Linlithgow and the Burry man

One of my favorite places in scotland I ended up at by accident by missing my bus to where I was going, so I decided to make the best of it and just photograph the city I was in, Linlithgow. I ended up lucking out because the day I came they were having the Linlithgow scotch hop, which is a huge dance in the palace Mary Queen of Scots was born in and then having retreat that night with their pipe band. The palace there is beautiful because it sits right on the loch.



The Burry Man

The burry man is a tradition which goes back hundreds of years in Queensferry where during the summer one day a man dresses up in all burs and walks through town all day and is offered whiskey and money. The money is given to charities although it used to be to pay the two people who help him by holding poles covered in flowers which the burry man holds onto because he has to keep his arms outstretched the entired day. He drinks the whiskey, which you can imagine gets interesting after several drams and no way of going to the bathroom the entire day. The burry man and his whole family are all really nice people and the whole community knows them so they make stops throughout the day to just talk with people.

Scotland

I've been in Scotland for the past five weeks and I cannot even begin to describe what the expierence has been. This is an amazing country which continually stuns me with how beautiful it is, and the people are willing to let you into their lives like no one else I've ever encountered. I've been living in Edinburgh and most of my time has been spent in and around the city although I have had a chance to travel to several other parts of the country including St. Andrews, Inverness, North Berwick, Pittenweem, Dundee, and Dunbar.

The Fringe Festival is going on in Edinburgh right now which is advertized as the largest arts festival in Europe and it lives up to the hype with around 50 street performers daily, many shops and hundreds of shows going on, not to mention the thousands of people who've come into the city over the past two weeks to see it and Edinburgh's Military Tattoo.



Edinburgh from Carlton Hill at sunset



Amelia and Francisco are street performers from Seville, Spain who are in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival. I have had such a great time talking with Amelia about the fringe and being a street performer.




Elaine Davidson is the world record holder for body piercing and is from Edinburgh. She doesn't like photographers that much which I couldn't understand at first but another one of the photographers who is here in the same program I am talked to her and she doesn't like photographers because she feels like they use her, just taking her picture and then not giving her any money. Many people watch the performances of the street performers and then dont give them any money, not realizing this is how they make all their money



Linlithgow retreat




Edinburgh Military Tattoo


Linlithgow Castle and loch