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Charlestown is a planned ‘model’ village created by Charles Bruce, the 5th Earl of Elgin in the 1750s. He conceived the idea in 1752; returned from a Grand Tour of Europe in 1756 and had ‘the plan’ working by 1759. This, so soon after the Jacobite ’45 rising.
Charles Bruce had little land comparatively, but it was rich in Coal, Limestone, and Ironstone.The limestone was needed to be burnt for lime to ‘sweeten’ the soil to reduce acidity and for the making of mortars for building and rendering. The ‘Gellet Rock’ above Limekilns is the only remainder of the original level of land. It is reckoned that 11 million tons were removed. You will see the Gellet rock in one of these caches…
Whilst in Rome, Earl Charles met Robert Adam, the (later) renowned Architect and it is thought the idea for the village may have formed there. Many know of New Lanark’s Mills and their social justice concept from 1799 but Charlestown was well established by then.
The architectural plans of all these ‘model’ villages were simple with the houses in rows. Charlestown was laid out in the shape of the founder’s initials “C + E”, around 100 houses - which you can still see today.
For it’s 500-odd inhabitants, the village had a School, Granary, Sutlery, Blacksmiths, Village Hall, Laundry, Bakery, Dairy, Inn, Salt works, Sawmill, large Harbour, Iron Foundry, Stables, Brickworks, Mills and the largest set of Limekilns in Europe.
The Earl’s house, Broomhall which stands above Limekilns and Charlestown contains many objects of art and the famous two-handed Sword of Robert the Bruce (bequeathed from the Bruces of Clackmannan in 1796). In 1771 however, Earl Charles died. His eldest son, William the 6th also died in the same year. The titles came to Thomas, the 7th Earl.
In 1798, Thomas’ health was poor, he was a bachelor and he was broke. He was however well educated and had risen through the ranks of the military to become a lieutenant-colonel at the age of twenty-nine and had raised and commanded his own regiment, the Elgin Highland Fencibles and had established a respectable diplomatic reputation acting as special envoy in Vienna and Brussels as well as Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Prussia. When he discovered that the British government was planning to send an ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople he asked for the job and got it. The warm weather would perhaps cure his ailments and it would certainly be interesting work.
He then courted and married Mary Nisbet of Dirleton, a wealthy heiress and suddenly things were looking up for Lord Elgin. He is best renowned for ‘rescuing’ friezes and sculptures from the Acropolis and Parthenon in Greece. He had gone with an Italian artist to draw and take casts of the artefacts but ended up bringing them back to Britain. These pieces became known as “The Elgin Marbles” which were in danger of being destroyed. Elgin was right. As more travellers came to Greece people were knocking noses off statues to bring home as souvenirs. Even the poet Byron who ridiculed Elgin could not restrain himself from carving his name in several columns and monuments like a modern youth with a can of spray-paint.
However, a few years later when the Greeks revolted against the Turks they began the restoration of the Parthenon and Elgin's act of 'historic preservation' began to look more like thievery.
This huge operation cost a fortune – over £75,000 collecting and shipping them (which his wife funded) some had to be recovered by divers when a ship, The Mentor, sank off Cythera island in the Ionian! When forced to sell them, he received £35,000 from a grudging British government in 1816. Since then, the Greek government has demanded them back, with the argument from the British Museum being that the Earl bought them with a ‘firman’ from the Ottoman Court. However, the firman document has never surfaced although there is an Italian translation of it in a private French collection. (!)
Lord Elgin later famously began divorce proceedings accusing his wife of adultery. This however, was after their relationship broke down after…the loss of his nose.
“While in Constantinople, Lord Elgin contracted a severe ague which consequently resulted in the loss of his nose”. When the govt. refused to pay his asking price for the ‘marbles’ he sued his wife’s lover for a high price.
Unsurprisingly, there are no portraits of him in later life. The British Museum is still constantly wrangling over the artifacts known as the ‘Elgin Marbles’.
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Co-ordinates above are for Parking, near the Phone Box in South Row. Let's walk north to The Scottish Lime Centre. This is the way to the start for ‘Charlestown – built on Lime’ and allieballie’s ‘Fife Rocks- Crinoidal Limestone’ caches.
You find yourself walking towards The Sutlery. The name goes back to the era of the village’s build. Wild West Pioneers would be familiar with it – The Sutlery comprised the team of camp followers who provided goods and provisions. The building here has the Sutlery shop on the ground floor, flats on the first and Granary at the top. The building farther up Rocks Road which looks a bit like a Mill was the School. On the South gable of The Sutlery, look up for ‘diamonds’. How many? _ (a)
Walk along east, through the little lane between the Sutlery and Scottish Lime Centre. The start of the path for allieballie’s Cache is here - this time keep to the car tracks. You’ll see the small allotments that each cottage has. They were permitted to keep a Pig, Hens, etc as well as growing vegetables. As you travel along, look at the houses. When you see The Sun, nearest number? _ _ (b)(c)
Cut through one of the little lanes into the Row and walk east around to the Queen’s Hall. The rows around the cottages are arranged in the Earl’s C + E initials. At the Hall, how many windows in total are below the highest stone ‘triangle’? _ (d)
Walk west along South Row from the Hall until the track reaches the Bleaching Green. This is where The Laundry dried their work. Continuing along South Row, look for 'Lavender Cottages'. How many? _ (e)
Pass the Phone Box and cross the road towards the Hotel.
Opposite the Hotel is the Broomhall Estate office. It’s open on Tuesdays until what time? _ (f)
Returning along the North side of the Bleaching Green, how many swings? _ (g)
How many steps do you need to take on the chute? _ _ (h)(i)
Walking east on Double Row, how many thistles in the glass on No 42? _ (j)
Pass through the gate to the left of the Queen’s Hall.
How many floodlights on its seaward side does the Bowling Green have? _ (k)
The cache is at:
N56 (c-g)e . j f [(h+i)xd]
W003 i (e+i+f) . (a+d) b k
The cache is reachable by well-defined paths. You DO NOT need to climb steep slopes - or get shot at!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
N jrr ebbg/fghzc... abg gbb sne sebz - gur ovt tryyrg fghzc!