What a Fun Day in Scotland!

Well today certainly was a gem!
We checked out of our hotel and headed to Gatehouse of Fleet, a quiet pristine village located on the River Fleet.

This village as it is known today was a planned community that was developed in 1760 by a wealthy land owner named James Murray. The intent was for this to be an estate village for Murray's new home just south of the village. He built a tannery, brewery, and four cotton mills.  One of the mills still stands today, and it holds a very informative museum that details the history of the mill as well as the village.

There is a very large diorama that shows just how the streets were laid out back in the last 1700's.

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and walking along the streets, it is obvious that this village still stands the same today, except for the operational mills.   At the time, Murray had hoped to compete with Glasgow regarding trading of cotton, but due to its remote location, that never succeeded.  But the mills were not put to sleep, after cotton was not seen as a viable source of money, the mills were set up to make bobbins.

And, sometime after that, the town allowed brick making to help with employment.

You must admit, the mill certainly makes a picturesque scene along the river Fleet, and really is the perfect venue in which to set up a small museum.

The information boards were well presented, explaining a variety of different subjects related to the village and surrounding areas.

One of the boards detailed just how one builds an adequate stone wall that I have mentioned flow all over the countryside here.  We have driven through other areas where the walls have been crumbling and falling apart, but in Dumfries and Galloway, the effort has been made to keep these walls looking beautiful, and when one is seen to become crumbling, a team of professionals will go in and repair to its original structure.  This explained the perfect nature of these walls as we were driving around.

In the middle of the village, there stands this old bank, which appears to be a residence of some sort.  

Walking through the arch, we came across a very lovely garden.  

And on the corner, just at the end of the village, was a war memorial that featured a celtic cross.

Across from this memorial, I spotted a sign that showed an arrow pointing down a road indicating a scenic lookout in that direction, that would include a picnic table.  We decided that would be very cool to check out, so we walked back to the car, made the left in search of this lookout.  Keep in mind that this was a brown arrow sign, typical of a Scottish heritage site,  pointing in the direction we were driving.

But within short time, we came to a fork in the road with absolutely no indication as to which road to take.  Luckily, Marty had looked at an information board that had mentioned a relatively new look out point, so he picked the road to the right.  We drove for nearly 3 miles, spotted another sign, that really didn't point to anything, and continued on until we were driving over a cattle grate, and lo and behold....we found the lookout!

The views over the countryside were amazing, despite the cloudy rain cover.

We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere with no one around.

Well...pretty much no one...

How awesome was that?

We decided to continue our journey and we stopped at Cardoness Castle located just outside the village.

We knew it was closed for touring for the season, but we stopped by to capture a photo before continuing on.

We were driving a coastal route, and this particular area of Dumfries and Galloway holds a number of castle ruins.  Next on the tour was Carsluith.

We were driving along when we noticed a sign pointing to the named castle, just across from a parking lot, and something that looked like a castle.  Generally, these signs give you at least several feet warning before you need to make the turn, but this one offered no warning.  Marty whipped into the lot, and there stood a castle, but there was no indication that this was a Historic Scotland site, and people were outside eating lunch on tables of a little cafe right at the foot of the castle.  And, to make matters worse, all of the signs indicated that parking was private and strictly for customers of the cafe.  

My Here We Go App was directing us down the road another couple of miles, so we decided to follow that advice, and once again, we found ourselves on a dirt road, driving along the coast, crossing a rickey bridge (while I held my breath), and ending up at crossroads that gave us the option of driving up someone's driveway or continuing on a grassy slope that looked like it would fall into the sea.  

Neither option appealed to us, so, once again, we turned around and made the drive, ever so carefully, back in the direction from which we had come.

When we got back to the main road, we followed the route once again, only I noticed that in THIS direction, the castle signs gave much more warning.  So, we made the turn once again, and this time, Marty decided to drive around the back of the building, pass all of the NO Parking signs, and there was a small parking lot, but no signs or indication that this was an HES site for visiting.

However, once inside, it was obvious that we were at the right place because there was an information board naming the castle in question and stating the many details.

This is yet another tower house, similar to the ones I have featured previously, which was built in 1560.  We were able to once again climb the steps nearly to the top.

Where we enjoyed the lovely view over Wigtown Bay.

It was a bit cold and blustery, and there was no sign of sun, as you have probably noted.  But the views were still awesome to see.

Once again, this was a relatively quick visit (despite the detour)  and we headed out to Creetown for a wee peek. I had read that there was an interesting clock tower and war memorial in the village, so we headed here shortly after leaving the castle.

