Puffs of hogweed buzz with wasps. Vibrant dog roses quiver in the soft breeze. The stone slab sits in the leafy shade, its inscription hard to read. This is the spot where blood was spilled nearly 500 years ago, when Mary, Queen of Scots surrendered to an army led by the Confederate Lords, a group of Scottish Protestant rebels. Sometimes you see bouquets here, left in remembrance. It was summer when she was defeated, after her third husband, Bothwell, fled the battlefield, so perhaps she, like me, saw cheerful patches of herb robert on her way up here. Did they make her smile too, in the midst of loss?
The view from Carberry Hill sweeps down towards the glittering Firth of Forth; I see clouds glowering over Fife, and green and yellow fields dotted with pylons. Much about this land has changed, but look at a map from Mary’s time and you can see that settlements like Cousland exist now as they did then. You can even glimpse Fa’side Castle, where the queen rode out from on that fateful morning.
