Gallivanting East of the Cairngorms

I am happy to begin this blog by stating that the weather prediction of 92% chance of rain that I had read last evening, did NOT come to fruition!  Now, how exciting is that?  In fact, when I saw the sun actually rise this morning, with a hint of blue skies, I had hope that the forecast might have changed, and although we did have a mostly overcast day, the rain was kind enough to hold off until we were driving back to our room.  You just can't ask for much more than that, can you?

We headed out after breakfast, into Banchory (pronounced Bank-oree for you non-Scots who might be interested), to attend 10:00 Mass at St. Columba Church, always a great way to begin a Sunday for us!   From there we headed east along the main road in search of Crathes Castle.

Now, let me just mention here, that there is a definite disadvantage to sitting in the back seat of a car when one is the navigator.  First of all, one cannot see the road signs.  Second of all, the driver  (my husband) cannot hear my directions.....or, he chooses not to hear my directions.  (I haven't quite clarified that yet).  All I know is that we have as yet to reach a destination without having to turn around,  sometimes more than once.   Today we were relying on a phone app that does not use Roaming, so there are no international phone charges.  It is called "Here We Go!".  And I can honestly say that is just what we did.  Unfortunately, it suggested that we turn up a road that did NOT lead to Crathes Castle as our "final destination".   That was obvious when all we could see were sheep and cows......no castle.   I did point out that I had not seen the familiar brown "Castle" sign on the road pointing to the turn, as is usually the case.  So, of course, Marty turned around, drove back to the highway, turned left, and drove until we saw the sign.  But, often times those signs just pop up, so they are easy to pass by, and then......you guessed it, we missed the turn and had to turn around. 

Of course, all of this adds to the Scottish adventure!

When we finally arrived at Crathes castle, the first thing we did was to head to the tea room in search of Scones with clotted Cream for Amy.  So far we are batting zero.  The cafe did have scones, but no clotted cream to dollop on top.  So, rather than ruin the dream in our minds, we opted to have the Victorian Sponge and a pot of tea.   The Sponge was a bit dry on the top, but still yummy enough to be enjoyed, and it was certainly filling enough to hold me off for the rest of the day until supper.

Feeling full and refreshed, we then headed down to the castle. 

You might notice a strong similarity between this castle and the one we saw yesterday, but this one isn't pink. 

But it certainly stands out as unique in my book.  In this case, there was no guided tour, but the volunteers along the way were marvelous guides themselves, explaining so many details of the house to us.   The castle belonged to the Burnett family, who lived there continuously from when it was built as a family home in the late 1500s through 1951, when it was donated to the National Trust of Scotland.  Although Sir Thomas Burnett was a Jacobite sympathizer, the castle was never under siege and the family was permitted to keep the property.    

In its later years, it served as a convalescent hospital during World War I and II, and it was fascinating to watch home movies that were being shown on a small screen in the original kitchen, featuring the nurses and their recovering patients.

The kitchen was obviously from that era

But the Yett in front of the doorway was centuries old. 

The largest room in the house had a granite fireplace surround, as well as family portraits from the 1700s, and the family crest mounted on the walls. 

This picture, hanging in one of the bedrooms, certainly intrigued me.  As you can see, looking at it from this vantage point, one sees a ship on the water. 

But view it from the opposite side, and one can see an elk.  

You might notice a cow  as well, but that is because this picture is actually supposed to show 3 different subjects.  It just so happened that the angle that I used to take the photo combined 2 of the separate subjects:  the deer and the cow.   Considering that this piece of art was centuries old, I couldn't help but be truly amazed at the novelty.

One of the very unique features of Crathes Castle is its painted ceilings.  They have been restored to their original beauty and one cannot help but admire them. 

Bible verses run along the ceiling beams with intricate paintings on the boards beneath.

It does make you wonder if people did actually take the time to stare at the ceilings!

Each of the rooms featured furniture from a past era.  Here you see a baby nursery

complete with a hand stitched covering for baby.

And here is the Laird's Bedroom, with  his high bed, intricately carved out of wood.

But what was truly amazing about Crathes were the gardens, which could be viewed from one of the upper turrets.

I think you'll agree with me after viewing some of these shots. 

One could walk for hours and still not have covered all of the grounds!

But we decided that it was time for us to move onto the next castle if we were going to complete the agenda for the day.

So, we hopped in the car and headed to Drum Castle, missed the turn off, but turned on a later road which wound back and around to the entrance of the castle.  How lucky was that?

Amy and I asked the volunteer at the desk what time the tea room closed, only to be told that it was not  open today.  Things are definitely NOT looking good on the scone hunt, are they?

But the castle was waiting for us to tour, and, once again, we had extremely knowledgable and friendly guides telling us all about this castle. 

Drum castle was owned by the Irvine family, and like Crathes, was lived in by just one family throughout the duration until it was donated to the National Trust.

