The Search for the Antonine Wall

After a leisurely breakfast at our B&B, we bid fond farewell to our lovely host, Laura, and headed towards the town of Bo'ness to visit Kinneil Estate.

The beginning of the Antonine Wall is located on the property behind the estate.  It was built after Hadrian's wall, by the Romans, in an attempt to lay claim to even more land.

Having seen photos of Amy walking Hadrian's Wall, I expected to find something similar, but this wall has not been preserved, probably because it never really held the property line between Scots and Romans for a very long time.

Our hunt led us to this:

I'll admit....it's not very impressive.  Luckily, the wall was not the only exciting feature of Kinneil.

A castle once stood on the grounds, belonging to James Hamilton, the man who actually ran the country as regent while Mary, Queen of Scots was just a baby.  The entire building was scheduled to be demolished in 1930 when someone found beautiful painted ceilings behind the plaster.  The ceilings were identical to the ones that are in Sterling Castle.

It turns out that James V visited here, often, with his daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots.  He loved the ceilings so much, that he had them duplicated at the palace.

The rooms are kept without lighting.  Only the light that enters through the room is available for viewing them, because light will destroy them.  So, unfortunately, I have no photos to share, but you can take my word for it when I tell you that they were very impressive.

Oh, and let me mention here, that a man named Roebuck brought James Watt to Kinneil Estate to improve the steam engine that was used to pump the water out of the coal mines.  Oh, and while I am sharing exciting historical facts...a man named Black discovered Carbon Dioxide in the area as well as Sulfuric Acid, which was used to dye fabrics.  

Come to think of it, we did pass Dow Chemicals just a mile or two from this place.  Perhaps there is a connection...

We traveled on to Falkirk where Callendar house stands.  The Antonine Wall runs through this property as well, although I had difficulty managing to see it myself. 

The house is filled with history and there were some lovely rooms, but most of the house is set up like a museum with a history of the town of Falkirk.

We decided to head to our B&B, since Stacey had a very early flight out of Edinburgh on  Monday morning.  I must say, that we couldn't beat the view from the room.

In the background, you can see Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park.  With the weather finally breaking, we decided to head out to the park and take the hike around the upper level of the mountain.

We walked along the ridge just above those yellow flowers.

We could see the castle in the distance.

How lucky were we, considering that it had rained nearly everyday up to this point?

And, how lucky is Stacey, that she is headed home, after cold, windy, rainy weather in Edinburgh to a forecast of 8 inches of snow?

But, it's a lovely day outside today, so Marty and I are going to enjoy it!

Day out in Stirling

Yesterday morning, we hiked up the hill behind our B&B which leads to a path that runs along the back wall of the castle through the woods.  It pops out just at the bottom of Stirling Castle, making it well worth the added effort of climbing upwards to get to our destination. 

Although the castle stands with  the original walls and structures, the inside has undergone a major refurbishing  with the National Trust making every effort to duplicate what the interior would have looked like in the time of King James IV.  While walking through the grandiose rooms, ladies-in-waiting and pages greet the visitor, and give one an idea of life in that time period.  

We were admiring tapestries in the King's Greeting Room that were on the wall, when the guide mentioned that they were copies, and that two more were being made to complete the collection, so that the room would stand as it had been when James IV would have been greeting important officials.

I inquired about the original tapestries and was quite surprised to hear that they are displayed in New York City's Metropolitan Museum. Once purchased by the Rockefeller family, they were donated to that museum.

I find it kind of crazy that  the National Trust is paying to duplicate tapestries to showcase Stirling Castle in its original grandeur while the originals are sitting in an American Museum.

I'll leave you with some photos that I took while walking through Stirling:

Above, the Wallace Monument stands in the distance.

And, we managed to get in some fun photos when Stacey wasn't looking.

Stacey would say that we were being ridiculous.  But, hey, we should be able to have some fun, don't you think?

The Beauty of Fife

We bid farewell to Kirkcaldy this morning headed to the destination of Kellie Castle.  With atlas in hand, google directions in my lap, and Marty behind the wheel, we managed to find the place, back a long drive, off a very narrow road deep in the countryside of Fife.

We walked to the entrance, only to find that the castle didn't open until 12:30.  We decided to take the little nature walk around the castle, and head to the tea room, which opened at 10:30.

Along the walk, we discovered this very clever idea of a "Bird Hide".

Inside that ivy covered structure is a long bench and on the opposite side of this photo is a window, only partially covered with ivy, where one can peer out and catch a glimpse of the birds fluttering to and fro.

Stacey was very excited about this, and she was able to take several photos of various birds as they came to the feeders.

All of these were taken through the little openings in the window of the hide.  Is this a clever idea, or what?  Of course, it helps that there were just the three of us and no one else traipsing through the woods to scare the birds away.  So, we were actually quite lucky to show up so early.

