Why a Thistle?

Google “Scottish thistle” for a nanosecond and you’ll find some very diverse explanations for Scotland’s unlikely choice of the thistle as its national “flower.”

Several sites refer to a night landing by King Haken of Norway in 1263. His men – trying to surprise the sleeping Scots – took off their shoes, walked straight into a bunch of thistles, and gave themselves away with their Norwegian ouches. The Scots ran them off in what many historians have called a "fierce" battle – even a rout, say some – and others have called a “mild skirmish.” The thankful Scots developed a deep appreciation for their thorny little weed and, as they say, the rest is history. As you wander through these websites, you can spot all kinds of inconsistencies and versions of this story – some not even involving the Norse or the Battle of Largs.

A digitized book by Google – A Handy-Book of Curiosities by William S. Walsh – published in 1893, gives an equally interesting reason for the humble thistle’s status as national flower. According to this version, Queen Scotia, after a battle victory, sat down to rest in a nest of thistles – with the predictable and painful result. Because of the discomfort it caused, she realized that in her mind the thistle would always be associated with that victorious battle. She placed it her helmet and – again – as they say, the rest is history.

According to Walsh, the first time the thistle is mentioned as the national flower is in William Dunbar’s lengthy poem, The Thistle and Rose, published in 1503. One website claims James III issued coins struck with the image of a thistle as early as 1470.

So who knows which story is the real reason for the lowly thistle’s lofty position in Scotland or how soon in Scotland’s history it gains such unlikely prominence? I sure don’t. I also don’t know much about the reasons behind the sculpture on The Pencil (below), and I'm hoping some more learned Scottish aficionado readers can enlighten me.













As you can see from its inscription above the memorial's door on the close-up below, this structure was erected to commemorate the 1263 Battle of Largs, a battle that forever changed the history of Scotland by ending Viking raiding in this area. Though it appears ancient, The Pencil (called this for obvious reasons but not, apparently, by its designer, J.S. Kay from Newton Stewart), was actually completed in 1912.

When my husband shot these photos of The Pencil in 2004, we never noticed that the beast in the sculpture to the lower right of the door obviously sports a thistle.

In fact, we never paid much attention to the sculptures at all. Now that we are, we wonder, “What in the world are they?" Do they have any connection to a thistle-as-Scottish-national-flower story? Was the designer, J.S. Kay, using Scottish shorthand to remind his viewers of another ancient thistle story that they knew – and we don't?

Why do I care? Simple. Our website stats tell us that the vast majority of visitors to our site use “thistle” as part of their search term. Clearly, today’s Scottish aficionados are just as enamored of the thistle as those Scottish clansmen who owed their lives to the thistle in 1263 (if that version of the story is the true one). Always wanting to create artwork that Scots-lovers will find it easy to love, we feel the more we know about thistles and, in particular, about this monument, the better. (Besides, our thistle painting inventory is very low, and Bruce might paint this sculpture of a ??? and thistle – if we knew a little more about it.)

So how about it? Do you know anything about this well-known monument at Largs, Scotland – and its interesting sculptures – that you can share with us?

Five Tips for Traveling in Scotland

Here’s the disclaimer right up front. My husband and I have traveled in the British Isles for a total of 17 weeks. During all that time, we had to rely on public transportation for only a handful of days. The rest of the time, we drove ourselves around – and lived to write about it, which we think is quite a feat.

That said, our tips our strictly our tips; they’re what we learned – sometimes the hard way – from our driving experiences. They're not a compilation of anything we've read in any tour guide. They don't include friends' experiences. As such, they may not jive with what Great Aunt Harriet told you, or what someone who took public transportation might have told you. Can’t help it. Our experience is our experience.

Our hope is that you’ll pick up something from our UK travel experiences that will help when you make that trip you’ve been longing to make to that special section of the British Isles that calls you. Sure hope so; we’d like for someone else to profit from our pain besides us!