These beginnings were much earlier, though, probably sometime in the early 1200's.  The square tower was actually the original structure, and the rest of the building was added onto over the years. 

The tower actually has walls that are 9 ft deep, and, only recently, secret rooms were discovered in the walls, and it is believed that one of the Irvine's, who had been a Jacobite and fought at Culloden, fled home, and was hidden in those walls for 2 years.   

Now the vast library stands in that tower and many of the books are extremely old.  The rarest book in the room is an Italian History book dating back to 1537.  

We were given the opportunity to climb up the narrow circular steps to the very top of the tower, and were permitted to walk out onto the parapet.  The views, as you can see, were amazing!

Here is a model of what the tower looks like today.  You can see all of the steps that we climbed in order to get to the top.

By now, it was 4:00, and if we were going to be able to make the drive to the Muir of Dinnet to see the Burn 'O Vat, we needed to hit the road.  

So, we headed west, back along the same road that had led us to the castles, and, despite taking a wrong turn and having to turn around (don't tell me that you were surprised to read that!) we made it to the information center at 4:55, just 5 minutes prior to closing.

Marty grabbed a leaflet, pointed out the desired trail, which was actually less than a mile long, and we began the trek to our desired destination.  

I read that post to mean that the Vat was straight ahead, and the overlook was to the right.  Actually, I had not realized that there was an overlook, but couldn't figure out  what else that symbol could possibly mean.

Within short time, we were at the entrance. 

You're probably asking yourself, "What's the big deal?"

Well, let me show you. This is on the other side of that doorway behind Amy.  We had to maneuver through a variety of rocks, with water rushing over them, to get through that passage.

It wasn't difficult, just tricky, because there was nothing to hold onto, wet rocks are slippery, and, let's face it,  balancing on rocks can be a bit of a challenge when you get to be  my age!

The "Vat" is a giant pothole some 25 meters across that was formed by glacial meltwaters some 15,000 yeas ago.  Apparently Queen Victoria herself managed to climb into this giant granite caldron.  I figured that if she could do that, then I should be able to! 

So, I just carefully watched my footing and successfully made it to the inside.  It's really difficult to capture the enormity of this pothole in a photo as the surrounds are granite, and quite vast. But the waterfall at the end was no problem.

We weren't about to climb up the sides of the waterfall, so we headed back through the opening

and back to the car park.   

Our original plan had been to walk the Muir of Dinnet circuit, but with it getting close to dusk and rain looming on the horizon, we opted to forego that idea and head to the restaurant for dinner.

Overall, it was quite a productive day: Mass, Two Castles, and The Burn O'Vat! 

The only thing missing was the scone.  But, no worries there.  We are definitely up to the challenge of completing that task!

I'll keep you posted!

Saturday's Adventure, continued.

Greetings!
Last night, it got a bit too late for me to keep my eyes open long enough to finish my blog, so I decided to get you caught up first thing.
I'm sitting here, early in the morn', next to the cracked open window, listening to horses neighing, sheep baaing (and the room next door's shower pelting against the wall,) and i just can't help but wonder, "what could be better than this?"

We are staying at the Feughside Inn, next to the Feugh River,

It sits along a quiet country road, amidst lush green countryside. I do believe that there is housing trailer park behind it,  but a row of hedges surely hides that from our view.

Last evening, we headed to the Falls of Feugh, where Salmon frequently leap upstream to spawn.

Unfortunately, the only Salmon that we saw were the ones carved on this plaque.

But, no worries, we headed to the restaurant right next to the falls, the Falls of Feugh Restaurant (clever name, don't you think?) for dinner.

There is a large dining room in the back, with a terrace for sitting outside in warmer weather, that sits right along the water.

we could not have asked for a more beautiful setting, and the food was fabulous as well. just the perfect way to end the day!

Today we head out to Mass in Banchory, then onto a couple of castles, a hunt for fresh scones, and a walk to find the Burn 'O Vat.

Updates later!

If you are reading this and missed yesterdays post, merely click on "older post" at the bottom and you'll be all caught up! (I think I might have to learn to be less wordy.)

A Sun Shiny Day in the Cairngorms

We were delighted to awake to brilliant blue skies and sunshine this morning!  After yet another fabulous breakfast, 

we bid fond farewell to Norrie and started out for a gallivanting adventure through the Cainrgorms.

Our first destination of the day was Corgarff Castle.  Now,  I don’t exaggerate when I say that this fortification is literally in the middle of nowhere.  And, in order to get there, one must cross the northern slopes of the Cairngorm plateau.

The drive was truly breathtaking……in more ways than one.  I would say that the scenery was amazing, but I decided to take the back seat in the car to prevent our daughter from becoming car sick.  Not that I couldn’t see and enjoy the beauty from my car position, but nothing makes me more nervous than when my husband decides that he must look at the view when driving.