It was easy to find the parking lot.  It was right next to the clock tower.

And caddy corner to the clock, standing right next to a bridge with stone walls was the war memorial.

With no sidewalks to guide us, there really wasn't a safe way to check it out closer, so we jumped back in the car and headed towards Newton Stuart.

Our thought was to head to the information center in that village, but we soon found out that the Visit Scotland Information Center no longer existed.   But I did get a quick photo of this war memorial featuring a cross, standing in front of a very interesting building in the center of town.

From here we began our trek across country, heading outside the Galloway forests towards the west coast.  The drive was just amazing.  I don't have photos to share but the trees were turning the loveliest shade of yellow and orange. And when there wasn't forest or trees to drive through, there were rolling hills, scattered with sheep, cows and horses, separated by miles and miles of stone walls.  Honestly....the stuff artists put on canvas.  Simply stunning.

We finally made it to the west coast when it began to drizzle.  Our next destination was Turnberry Lighthouse, and thanks to some kind sole on a Scotland Facebook page, we had absolutely no difficulty finding the parking lot from where to start our walk.  (When I had used google satellite, this fancy entrance was not there to aid me.) 

We parked the car and donned our rain gear, as the drizzle had quickly turned to much more!  And this is when I made use of the special plastic protector that my daughter had given me for my birthday strictly for this reason.  Well...I'm certain that she didn't expect me to just toss my purse into that bag, but I didn't feel like taking the time to remove the items that I needed from my purse, so I just popped the whole thing in.

It worked great!  Marty and I got thoroughly soaked....but my purse stayed dry!  Awesome!  Thanks Amy!

Here you can see the lighthouse in the distance.  If it looks blurry that is because it was raining when I took the photo.

Finally, we made it to the lighthouse!  We had watched, from a distance, a man playing a bagpipe walking to the lighthouse in the rain. Look closely and you'll spot him.

Here we are.....successful in our venture!

The views are awesome, and probably would have looked better without the rain.

But hey....this is what we got!

In the meantime, I decided to use the ladies' facilities and I was amazed at the interior of the bathroom, so I took a photo.  Pretty opulent, don't you think?

Better yet, there was a window that looked out to the front, and I knew that bagpiper would be walking by, so I waited......and waited......and waited.  Finally, he walked in front of the window and I took the photo!  Perfect!

Little did I know that Marty was waiting outside....in the pouring rain....wondering what could possibly have happened to me.

Oops!  My enthusiasm got the better of me.

We were soaking wet but happy as clams and began the walk back to our car. We hadn't gone far when a hotel van pulled up and the door opened. Two lovely young ladies were sitting inside and offered us a ride.  I told her that I really didn't want to get the inside of her van all wet, but they insisted, and so we popped inside.  I don't think the driver was thrilled, but they blew that off and we had a delightful conversation, part of which featured the plastic covering on my purse.  They really did laugh and find it to be quite an amusing story.  

It turned out that they are event planners and would be hosting a very elegant affair at the lighthouse later this evening.   The weather had been perfect all day and had only turned just about the time we showed up.  But it did calm down an hour or two later, so, hopefully they had a successful venture.

In the meantime, let me just mention that it certainly was extremely generous of them to offer us a ride, particularly when they learned that we were not even staying at the hotel.   We thanked them profusely and they bid us fond farewell as we exited the van looking like soaked rats.

You do have to admit.....we do have some interesting adventures!

We headed to our B&B, wondering at what beauty was hiding in the mist as we drove along.  Finally the clouds lifted, and I must say, we are certainly staying in an awesome location.  I do hope that tomorrow I'll have some great photos to share.

In the meantime,  another day of adventure awaits!

Dumfries & Galloway Adventures

By now you probably realize that if we are out gallivanting, chances are that some sort of adventure will have been in the works.  And, today was no exception.

We began our day with a visit to Threave Castle, which appeared to be relatively close to our hotel, so getting there would be no issue.....right?

Marty had decided to use google maps to find the destination, and so we headed out following those directions, made a left when told to do so, and found ourselves driving down a narrow road which really isn't all that surprising.  We could see the castle in perfect view looming right ahead of us, but the road curved to the left and google said to go straight and we were now in what appeared to be some sort of field with a stone wall separating the field from another.

