a series of extremely tight maneuvers, while a somewhat more light-hearted show was put on by the dog who herded a flock of ducks through an obstacle course of bridges and tunnels. A falconry demonstration was also to be seen, though we didn't arrive in time for it. Other Scottish animals displayed included Scottish rams and Humphrey, the popular Highland Cow. One of the central tents served as a music venue where the Celtic band Ye Jacobites By Name gave a live performance of Scottish and Irish folk tunes on mandolin, guitar, pennywhistle, and pipes. Several other musical artists played or sang at sites throughout the festival grounds, enhancing the atmosphere even more. Another main attraction the festival offers is, of course, the food. A number of Scottish and British catering groups are on hand, providing visitors a taste of Irn Bru, the most popular Scottish soda, Scotch eggs (a dish of contested origins, but often said to be Scottish) and haggis. I passed on the Scotch eggs in favor of a haggis and a meat pie, washing it down with an Irn Bru, and am happy to report that haggis is actually rather good. The oats and seasoning involved can prevent one from dwelling too much on the fact that the dish is in fact a sheep's guts - or least they did that for me. Irn Bru is fairly good as well, likely to remind an American of a regular cream soda, though others have compared the taste to cotton candy. The festival typically lasts two days on a June weekend, and is held in Meeks Park in Blairsville, GA, just off I-575. Visitors can expect parking to fill up quickly, so if you do come, you might want to come early! Georgia summers being what they are, hydration will also likely be important throughout the day. The actual festival grounds are a fair distance from the parking lot, so expect to do some walking. Scottish festivals are an increasingly common occurrence across the U.S., especially in areas like the east coast, which was originally settled by Scottish immigrants. For those who love history, costumes or just a fun day out, this is definitely the kind of event worth exploring! You'll find some additional photos below. The Jacobite encampment A blunderbuss The Falconer and his... falcon. Typical 18th-century Highland Weapons: Brown Bess Musket, Murdoch Pistol, Sgian Dubh (small dagger), Dirk (long dagger) and basket-hilt broadsword (originally a favorite with Highland regiments of the British army) Sheepdog at work A traditional targe shield (yes, this is where the word 'target' comes from). The ship in the center is a lymphad, a common symbol in Scottish heraldry. Humphrey the Highland Cow Clan Gunn's tent (note longship)
0 Comments
Pontefract Castle: Key of the North8/5/2022 O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison! Fatal and ominous to noble peers! Within the guilty closure of thy walls Richard the Second here was hack’d to death. - Shakespeare’s Richard III, III.iii.9. Britain is covered in castles. The Normans threw up dozens of them as they claimed the entire island for themselves, each new fortress working as a weapon to maintain control of the territory. To the north, however, one particular castle would stand out among the rest. Its dark history earned it a reputation as the most feared castle in England. Standing on a colossal bed of rock, the castle boasted a labyrinth of pit-strewn passages running through the dungeons thirty-five feet below its foundation. Today, the names of despairing prisoners are still visible where they were scratched into its walls; among its host of victims are multiple members of English royal families. The Dungeons of Pontefract Built in 1070 by William the Conqueror, Pontefract Castle was erected at a site which held both strategic and symbolic importance. It was positioned to guard the northern realm against reaving Scots from over the border, as well as any surviving Saxon resistance fighters. The castle was also placed over an ancient Saxon burial site, perhaps in a deliberate gesture of Norman contempt. Thus brooding on top of a graveyard, the castle has witnessed more than its fair share of historical murders and atrocities, not to mention hosting a handful of spectacular sieges in later years. Wooden Castle (not Pontefract) Interestingly, the castle began as a wooden fortress, recorded in the Domesday Book census as “Ilbert’s Castle.” It was overseen by Ilbert de Lacy, to whom King William entrusted the lands surrounding. Wooden castles had dotted the landscape of Europe for many years prior, but this one was built just as castle-builders were beginning to look to rock-quarries instead of forests for their materials. Reconstruction of Pontefract at its height Over time, de Lacy’s descendants would convert the castle into a proper stone fortress, adding a bulky, multilobed keep and several towers along its walls. As the castle grew, several unique defense mechanisms appeared. A curtain wall extended down the hillside approaches, seeking to slow advancing enemies by forcing them to go around it to get at the gates, all while being pelted with arrows, slingstones, javelins, hot sand, rocks, excrement, cannonballs, and bullets (depending on when they were attacking, of course!) A rare Spanish-style detached tower, called the Piper Tower, stood at a distance from the walls, connected to the castle only by a bridge; its purpose was to increase the defenders’ ability to give flanking fire, showering the attackers with various unpleasantness