Student Bloggers

By Jonny S., Museum Studies Internship Program, Scotland

After coming back on Friday, me and five others in my group decided to head to Glasgow for the weekend. That night we left on the train at 8 and got to Glasgow about an hour later. The next day we got to see so much of the city. We went over to Kelvingrove Art Museum as well as the botanical gardens. We then got to see the cathedral and got a good view of the city from the top of the lighthouse building. Glasgow was a completely different city than Edinburgh, being very modern and much larger. The shopping district was filled with people and the food there was much more commercial, but it was still awesome to experience. It was nice to just go on the Saturday because we saw most of what we wanted to see, like the gardens, and the subway station, which was the cleanest I’ve ever seen. We got back to Edinburgh that night, so I had all of Sunday to do something. Rob, Amanda, and I decided to go down to Leith, which was right next to the Firth of Forth bay. While there, we got to see the stadium where the Hibernian football team plays. The day got interesting, should we say, when it rained nonstop and I got soaking wet.

My second week, I started to figure out what I was interested in doing at my internship, which is at Hopetoun House. It was difficult to decide because I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with Museum Studies and I didn’t know what Hopetoun could offer me. This made it harder to decide, but we were able to narrow it down to looking at collections. After, I had my usual meeting with David where we discussed what we visited the Friday before. These meetings with him allowed me to keep seeing more about what is good and what can be improved in the museums we visit.

That day I also visited the Royal Surgeons Hall. It’s a museum of the history of surgical study in Edinburgh, which dates back to the 16th Century. The exhibit contained a lot of preserved human parts of all kinds in jars and cases. I found my interest in it to be somewhat of a morbid curiosity. I also visited the top of Calton Hill in the middle of Edinburgh and since it was a clear day, I could see the whole city which was incredible.

The next day, Tuesday, we all had history class again in which we learned more about the early kings of Scotland and the viking invasions in the west of Scotland. After class, we went back to the National Museum to visit the rest of the Scotland exhibit that included late Roman history all the way to modern-day Scotland. This exhibit included everything and spanned six floors. The best part was knowing a good amount of the history already from the class. Afterward I headed over to the National Portrait Gallery for our heritage class. This gallery was very confusing as it had a castle-like feel, yet there were self-portraits of nobility and modern photos mixed together. David made sure to criticize this very toughly.

The next day, Wednesday, we did something a little different. David took us on a train out to the town of Kirkcaldy, across the Forth. It was from there we explored the local town museum, which also doubles as a library. This museum was completely different from other museums I had been to as it detailed different snippets of the town history. While the exhibit was confusing, the town of Kirkcaldy was very nice and had really good food. It was on Thursday after class that Rob, Dan, and I decided to get kilts. On my mom’s side I have Scottish heritage which can be traced to the last name, McCall. While I did find out that colors for clans aren’t really a tradition, the crest for McCall is blue, silver, and a little red. Thus, I found a kilt that had those similar colors and wore it to the museum later that day. Definitely got a lot of stares, but it's Scotland so most people thought it was awesome. That night I also went to see a film called "Little Men" that was part of the Edinburgh film festival.

It had come to Friday again, which meant another excursion, this one went out first to Cairnpapple. This is a burial site that has been occupied since very early on. The reason is because of the view the hill has over all the countryside. To be on something so old felt weird for sure, but I think a lot of people were more interested in the cows around us. It was afterward we went to Linlithgow Castle, which was mostly intact. This castle was where Mary Queen of Scots was born as well as being the residence of many other kings and earls. Both of these stops lead up to our big stop, Stirling Castle. This castle has served as a place of protection and power over the land for a thousand years. Many kings and queens stayed here and the castle was amazing. It contained a huge palace connected to a great hall, which was connected to a large chapel. Surrounding it were fortified structures and another view of the countryside. This castle definitely lived up to its name and I’ve never been to anything this old and majestic before, definitely a highlight of my trip. The food in the town was also very good at the same time. After this already long day, we went over to the Battle of Bannockburn museum. This museum, however, was completely different from what I had experienced before. It featured 3-D shows of ancient fighting techniques and then we did a mock battle on a 3-D board in which we got to choose how the actual Battle of Bannockburn went, on our terms. I have never experienced anything like this before in any museum I had been to. It was completely different and eye opening, as we didn’t even walk on the real battlefield.

One thing that was also significant was Thursday the 23rd, the day before the United Kingdom held a referendum on whether to stay or leave the European Union. On Friday, I was woken up to find the UK decided to leave, which caused a huge shock across the world. This was significant in Scotland because they all voted to stay. It felt weird to be in a place that experienced something so drastic, but it did make me feel a part of history. While this vote happened, I feel like I have gained a better understanding and more life experience from my trip so far.

Jonny is a student at Iowa State University and is blogging from his summer abroad with the Museum Studies Internship Program, in Edinburgh, Scotland.