Warkworth Castle: Interior

[poliphilo]

As requested by pondhopper 

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'd want to take my toothbrush and various other modern amenities if I were visiting.

That's an interesting point you make. English castles of the period are certainly more "homely" than the average French chateau- maybe because we were further from the epicentre of the Renaissance. Scottish architecture is heavily indebted to the French- see my pictures of Falkland palace- but somehow manages to take the French forms and make them into something craggy and northern. Falkland Palace is a fairly tame example of Scottish renaissance architecture- probably because it's the earliest- but later examples of the style can be truly monstrous.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I'll have to look at your Falkland photos again--I don't remember any French influence.

"Scottish renaissance" sounds like an oxymoron to me, but I am clearly pig-ignorant of that part of the world.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The Scots and the French were allies (against the damn English of course) and the Stuart kings were very much at home in the French court. Mary Queen of Scots grew up at the French court and was more French than Scots. Falkland Palace is touted as the earliest Renaissance building in Scotland (perhaps in the whole of Britain) and French masons were imported to build it.