Now, I must say, we actually have been in similar circumstances in the past, and those have been legitimate locations, but what was nagging at the back of my mind was that there hadn't been any signs for the castle.   So, although we could probably have thrown a stone and hit that castle,  it was fairly obvious that we were not at the correct location, so we turned around and began the drive back to the main road, turned left to the A road, and within a mile we saw the sign to turn left for the castle.    So, all's well that ends well.....right?   And, I just have to say....that farmer who owns the property has one heck of an awesome view everyday!

And, what is really kind of funny is that once we were at the correct location, we couldn't see any sign of a castle in the distance!  We had to walk quite aways before it came into view.

The path takes you to a dock, where you ring a bell for the care taker to come over in a boat to bring you over to the castle.

Now, how cool is that?  (Ok, perhaps we entertain easily.)

The young man was extremely friendly, handed us life jackets, and helped us into the boat for the short jaunt across the River Dee. 

Once across, it was very easy to see the farmer's house whose drive we had encroached upon a little earlier.

I told you he was close to the castle!  

But here we were, on the island with the castle standing stately before us.

Archibald the Grim, built the castle in the year 1369 after he had recently become Lord of Galloway. It was a 5 story house with storage on the bottom floors similar to the tower houses we had already seen.  And we were able to climb up a couple of levels and take in the view of the amazing countryside.

As you can see, this was once quite a commanding structure.

At one point it had an active harbor, and boats were able to to row right up to the outer structure in these inlets that were built just for that reason.

The castle was ordered to be destroyed during the Covenanters' war so that it could not be used again.   It's last use was in 1640 and it was never repaired again.  

After we finished touring the castle, we headed back into the boat for the return trip across the river, but not before the guide took us for a quick trip up the river to see a giant Osprey nest in a tree in the distance.  Heading back towards the dock from upriver, I took this shot of the castle.

It certainly was a fun adventure, and we headed back to the car park along the trail that we had hiked on the way out.

It was really a delightful walk.

From here, we headed to Threave Estate and Gardens.   The castle is actually part of the Threave Estate and was part of the property when William Gordon bought the land back in 1867.

Gordon was a wealthy businessman with a very large family, and he was in need of a summer house that would accommodate them.   So, he bought the land and hired well known Edinburgh architects to design the house.

The house is built from red sandstone that came from a quarry near Dumfries, and it was built in a Scottish Baronial style according to the wishes of Gordon.

The house itself can only be toured at certain times on certain dates, and today was one of those scheduled, so we found ourselves entering the house with Lois as our main guide today.  

Now, let me just say that Lois obviously loves her job and has an overwhelming desire to not only fill in every detail, but also, to add a lot of speculation to those mysteries regarding the family.  She reminded me very much of a tour guide we once had at Kellie Castle, who actually had visitors sneaking out of the tour after an hour just because they couldn't handle one more detail.  

But there were only 9 of us on the tour, so we were in for the entirety, which took a complete hour and a half.  In that time we visited a grand total of six rooms.  When Lois would ask if anyone had any questions, I would grimace and hope that no one would respond.   I knew it wasn't just me who thought this was going on too long when another attendant pulled Lois aside and gave her the time, to which Lois responded, "Good heavens!  Where has the time gone?"  

I'll spare you the details and just post some photos and a bit of commentary.  You can thank me later.

The entrance to the house is actually the ground floor of a turret.   What makes this room particularly interesting is that the windows and the doors are all arched because it is a "round" room.   It featured a very bright and interesting tile floor and a "faux"  mantle piece that replaced the original granite one when Gordon's daughter-in-law, Kitty,  decided to "lighten up" the place a bit.

Note the curved ceilings and the beautiful staircase.

These are fresh flowers that had been picked by the staff who makes up fresh arrangements from the estate gardens every couple of days.  I was impressed. 

Another interesting feature were the staircase spindles.  I just loved them, and was happy to see that Kitty had the foresight to keep them in their original state when she was remodeling.

This was the main sitting room.  It had been dark, but Kitty had it painted and added light curtains and a red carpet to the room.

There were numerous artifacts in the room, but I will only post a few of them:

This pillow was one of two in the house.  They were made after the war, from soldiers' uniforms. The flowers represent the 3 regiments represented in the family:  English, Scottish and Irish.  

There was a painting of Gordon's son (Kitty's husband.)

And painting of William Gordon and his second wife. Interestingly enough, we were told that these two paintings were only discovered a little over a year ago and have only hung on the walls for that amount of time.  It certainly does make one wonder where they were all of these years.

These two were busy documenting every single item in the place for the National Trust.   I think even they were amazed at just how much Lois knew about every single item herself!

This is the one and only fireplace that Kitty kept in its original state.  It stands in the dining room, and I found the granite to be quite lovely.

