Exploring the Sites of Scotland

Can you guess what we saw yesterday?

Snow?  Yes….but only on the far distance mountains.

Castles?  You betcha!

A man with a mattress?  Nope….and that was probably for the better anyway.

I have to admit that the arctic blast has definitely hit and the temps were pretty frigid.  

So, we bundled up and headed out early for a short drive  to Huntingtower Castle.  

This castle was previously known as Ruthven castle, and it has a unique history surrounding the kidnapping of James the VI of  Scotland (who became James the I of England) at the age of 16.  He was held there for 10 months prior to escaping, and he was not so kind to  the conspirators, including the owners of the castle, as a result of their successful plot.

The castle is very well maintained, and features a remarkable original painted ceiling.

But there is another story associated with the castle which I only learned while touring the castle,  that I would like to share with you bloggers.

This castle once consisted of two towers, one square and one L-shaped.  It was built in such a fashion as to have a "house" for two families, namely brothers, who had originally lived on the property.  The towers were separated about 3 meters in length.  If you look at the first photo, take note of the middle part of the castle where there are 4 windows, 2 on each floor.  That part of the castle was not yet constructed at the time of the story.

There was a young maiden named Dorothy Ruthven who lived in the castle with her family in the square tower of the castle.  One day, a young man came to visit, and Dorothy's mother gave him a room in the L-shaped wing of the castle so that he could rest there for the night. During the course of the evening, the story goes that Dorothy quietly snuck up to this young man's room.  Unfortunately, the maid spotted Dorothy as she entered the room, and immediately went running to Dorothy's mother to inform  her of Dorothy's inappropriate behavior.

Needless to say, Dorothy's mother was in a rage at the news, and went running up the steps of the wing to confront the couple.

Dorothy, however, realized the danger she would be in if they were discovered, so she darted out the window, ran to the edge of the tower, and leaped across the 3 meter length to the tower where her own bedroom was.  Dorothy would have jumped from just about where I stood to take this photo to the round tower that juts out.  Remember, the middle part was not yet built at that time.

She somehow managed the jump unscathed. In the meantime her mother, when her mother arrived at the guest's room, she found him fast asleep, or at least he appeared to be.  

Not quite satisfied, she ran back down the steps, out the door to the other tower, up the steps, only to find Dorothy blissfully sleeping in her own bed....alone. 

Dorothy's mother was relieved at the sight, and went off to bed with no worries about the young couple.

The next day, Dorothy and the young man eloped and, according to the legend,  lived happily every after.  No one ever said what happened to the maid.  And I'm not quite sure what "happily ever after" constitutes in Scotland.....particularly back in that time period.  In today's world, I'd say that the young miss would have made quite an Olympic long jump athlete, though!

Here's how I look at it, Dorothy probably figured that she could die from falling and possibly break her neck, or she could risk having her neck broken by her mother if she was found out. So the jump was certainly worth the risk to her, and apparently all turned out well in the end.....according to the legend.   Great story to start the day, don't you think?

After our visit at the castle, we headed to Dunkeld, a small town on the Tay, where we were surprised to find quite a crowd of people. Apparently some type of festival was going on,and we were lucky to be able to find a parking spot so that we could check out the town.

It's a charming little town that lies along the River Tay.  The National Trust bought up a series of properties in Dunkeld, and they have been well preserved.  One of the houses still holds the "ell" on the side of the building.

The "ell" is a measure of length which was used by the scots for fabrics, etc.  The Scottish ell was standardized in 1661 at 37" long.  The ell faded into obscurity with the imposition of the metric system in 1824.

"Gie 'im an inch, and he'll tak an ell"  was a famous expression back in the day.

We walked around the town, checking out some of the sites

And Marty made a little friend:

Then, we hopped in the car and headed east to Glamis (pronounced Glams) Castle.

We were awed at the site as we drove down the lane towards the car park.

                                   

Look closely and you'll see the snow capped mountains in the distance.

This was the childhood home of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.  Elizabeth was the daughter of an earl, and this is where she grew up.  She married George, who became King when his brother Edward abdicated the thrown in order to married a divorced woman.  If you saw the movie, the King's Speech,  know that is the story about King George.

It interesting to note that the royal family considered Elizabeth to be a commoner.  I can't imagine living in a place like this being very common.

Our tour guide, Linda, was fabulous.  There were only four of us on the tour, and she admittedly gave us much more information than would have normally been given on a tour.  In fact, the next tour, which would have begun 1/2 hour after our's, was right on our tail, and Linda had to keep asking them to wait just a wee bit longer.

Unfortunately, once again, there was no photography permitted in the castle, but take my word for it when I tell you that it was spectacular.  I couldn't help but smile when Linda pointed out two small wooden chairs next to the huge fireplace in the one room.  She mentioned that the Princesses Elizabeth (now the queen) and Margaret would often come to this house to visit the grandparents.  The "wee" little chairs were for them to sit upon.  Of course, they would have had wee little Royal cushions on them so that their wee little Royal bottoms would be comfortable.  Of course!

On the way out of the castle, we had some entertainment from this Highland Cow (pronounced Coo).

The clever guy was quite adept at turning his head and working his horns through the wires so that he could munch on the freshly cut grass on the other side of the fence, only proving that the grass was much greener on the other side.

After our delightful tour of the castle, our travels took us to Stonehaven, which is located right on the North Sea.  We had a fabulous dinner in a nearby restaurant.  The owner of the B&B had booked a table for us on the second floor, overlooking the water.

 Can't say much about the view since it was already dark, raining, and the moon was hidden behind the clouds.  

But I can tell you that dinner was Fabulous!