from the side or rear as they tried to attack the main castle walls. The keep itself was a cluster of four round turrets designed to funnel attackers into its outer angles where they would be more vulnerable to fire from above (a little bit like the five-pointed “star forts” of later centuries). For all its preparedness, Pontefract didn’t undergo any sieges until quite late in its history (perhaps because of how well-prepared it was!) Much of the violence it witnessed during the Middle Ages was of a quite different nature. After the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322, Thomas, the insurgent Earl of Lancaster who had been defeated in his attempt to claim the throne in the early Wars of the Roses, was beheaded outside the walls on the order of King Edward II. His death made him a martyr, and his tomb at Pontefract Priory became a shrine and a popular destination for pilgrimage for years afterward. When the castle was ceded to the famous John of Gaunt, son of Edward III, he put in many improvements to its facilities and defenses, making it his personal residence. His son, Henry Bolingbroke, was banished by King Richard II for opposing him, but Henry gathered an army and returned to take back the castle (which the king had now seized). Richard was in Ireland, with little ability to resist Bolingbroke’s attack… and before long Bolingbroke had taken not only his castle, but the entire kingdom. (Henry Bolingbroke would become Henry IV). Henry was in no mood to forgive Richard. The former king was first imprisoned in the Tower of London, and then, in 1399, was thrown in the dungeons of Pontefract, the very castle he had seized from Henry. He died a few months later; one chronicler suggests he was hacked to pieces, and thus inspired a line in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, but most others agree that he was starved to death by his captors (or possibly starved himself). It is after this incident that the castle began racking up a significant body count. In the summer of 1483, Richard III had two nobles, Richard Grey and Anthony Rivers, beheaded outside the walls of Pontefract for standing in his path to the throne. When Henry VIII established the Anglican church, a north English Catholic coalition marched on the south in an uprising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. The guardian of Pontefract at the time, one Thomas Darcy, was so frightened by (and sympathetic to) the mass of protesters that he surrendered the castle to them – an act he would later regret. The uprising was crushed, and Darcy faced the axe. Execution of Catherine Howard Another Henry VIII-related death tied with the castle occurred after Queen Catherine Howard was accused of having an affair with a courtier while staying at Pontefract. She was rather speedily packed off to the chopping block, without a trial. The castle enjoyed less gruesome royal encounters when Mary, Queen of Scots, and James I each stayed there while on their travels across the realm. The last chapter of Pontefract’s history began with the English Civil War. Initially held by the forces of King Charles I, the castle was besieged three times. The first time, in 1644, the attacking force of English Parliamentarians and Scottish Covenanters was driven off by the King’s reinforcements – but not after they had partially undermined the walls with siege tunnels and bombarded the castle with around 1,400 cannonballs, destroying the Piper Tower by shooting it 78 times and leaving balls embedded which would remain lodged in the walls until 2016. Two of the seven recovered cannonballs The second siege began the next year. The Parliamentarians threw up entrenchments around the castle in an attempt to cut off any escape from within, but the Royalists managed to sneak out from time to time nonetheless, stealing cattle and swiping apples. Eventually however, the Parliamentarian commander tightened his security, and at last the Royalist defenders were at the point of having to bribe men to go out and retrieve spent bullets. The siege ended when the garrison surrendered after hearing that Royalist forces had been defeated at Naseby. Unfortunately for Cromwell’s Parliamentarians, however, another Royalist army managed to sneak into the castle and take it over once more - reportedly by posing as bed-changers bringing in fresh mattresses! Reenactors busily portraying an infantry clash at Pontefract At last, in 1648, Oliver Cromwell arrived to lay the final siege of Pontefract Castle. Not long after, King Charles was brought to trial and executed, leaving the Royalists with little hope of support. They surrendered; the commander was executed for treason, the garrison was imprisoned in the dungeon for months before being released, and the castle itself, on the request of the war-weary people of York, was completely demolished. Pontefract today exists only as a ruin. Some remnants of the original 11th-century walls and towers still survive, but in other places only the traces of the foundations are visible. A few surviving passages to the storerooms and dungeons can still be found, and on the tunnel walls modern visitors can make out names scratched in the stones – those of the prisoners of the most feared castle in England. Names of prisoners, dated to English Civil War
AuthorThe Mad Poet Himself: History Lover, Medieval Enthusiast, Amateur Poet and Filmmaker, Folk Musician, and Madman Extraordinaire Archives
December 2023
Categories |