One of the most unusual features that I noted was the curved windows.  

and the views of the gardens outside were stunning.

Don't you agree?

It really was a pretty house with an interesting family history but you certainly don't need all of those details!

But one of the many facts that I heard today really surprised me, and that was the fact that in 1947, the death tax was 80% in Great Britain.  So, the last owner of the house, Alan Gordon, who had no heirs and wanted to see the home preserved for the future, granted the house to the National Trust of Scotland.  In doing so, he spared the house from certain ruin upon his death.  He used the money savings to make improvements and to set up a trust to be certain that the house and estate would continue to be preserved for the future. 

It appears that his efforts have not gone unheeded.   When the tour was complete, we took a quick looked at the walled garden that is on the estate as well.

There weren't many people about so it was definitely a relaxing and beautiful walk.

From here we headed to Kirkcudbright (pronounced Kir coo bree), to Broughton House, another National Trust House.  We were actually both relieved to see that we did not need a scheduled tour to go through the house and we could amble through at our own pace.

Once again, this house has a fascinating history.  Unlike Threave House, which stands on a huge estate, this house is located on a street in Kircudbright.  It is a Georgian style house that belonged to the Scottish artist, Edward A Hornel.   I must admit that I knew nothing of this man prior to visiting his house, but what an interesting story behind the artist!

Hornel was born in Australia in 1864, but his parents moved back home to Kircudbright in 1866. He was recognized for his artistic talent at the age of 19, and in 1901, he purchased this house and added on a very large room strictly to display his artwork.   His studio was in the back of his house, on the lower level, and he had the  upstairs room designed with a trap door that he could open in order to lift his very large paintings up into the room for display.

The room was very large with a vaulted ceiling and along the far wall stood this mantlepiece.

But the remaining walls were showcases for his paintings, most of which represented young Scottish maidens

or Japanese ladies, whom he incorporated in many works after spending time in Japan for several years.

This photograph of the original certainly does not do it justice, but I wanted to share it anyway so that you can get an idea of this man's talent and style.

On display downstairs are his artist palettes, preserved under glass.

But the man was more than an artist, he was also a lover of wildlife and nature, and so he designed an amazing garden in his backyard.  

I was just amazed at how long this garden was!  It seemed to stretch forever in the backyard!

All in all, it was definitely worth making the trip to see the works of this man as well as the beauty of his gardens.

From here we took a little walk around town

and stopped into a cute coffee house that had these cushions on the seats.

I couldn't agree more.  So we did.....only this time it was a mega scone with jam and cream!

Perfect!

Afterwards, we checked out the new art museum that features artists from Kirkcudbright.  

It actually just opened in July and I'd say it was very well done!  Well worth stopping into if you are the artistic type.

I'm sure that you will agree that by now, we'd had a pretty full day, so we headed back to our hotel in Castle Douglas.

When I booked the room here, I had read that this town is considered to be a "food town", but last night, we couldn't find much evidence to substantiate that.  But, today, Marty found a relatively new restaurant called Mr. Pook's Kitchen.

It is located in an old bank that Mr. Pook, himself, refinished.  The interior is definitely well done, and the atmosphere was quiet and very sophisticated.   Marty walked over to make our dinner reservations,  and was thrilled to tell me that he had met Mr. Pook himself!

As you can tell, he was VERY excited about this food adventure!

Mr. Pook came over to our table to greet us as we were the earliest arrival for dinner, having chosen 6:30 PM as our reservation.  We later learned that we were the last accepted reservation for the evening.  How lucky was that?

Mr. Pook is not only the owner, but also the chef, and he cooks in an open space visible to all sitting in the restaurant. 

After we ordered our dinners, we were brought some hearty bread with this lovely garlic/rosemary butter.

Isn't it pretty? I almost hated to cut into it.

Then, much to our surprise, we were given these complimentary Truffled Mushroom Cappuccino cups.

Delectable, to say the least.

Then came our dinner:  Pan Fried Plaice Fillets with Chard, white wine and cream sauce.

I'm not much a fan of fish, but this was absolutely delicious!

Afterwards, a complimentary peach sorbet with crumble.

Tart and refreshing.  And, we couldn't resist trying the newest addition to the menu:  Spotted Dick with Drambuie Ice Cream and Vanilla Custard.

The perfect ending to our "foodie" adventure.  How wonderful that Marty was able to find this place just a few blocks from our hotel!

Tomorrow we move on, and it's probably a good thing, because if I stay here, my pants surely won't fit much longer!