Well, come to think of it, this place is pretty remote, so I'd find it difficult to believe that throngs of people would show up there.

After admiring birds for about 20 minutes, we decided to head to the tea room, where we were greeted by an extremely friendly woman who was so excited to meet someone from America!  She just thought our accents were so lovely!  Once we spotted the fresh, home made scones, Stacey and I had no doubt what we would be partaking. We placed the order for the scones with butter, jam and cream, and ordered a pot of tea.  

The woman went to the table where the scones had been fresh baked, and we watched her picking through the stack on the plate.  Finally she says, "I'm tryin' ta find the biggest ones for ya".  After she picked the perfect scones, she said that she would take them back and fix them up for us.

That photo doesn't do the scone justice.  Stacey and I called it the King of Scones.  It was filled with butter, jam, and a very thick layer of whipped cream.  All on a freshly baked fruit scone, which was so tender that it melted in your mouth.  I should stop before you start drooling onto your computer.  

By this time, the castle was open, and we could tour through the house, whose last owners were the Sir Robert Lorimer  family.  Two of the sons were quite famous, one of them, Hugh, being an architect, and the other, Robert, a rather famous painter.

The castle was filled with all kinds of interesting items, and it even included a small chapel that the Sir Robert  had installed in the one turret, after they converted to  Catholicism.  No photos are permitted of the inside, so, unfortunately, I cannot share the beauty that we were able to admire.

 The gardens were spectacular, and besides being ornamental, we spotted many plants that were growing to be harvested in the summer. I must have counted half a dozen varieties of rhubarb alone.  I had no idea that there were so many types.

Our destination for the day was Stirling, but I had planned one more stop for the day, which was kind of on the way.

Once again, we found ourselves traveling along small country roads, admiring the spectacular beauty of the Kingdom of Fife.

Marty stopped by the side of the road, so that Stacey could get a couple of shots of sheep.  There had been two cute little lambs, munching the grass by sticking their heads through the fence, but once Mama spotted us, she gave out a large BAAA which obviously meant "Get over here , NOW!", since the little lambs frolicked away before she could get a photo.  

Thank goodness for the National Trust of Scotland Brown Signs, or we would never have found this gem among the hills of Fife.

It's called the Hill of Tarvit, although I can't say that I know the history of the name.  This beautiful manor home was built in 1906 by a man named Schwartz who had made his fortune in Dundee in the Jute Industry.

He had a huge collection of antiques, and he wanted a place to showcase them.  So, this lovely house was constructed  with each room built to reflect the time period applicable to the antiques in the room.

It was designed by Hugh Lorimore, and many of the inside features reflected the interior details of Kellie Castle.  

This house stands out in the lovely countryside of Fife.  We walked down the road to admire the beauty of Ceres in the distance.

And, as if this isn't stunning enough, add to it sheep grazing in the field with the view of the town in the background, 

and you just can't help but be overwhelmed with the beauty of it all.

It was time for us to journey to Stirling.  With the rain falling rather heavily, it took us much longer than expected to reach the destination of our B&B.

We were warmly greeted by Laura, the owner, who brought us tea and tasty treats upon arrival, even though it was after 6:00 p.m.

What you see is Stirling Castle illuminated at night.  I took this photo while walking back from dinner to our B&B, which, by the way, stands at the foot of the hill of the castle.  So, while I am writing this, I can look straight up and see the back of the castle.

Now, if that isn't "cool", I don't know what is!

A Day for Celebrating

The weather today was pretty crummy.  But, the day was certainly festive.
Today is Stacey's birthday, and we set out to have a grand time in Edinburgh.

After riding the train in from Kirkcaldy, we walked through Princes Street Gardens on the way to Edinburgh's New Town.

The trees were budding and the flowers blooming, which offered a festive sight despite the gloomy weather.

Once in the New Town, we headed  to Charlotte Square where we toured the Georgian House which was  built in 1796.  The 3 story townhouse was decorated  with authentic items from that time period.

I was amazed to see the beautiful hand embroidered bed curtains, complete with sewn-on cut-out flowers, that had somehow survived over 200 years.  The colors were still brilliant, and one would be hard-pressed to find any wear in the fabric.   Amazing!

Once again, the staff proved to be very informative and entertaining. I just never cease to be amazed by  their enthusiasm . Every one of the National Trust properties that we have visited have had volunteers who have been welcoming and eager to share Scotland's history.   Touring these places has just been so much fun!

After perusing the 3 story house and hearing the history on each one of the rooms, we headed out towards the Balmoral Hotel for High Tea.

This place is truly grand, and the staff treated us like royalty, even offering to take our photo.

