The Scots were able to defeat the British and the castle was later surrendered. With their victory that afternoon, Scotland was able to proclaim Robert the King of Scotland. The parliament sat, independent of the British parliament, until the 18th Century. The crowns of England and Scotland had earlier been joined under James Stuart (VI of Scotland and I of England) the century before.
James' descendent (I believe his grandson, but I could be wrong there), Bonnie Prince Charlie, let the Scots in the last battle at Culloden in 1746. There, the Duke of Cumberland with the help of some of the Scots ended Charlie's dreams to be King. Here's a picture of the battlefield:
In 1884, a farmer built a cairn to the dead Stuarts at the battle site, which is pictured below. I was amazed that one man would go to all that effort so long after the fact.
I'd guess that very soon the Scots will get their independence from England without a shot being fired.
It's also one of the centers of Scotch production - I think there were about 10,000 distilleries there. OK, that's an exaggeration, but there were still quite a few. We went to the Strathisla Distillery
and wandered around a bit. They didn't let us take pictures inside, so you'll have to go there to see the whole process - it took about an hour to tour the place (and they gave us a taste afterwards!). It's quite interesting seeing how grain and water get turned into whisky.
Also nearby is the Isle of Skye - it was raining heavily when we went to the Isle, so we didn't get out of the car much and I didn't really find out much about the place. It did seem very pleasant and remote and you've got to love the name of the place. The new bridge is quite an engineering marvel.
Here's a picture of JD on a bridge in the Isle of Skye.
