Today Susan took me out to Falklands Palace in Fife. It was built in the 15th century, and was partially restored in the 18th century, but the King restoring it passed away and the work was never completed, so we could only see some parts, but the parts we saw were amazing. All of the furniture was original or a replica of an original, and there was so much colour everywhere! Unfortunately you were not allowed to take pictures inside, but I have added some of the palace and the grounds.
Here are some facts that Susan and I managed to remember;
The palace is still technically a royal palace as it is owned by the Queen, but as she cannot stay there (due to only partial restoration and lack of plumbing) they do not recieve funding to maintain or restore it.
The beds back then were extremely detailed, all hand carved, and would have taken months to build. One of them was made entirely of palm trees in what is now Asia, and another made for Kng James V with advice inscribed on it!
The Royals used to take all of their things with them when they moved around from palace to palace, including their tapestries, linens, furniture, and lots of clothing! One one trip the Queens wardrobe required 9 carriages to carry it and it took 7 carriages and cost 160 pounds (the equivalent of 167,000 pounds today) just to move his bed!
The ceilings of most rooms were decorated with colourful painting and pictures, and the childrens' nursery was painted with characters from popular nursery rhymes. Servants were required to discipline the children but were not allowed to touch them, so when the children misbehaved they were put on a tall wooden chair (like a high chair), which was not very stable, so that when the child wriggled or fidgeted, they would fall down, and the chair would fall on top of them!
The King and Queen slept on separate floors and in separate apartments, which were burnt down from a fire during Cromwells reign and were never restored.
The palace has its own (very large) chapel for when visitors came, including a priests room which was also used as a private confessional for Queen Mary of Scots. The church was one of the only Roman Catholic churches that was not destroyed or redesigned when Protestantism came through, and it is still used today. There is a picture of Lady Madonna a the church that was made by Polish soldiers during the Falklands war, made out of corned beef tins and bullet cartridges!
The kitchen in the palace would churn out hundreds of loaves of bread per day, and when there was a Royal Supper; only the Royal family and special guests got to eat meat, other guests were given eggs, fruits, nuts and bread, and ale was the preferred drink, as the sewage systems did not garuantee clean drinking water!
The palace was last used by royals in the 1590's!
We had a great day, and the weather was perfect for it, I'm looking forward to visiting my next palace already :)
