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!