As you can see, we had three tiers of goodies to consume between the two of us, and, believe me, we enjoyed every morsel.  Actually, we had the shortbread cookies boxed up for enjoyment later, as we were just way too full to even consider a bite more.

We kind of waddled out the door and headed over to Old Town Edinburgh so that Stacey could check out the statue of Greyfriar's Bobby.

It was beginning to rain pretty heavily at this point, so we decided to walk through some shops, then head back to the hotel on the train.

Dinner was at Dunnikier house which was, once again, Fabulous!

I feel so blessed to have been able to share the day with Stacey.  I'm sure that this is one birthday that will not be soon forgotten.

Walking through Aberdour

Today, Stacey and  I hopped the train and headed to Aberdour, a quaint little town just a few stops from Kirkcaldy, where the oldest stone castle in Scotland stands.

I had toured the castle there in January, and knew how beautiful the area was.  As we walked through the castle, the rain began to pour, and suddenly, we were feeling hail stones.  That seemed the perfect time to stop into the tea room for a Cream Tea.

The original plan was for us to have a pot of tea and share a scone with fresh Scottish butter and home made strawberry jam.  But, when we went to order, the young lady pointed to the oven and mentioned that the scones would be just a few minutes as they weren't quite finished baking.  That's when we quickly changed our minds and ordered one each.  And, believe me, it was absolutely the right decision to make!

By the time we finished our cream tea, the raindrops had finally disappeared.

We headed to walk the Coastal Trail, and as luck would have it,  the sun broke through the clouds, making the walk quite comfortable.

We walked  past those houses that you see in the distance to discover this view:

Look straight out and you will see Inchcolm Abbey on the island in the Firth of  Forth, which we had explored on Sunday.

Just around the corner from those cliffs, we could walk out onto the rocks and I was amazed at the blue color of the Firth.

We climbed up a path to the top of the cliffs where I was able to take this photo of the town nestled in the distance.

Even though the sun was shining brilliantly at this point, the wind was still whipping by, causing quite a chill along the coast, so we decided to board the train back to Kirkcaldy.

Beginning today, Kirkcaldy hosts the oldest fair in Scotland, having been in existence for over 700+ years.  Stacey and I decided to walk down to the waterfront to see exactly what the fair featured.

We were pretty amazed to see full size amusement rides, one after the other, for most of the esplanade in Kirkcaldy.  I liken it to taking rides from Kennywood Park and putting them next to the firth.  We couldn't believe it when we saw a full-fledged flume ride, complete with log boat to ride in, as well as roller coasters, haunted houses, merry-go rounds,bumper cars, etc. The only thing I didn't see was a Ferris Wheel, but they have plenty of comparable rides that offer a similar type of ride, but with more thrills involved.  Nothing I'd be interested in seeing.

From my room window, I can see the arm of one of those rides sticking way up in the air above the rooftops in the distance.  I'm glad our hotel is a bit away from all of that activity!

One thing I noticed while walking along the firth with Stacey was that the water was actually lapping up and over the sea wall.  I had never seen such activity in the firth.

My friendly weatherman, Ernest, tells me that there is an unusual weather front over the United Kingdom.  "You must imagine a huge merry-go-round turning anti-clockwise," he told me. 

Well, that probably explains the white caps on the water.  Mother Nature must want to compete with the Kirkcaldy Fair.  I can tell you this much.  I'll be staying away from that kind of excitement for the rest of our trip!  

Dodging the Raindrops in Edinburgh

We went prepared for rain and we were surprised to see the sun, but not for several hours after our arrival in Edinburgh.

The castle was bustling with many tour groups, so the experience was not as pleasant as we would have liked.  But I somehow managed to get a lovely photo of Stacey without any unknowns lurking in the background. 

After leaving the castle, Stacey and I walked through a store where one can watch the tartan plaid being woven by machine below.

It was fascinating to watch these mechanical looms take spools of wool and quickly produce a tartan plaid.  The place was filled with so many different colored patterns to choose from.

As soon as we left the building,  raindrops began to fall, and we decided that this was the perfect opportunity to enter the "Whiskey Experience".  In case you didn't know, Scotland is world renowned for its Whiskey, probably because with the nearly year round cold damp weather, one needs a little something for warmth.

It certainly was an interesting tour, with us being transported through the distillation process in an "oak barrel,"  watching the barley and water being mashed, the yeast added for fermentation,

the heating and the distilling, and, finally, traveling past  barrels of aged whiskey on the wall.

We both agreed that the experience was rather "touristy", but, hey,  it got us out of the rain, and, aren't we technically tourists?

Plus, the sample that we tasted at the end really seemed to warm us up.  Or, could it just be that the temperatures actually did get warmer?   Either way, it seemed that we were much happier upon exiting the building. And isn't that all that really counts?