So, here he is, driving a standard transmission, with the gear shift AND the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car than what one would normally be used to.  All while driving twisty turny roads at 60 mph…..not to mention on the opposite side of the road than what we are used to.   So, when he says, “Wow!  Look at that!” and I note that the car is slightly drifting into the other lane, my comment is generally, “I can’t , because SOMEONE has to watch the road!”

So, that could explain some of my breathlessness.  Although I did manage to absorb some of the amazing beauty along the way.

After some white knuckle moments, we finally arrived at our destination.  And let me say…..it was actually quite a disappointment.  The online brochure featured a beautiful, white bulwark, surrounded by a  white, star shaped fortification,


And, here’s what greeted us when we arrived.

We decided that since we had traveled all this way, we would still pay the fee for the self tour through the building.  When we popped through the door and startled the volunteer, we agreed that he probably doesn’t see many people peaking their head through the door.  In fact, we watched one couple arrive, look at the building, read the information sign, jump back into their car, and drive away.

Even the sheep seemed to question just why we were there.

  

But you know us, always up for something different.  So, we toured the building, which took all of about 25 minutes.

And, here’s a quick synopsis.  the castle was built by John Forbes as a tower house in 1550. It was burned down in 1571 during a clan fight, and, again, in 1689 by Jacobies, and in 1715 by Government forces.  

In 1748, the castle was converted to military barracks when the flanking pavilions were added in an unusual star shaped enclosure.  It has been restored to represent what it would have looked at in that year.

We walked around the building, took some shots,

then loaded back into the car to continue our windy adventure through the Cairngorms to Kildrummy Castle Gardens. 

The brochure states that this is one of Scotland's hidden secrets, and let's just say that we can definitely agree with that statement!  We maneuvered our way up a long road to the Kildrummy hotel, turned around, and drove back towards the road, entered again, stopped and read the sign that stated that entrance was through the Hotel, only to learn that tickets are to be purchased near the bottom at the little tea shop.  

No worries.  We are used to having to back track.   And, once we were in the gardens, it was obvious that it was worth the effort. 

The gardens are actually built in a quarry that was left behind after the building of the castle. 

They are privately owned and get no funding from the government, but they do abut against Kildrummy castle, which is owned by Historic Scotland.  But we opted to pay the admission to the gardens rather than the castle, and I honestly believe that the castle views were perfect from this vantage point and would offer little more by walking closer. 

There was actually a lot of up and downhill walking, and we joked that it verged on the edge of a "2 booter", but that was only due to the fact that there had been so much rainfall on Thursday, that the grades were pretty slippery and I really needed to carefully watch my footing.  

From here we headed back again on yet more windy roads and made our way to Craigievar Castle.  Marty and I had tried touring this castle 2 years ago when we had visited, only to find that it had closed early for the season, without warning.  

The history behind this castle shows that it had changed hands several times, but had never been involved in a battle.   It was originally owned by the Mortimers in the 1300s and   purchased in 1610 by William Forbes who added the upper floors and embellished it with turrets and towers.  It is said that Walt Disney used this castle as his basis for the Sleeping Beauty Castle.   

The interior contains articles that have been in the castle since the early 1600's.  The tour was fascinating and well worth the time and cost and we were thrilled to finally be able to see the inside.

There was a funny story which involved Queen Victoria visiting the castle.  She apparently showed up at the castle one day, found no one at home, and decided to wander through the place until a servant found her.  Unfortunately, the young servant did not recognize the queen at the time, and you can well imagine the outcome of that circumstance!

The only disappointment regarding the day, was that I had promised Amy that we would have tea and scones at the castle, as nearly every castle that we have visited has had SOME kind of tea room where Marty and I would partake in a brief respite with a scrumptious treat.  Unfortunately, this castle did NOT have a tea room.  So, I asked the woman who gave our tour if she could recommend someplace, and she suggested a wee shop in Lumphanen.  

We were there in short time and had no problem finding it as it was literally the ONLY shop anywhere near our travels.   

The experience was absolutely delightful! The place is run by a single, older woman,  who welcomed us as we entered, told us to have a seat, and she went about making a cheese toastie for another customer while getting a set of tea ready for another couple.  We patiently waited until she was finally able to take our order, a good 15 minutes later.  She was really quite entertaining and I will say that we definitely were enjoying the REAL Scottish experience.  We ordered the Earl Grey tea, and lemon drizzle cake (as the scones were all gone for the day), and I can tell you that it was delectable. 

Tea was served in these lovely English Bone China tea cups.

When we left, we told Rosalind, the proprietor, that her Lemon Drizzle cake had been scrumptious, and she commented that she had been concerned by the taste because the middle had sunk after baking.  But we all agreed that only added to the deliciousness because that area sucked up even more of the lemon drizzle! When we walked out of the door, we knew that we had just experienced a memory that would last for some time.  And, really, that IS what gallivanting is all about!

I've much more to share, but it's getting late and we have an early day planned for the morning.

So, for now, I bid you goodnight and look forward to sharing tomorrow's adventures, which, really, should NOT involve any crazy driving!