Like Caz I don't want to be here apart from visiting or DoD but this was a great venue. WE GOT TO TOUCH THINGS! Yes, when you do the visiting of stuff that is old then everything is usually behind a rope or glass with the sign 'do not touch' but not here.
The architecture is stunning - high ceilings and I can imagine the pomp and ceremony of old as the judges would swan in with the Macer - the Macer is the guy who holds the mace, still used to open court and may have been used in ye olden days to stop people attacking the judge. Naturally I went for the heaviest looking one to hold - I figured it would make a great weapon prior to hearing that it could be used in this manner (George III mace) and Tanya held the mace from our very own Queen Elizabeth - all mace's have been held by the monarch's they represent.
Once we'd moved on from mace then we wandered about. We saw the SSC sitting room and one of the courts. Courts one and two which had all the different entrances were sadly locked, but the current court schedules were visible to see, including this week's which included an appeal by a famous Scottish killer. We didn't do the tour of the advocates library (had been told it wasn't worth it anyway) but we did have plenty of time to wander about which was great - and of course, try the mace... read more