Castles in the Cairngorms

The morning began with a fabulous breakfast in the breakfast room offering a lovely view.

This was the "Continental" Breakfast choice. 

Apparently people on the Continent can have some delightful breakfasts!

After our pleasant meal, we hopped in the car and headed out early to Balmoral Castle which is about 9 miles away, but the drive takes about 20 minutes.  My goal was to avoid as many tour buses on this narrow road as possible.  Early is always better, and it worked out quite well for us. 

The weather was a bit brisk today, and I'm grateful that I packed the wool liner to my coat, because I definitely needed it!  Braemar has the recognition of being the coldest town in Scotland.  That does explain the chill in the air.

Balmoral Castle is the Highland Retreat for the Royal Family.  The Queen visits from late July through late October, so the castle is only open to the public from April through mid-July.

 

Actually, let's say that the Castle Grounds are open to the public.

 £10 gets you onto the estate, where one can walk around at leisure, but there is only one room in the castle open for viewing. It is a very large drawing room, with wood paneling and many photos on the wall. A couple of display cases feature items from Victoria and Albert, and there were 6 dresses, one from each decade, that Queen Elizabeth wore at various events. They were pretty spectacular.  Unfortunately......no photos were permitted. 

Because this is the Queen's vacation home, the gardens are designed to bloom when she arrives, which is in last July.  There are very large rose gardens.....but none in bloom yet.  I'm not quite sure how they can control the blooming time of a rose. Since Roses tend to continue blooming through the summer,  this aspect of gardening confuses me.  The point is.....we didn't see one rose.

But, there were some other beautiful gardens to view. The flowers are grown in such a manner to assure plenty of various types to make up arrangements while the Queen is in house. (or should I say....in castle?)  Flowers adorn the interior daily.....at least that is what the audio guide stated.

This spectacular  castle was built by Queen Victoria, and Prince Albert was personally involved with planning the gardens.

This was Victoria's favorite retreat, and she and Albert spent many summers with their children on the estate.  It's really easy to see why she would enjoy coming here to escape the London dirt and heat.

There are very large vegetable gardens where the produce is harvested to serve in the castle.

The view of the castle from the gardens is beautiful.

The river Dee runs along the estate grounds.  Salmon and trout are fished from the river.

We spent several hours walking the grounds and enjoying the beauty of the surroundings.

One interesting fact of which I had been unaware was that Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip are both descendants of Victoria & Albert.  Their great-grandparents were siblings, and Albert and Victoria are  great-great grandparents to both.  I never realized that they shared the same lineage.

We finished our tour walking along the River Dee to get to the car park, and began the drive back to Braemar in what appeared to be perfect timing, as we passed several tour busses headed to Balmoral.

Our next planned visit was to Braemar Castle. 

One might think that this would be a disappointment after visiting such a grandiose estate as Balmoral, but our experience was quite the opposite.

We LOVED this castle!  It is community owned, as the locals did not want to risk losing it when the owner decided to sell it many years ago.  The castle was lived in until 1950, and the volunteers have been working hard to keep it preserved.  

We paid £6 to enter the castle where we were greeted by an extremely entertaining tour guide named Betty.  I can't tell you how much fun we had as she took us from room to room, explaining the history that is displayed in each.  

She began with the basic history:  Braemar Castle was originally built by the Earl of Mar in 1628. 

It's history included being burned during the Jacobite uprising,  rebuilt and used as a garrison until 1797, then taken over once again by the Earl of Mar, 10th Lord of Farquharson.

This castle consists of many turrets, and we began by entering up a set of stairs to the first level.

The first interesting thing that Betty pointed out is that the the turret steps lead up to the left rather than the typical up to the right. Apparently Lord Farquharson was left handed, and it was easier for him to maneuver the stairs in the opposite direction.   Pretty clever, don't you think?

The first flight was built with a couple "trip" steps, where the rise is slightly higher, so that an invader running up the steps, "trips" due to the slight difference. 

Betty took us through nearly 30 rooms in the castle, each decorated with furniture that had been donated to the castle. She explained that when the castle was sold to the community, the owners took all of the "good stuff", as she put it, with them.  So, there were only a few items originally left in the place.  But, local people donated many items of historical significance, and as people find items in their houses that have been squirreled away, they offer it to the castle to display.

Each of the bedrooms on the corners had a turret attached, and were set up with a desk, or vanity table.

Can you see the "curve" to the door to this room?

The curved door leads to the room of the "Black Colonel", a Farquharson who originally burnt down the castle.  The room is noticeably colder than the others which Betty told us is supposed to be because it is "haunted" by the Colonel.  People claim to have seen his face on the bedpost and smell tobacco smoke in the room.  It was funny to see Betty tell the story, because it was obvious that she found it all to be just a bit of hoopla.

The drawing room was large and inviting.

  The dining room table was set up for entertaining.

 The windows  offered a spectacular view of the sheep in the fields.  They were original, with wide sills,  and some of the shutters had "graffiti" markings from soldiers who had carved their names into the woods when the castle was a garrison in the 18th century.

The place was just brimming with history of the locals, as well as Royals, who used to attend the Highland Games on the Braemar estate.  There were photos of Queen Elizabeth enjoying the fun year after year.  This place has been buzzing with activity for centuries.

Betty was brimming with enthusiasm throughout the tour, and the next thing we knew, an hour and a half had passed before we walked back out the door!  I'd say that we got our money's worth.

One last significant landmark here in Braemar.

The front of this cottage holds an engraved plaque that states that Robert Louis Stevenson lived in this house while he wrote Treasure Island.  We learned from Betty that he actually wrote the first 18 chapters here and that the names of the characters actually came from the school ledgers in the town.  

Apparently the man was so popular here in the town, that his wife got tired of answering the door for people who wanted to see her husband.  So, when they knocked at the door and asked for Mr. Stevenson, she would tell them that he was not there, he was in Edinburgh.

In the meantime, Stevenson was out in a back shed, writing the book.  He had named the shed "Edinburgh".  So, when his wife mentioned that he was in Edinburgh, she wasn't lying.

Clever, don't you think?