On the 8th of September Struan and other people from Islay High School went on a swimming trip with the Dolphins to the Argyll and Clyde competition. There were five swimming teams there including Dolphins. Struan beat all his PB apart from his back stroke. The highest place he got was in breaststroke which he got 5th, the person who 6th was about 7 seconds behind. It was his first time doing 200 meter IM which means you do all the stokes two times including butterfly. He got 15th that. It was fun.


On Wednesday the 14th of September, P6/7 from all the schools on Islay and Jura went to Stirling Castle. We had to walk up a small hill just to get to the castle. When we got up to the castle we had to go into the middle of the courtyard. Then we got told by a tour guide just to go up to the main hall and wait until the woman came and told us to follow her and then we went into the grand hall. We were told that the grand hall was used for when the king was having his dinner. It was also used for dancing and it was used for the servants to sleep in. Then the woman took us over to the palace. The palace had two rooms in it. One room held all the people that the king had requested to meet. But the king only picked some of the people to meet in the other room. If you were very special you got to meet in his bedroom. The queen had the same thing two rooms and a bedroom. Then we got to go into a room when we got to dress up as characters from Mary queen of Scots times and Robert the Bruce. Then we went back to the bus and we drove off to the Bannockburn centre
One of my favourite parts was going to Blair Drummond Safari Park so that’s what I’m writing about today.
After a long day on the bus we got to the youth hostel had our dinner and back on the bus, but this time we went to go to the AMF bowling.
When P6/7 were in Stirling we went to go and see Stirling Castle and when we got there it was like wasp heaven, there were wasps everywhere. When we went into the castle we went to these wee rooms and we went in for about five minutes in the rooms. There was one that was very fun it was like a dressing up room I was dressed up like a queen. Then we went into the Kings room and it was all empty the reason that it was empty because the King did not get to live in the castle he died when it was just about finished. Then we went into the Queens room and then we met two men and one of the men were talking to us about the castle and the other one was playing a lute. After that we went into the outer room and people went in there to speak to the King after we went into the inner room only the important people got to go in there. After we had been through all of the rooms we went to the learning room and we had to get changed into a dress and we had to tell if we were in Mary Queen of Scot’s times or her fathers times and I was in Mary Queen of Scot’s fathers times and then after that we had our lunch. Then, sadly we had to leave. I really enjoyed Stirling Castle and I would really want to go back.
P6/7 of every school from Islay and Jura went on a stirling trip. On the first day of being in Stirling they went to Stirling castle and Bannockburn. We visited Bannockburn because a famous battle happened there. The battle was between King Edward the second of England and Robert the Bruce. Robert the Bruce defeated King Edward the second. We visited the site of the battle and stood in the same spot that Robert the Bruce had put his sword through a rock. We found out a lot about the battle like it took place on the 23rd june 1314, it was Robert the Bruce against King Edward the second of England. There was a 3D place where we had to wear 3D glasses, the glasses made the battle look realistic. It was actually just a screen with videos of what the battle would have looked like. I stood in front of an arrow as it was being shot and it went through my head. I also got shot in the arm and the leg. There was also famous people from the battle from the English side and the Scottish side. To work the people you would stand on a grey metal plate that was in front of them then they would start talking to you. Then you could wave your hand and find out more information like where they lived, what weapons they used and who they were. After that we played a battle game where we all got split into two teams and had to fight against each other. One team was the Scottish and one team was the English. We would take it in turns and if we were an archer we could shoot move or attack. The English were trying to reach Stirling castle and the Scottish had to stop them. I was in the Scottish team and the Scottish team won. We had a great time and hope to visit again.

