Soaked in Scotland

Well, it appears that the 92% chance of rain that had been predicted for yesterday, caught up with us today, as it poured through the night and continued throughout the day.  But, a little rain never kept us from gallivanting, so we just made certain to put on our boots and don our rain gear as we headed to Stonehaven harbor.

Our intended destination was Dunnotar Castle.  Marty and I visited this awesome sight several years ago, but since we were so close, I added it to the agenda so that Amy could enjoy the views as much as we had.

I had accessed the web to find the hours of operation and noted that the preferred way to visit was via parking in the harbor and hiking along the cliffside walk.  The website stated that the lot was small, and in order to keep it in good order, we should hike in if at all possible, plus we could enjoy the beautiful view as we walked.

That sounded like an awesome plan, don't you think?   The weather had been sporadic rain off and on, but it seemed that we should be able to dodge a few raindrops.  After all, we were prepared!

We parked in the lot near the harbor

and headed towards the cliffside walk,

but the access from the town was not easily seen, and we ended up walking a bit out of the way prior to finally finding the trail to the castle.  But soon we were on course which became obvious once we passed the war memorial.

As we were walking along the cliffs, the rainy, misty drizzle began to fall heavier,  the wind picked up, and it was obvious that we weren't going to get a weather break anytime soon.

The views were pretty spectacular.

But it was becoming exceedingly difficult to get a decent photo as the rain was pelting and I was concerned about raindrops on the lens.

We managed to get relatively close, but the rain was coming down pretty heavy at this point, and we questioned whether or not it was worth actually touring the ruins in the rain, especially considering the cost was £7.00 per person.   We all decided that we should turn back. 

And, let me just note here that there were plenty of people who had decided to park in the lot near the castle to avoid getting soaked.  May we please go down on record as being Americans who actually do follow directions?  But, really, had the weather been more accommodating, the hike would have offered some outstanding views.

So, we took a quick photo of us standing in the rain with the castle in the background,

and began the trek back to the car.  I began to note that deep puddles had suddenly appeared in short time along the trail that required some leaping to get over.  Had they been there on the way out, I'm certain we would have turned back.  The timing had been just perfect.

By the time we reached the car park, my pants were so wet that it was obvious that I would need to change them or it would be like sitting in the bath with my clothes on.  Luckily, we were in transit and our suitcases were in the car.

I had thought that my elbow felt wet, but decided that it had to be my imagination, until I took off my coat and found both of the sleeves of my shirts to be soaked as well.  It appears that I had been holding my hood to keep it from blowing off my head, and the rain must have been pouring down my sleeves.  So, that required a change as well.   

All seemed in order until I decided to pull something out of my "rainproof" purse, and found it to be quite wet. In fact, my passport was warping, anything paper was limp and both my phone and my camera had water on them.  Well.....by THIS time, I was pretty annoyed.  Especially since I had gone out of my way to purchase a waterproof purse.

I voiced my disappointment out loud and my daughter said to me, "Mom, I'm pretty sure that they didn't think that you'd be wearing the purse in the shower when they said it was waterproof."  Good point.  And that was when I realized that she was absolutely correct.  We all DID look like we had just come out of the shower wearing our clothes.  Was it worth it?  I'd say yes.  Would we do it again?  Probably not in the pouring rain.  Not unless we had some way to dry our clothes easier!

At this point we headed to Edzell, to find a little tea shop that Marty and I stumbled upon two years ago when we were passing through.  At the time, we had enjoyed a delectable scone with jam and whipped cream, and I was hoping that they still made them so that Amy could finally get her scone of her dreams.

Let me mention here that I had stated that we were looking for clotted cream to go on our scones.  Well, it appears that what I would have enjoyed on my scones here in Scotland in the past was actually Scottish whipped cream, NOT clotted cream. And let me just mention that both are a far cry from a slab of butter. 

And,  American Whipped Cream fails miserably in comparison to Scottish Whipped Cream.  And, that opinion was definitely reaffirmed today, when the teahouse served us our scones with jam and whipped cream.

Just look at that smiling face!  Well, actually, we were all smiling at this point.  That scone just melted in my mouth!

Now that all was well with the world, we headed to Kirriemuir, the birthplace of J. M. Barrie.

Are my literature loving friends familiar with the name?  Does this give you a clue?

Actually, that statue really wouldn't be of much help to most people, so if you haven't figured it out, no worries. 

That is Peter Pan.  And J.M. Barrie is the man who penned the story of the little boy who never wanted to grow up.  

The cottage is the actual house where James was born in 1860, the 9th child to Scottish weavers.  It was noted in his museum that the day of his birth was cause for celebration, not only because he had come into this world, but also because it was the day that 6 horsehair chairs arrived for the family.  His mother had saved for years to buy the chairs, and it was the talk of the neighborhood, so people were popping in to see the newborn, but actually curious about the chairs.  Two of the original pieces still stand in the house.

Reading Barrie's life story in the museum was really kind of sad.  His eldest brother died from a tragic accident when James was 7 years old, and it left his mother with extreme heartbreak.  It is believed that he wrote Peter Pan to try to console his mother over the loss of his oldest brother.  She took solace in the fact that while her beloved son was gone from her, he would always remain a boy forever.  Thereby the making of the idea for the book.

I was actually surprised to see so many works written by Barrie in this museum.  It is believed that many of the subjects were based on people who lived in the village.  When I get some time, I really do hope to delve into some of his other offerings.  

Just a short walk from this museum is a Camera Obscura which supposedly offers an absolutely brilliant 360 degree view, featuring distances as far as 72 miles.  I wasn't too surprised to learn that it was closed, considering that we were lucky if we could see something through the mist just a few streets away!

The plan had been to enjoy some views and then head to the Miegle museum to look at Pictish Stones, which my husband is absolutely fascinated with.  It was only a short distance from Kirriemuir, and on our way to our next B&B, so why not?

But, with extra times suddenly on our hands, I suggested that we stop at Glamis, since we had to pass right by, and Marty thought that was an excellent suggestion.  Amy asked Marty if he had seen the stones before, and I had commented "not these Picticular ones", and with that, we decided to forego the museum and just make the most of what Glamis had to offer.

We arrived just in time for the next tour and were treated to a very entertaining young man who showed us through just a small part of this immense residence, filling is in on family lore and history. We thoroughly enjoyed it!

I'm not sure if you are familiar with Glamis, but it was the family home of the Queen Mother who was born there and lived there until she was 23.  In fact, she even spent some of her honeymoon in the castle, and there were special rooms made up for them for that special occasion.  Those bedrooms continue to maintain the same decor as when the Queen mother lived there, because it was her wish that if the house were to be opened for tours, she wanted them to remain decorated as she had lived in them.  It really was quite fascinating to see so many portraits and items that had been there for centuries. 

After the tour, we needed our Castle Selfie, of course.

before heading out to explore the gardens.

Which, as you can see, continue to show some extraordinary colorful blooms.

Just as we were leaving, we caught a glimpse of blue sky!

We stopped in St. Andrews for dinner, then headed to Crail, a harbor village on the Firth of Forth near the North Sea.

We were exuberantly greeted by Graham, our B&B host, and his wife Edna, and I can tell already that this is going to be a fabulous stay!

Graham tells me that the weather tomorrow should be dry and relatively warm, so I see another coastal walk in the near future as well as some fresh caught Lobster for dinner.

Not sure exactly what will pan out, but I'll be sure to keep you posted!

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.)