Tip #1:
Street signs are often hard to find – and optional, apparently.
You must remember that people walk in the UK. They don’t drive two blocks for a carton of milk as we Yanks are prone to do. In fact, you may be as surprised as we were by the large amount of pedestrian traffic at all hours of the day and night. Most all their signage is printed and posted with foot traffic in mind – down low – where pedestrians can easily see it.

That having been said, UK cities’ and villages’ solicitous concern for all who are trying to find their way around stops right there. Evidently, their cities and villages have few or no rules or codes for street signs. You’ll have to keep a sharp lookout, as they don’t uniformly show up on posts at street intersections. While walking, you have plenty of time to search all over each intersection for these signs. While driving – on the left side of the road from the right side of the car in an unfamiliar city – you don't.

You might find one a couple of feet up from the sidewalk on the front of a building on the SW corner of an intersection. The next one might be at chest height on the opposite side of the street, again, on a building – but in a different color and completely different style. The next one might be an actual street sign on a pole at the NE corner of the intersection. But there might be none at all at the next intersection.

That brings me to my next tip.

Tip #2:
Streets change names.
If you live on our East Coast in an older city or town that sort of evolved higgledy-piggledy over the two or three centuries of our nation's brief history, then you’re already accustomed to this.

We live in the West, where most towns were carefully platted in nice, neat squares. Newly annexed properties and subdivisions are very carefully mated into the original town or city plan, for the most part. Very seldom do streets change names in our neck of the woods.

You can imagine our surprise when we kept coming across new names every other block or so. Apparently, in the UK and Europe, this is rather common. Streets, especially in Edinburgh, can – and do – change names A LOT. Look sharp. As some streets intersect others at odd angles, we assumed, when we found a different street name at the next block, that we must’ve unknowingly left the street we meant to stay on. Most of the time, we hadn’t; the street had just changed names.

We haven’t used GPS in the UK yet, so I’m not sure how accurate GPS devices are, given the multiple intricacies of older UK cities. If you have, add your two bits.

Tip #3:
Signs aren't always visible from both directions.
Get used to rubber-necking it. When you see the back of a sign on the opposite side of the road, as soon as you pass it, quickly whip around and read it.

We learned this the hard way on our first trip to Scotland. We must’ve driven the same road five times before we noticed one teeny little sign pointing the way. We ran into this phenomenon many times. Don’t know if it’s misguided thriftiness, careless maintenance, or what.

Doesn’t matter: your job is to pay attention to ALL signs – the ones facing you and the ones facing the oncoming traffic. A sign facing oncoming traffic may be the only sign you’re going to find telling you where Castle ----- is located.

Tip #4:
Signs in areas where we Yanks would expect only vehicular traffic may be positioned/sized for foot traffic.
The sign scenario I just mentioned was complicated by the fact that the one-and-only sign was about eight inches wide, two inches high, and about 18 inches off the ground. If we'd been walking, we no doubt would've seen it. But it was almost invisible to us while sitting in our car, traveling 35 mph. While 35 mph isn't fast, it's too fast to see such teensy little signs.

In general, signage is considerably smaller than the comparative billboards we’re accustomed to reading to find our way through an unfamiliar part of the US. If you wear glasses or contacts, make sure you have your most current Rx in your glasses or contact lenses because, honey, you’re gonna need to SEE teensy little type as you’re driving down those B roads. Dual carriageways, on the other hand, have signage comparable to our interstate signs – most of the time.

Tip #5:
Keep your eyes peeled for brown-and-white signs.
As in the US, there does seem to be some consistency in signposting government-owned or government-sponsored tourist destinations in these colors. You’d be surprised how fast your reticular activating system will catch on; you’ll be an expert at spotting brown-and-white signs, no matter how small, by the time you fly back across the pond.

That said, many of the homes, castles, and museums that you may want to see may well be privately owned. If so, their signs will look however they jolly well please.

Bottom line: LOOK SHARP!