Bright and Sunny Day in Ayrshire

How awesome was it to awake to this?

By the way....don't you just love our room view?

We are on the top floor, which does mean climbing 2 flights of stairs, both with a curve at the end, but it is certainly well worth it.  Plus....I feel like I'm getting some much needed exercise to work off the treats I've been enjoying!

Breakfast was in this lovely dining room.

Our B&B hostess is delightful and we have really enjoyed our stay here.

After our delicious breakfast, we decided to walk around a bit to check out the area, since it was dreary and raining when we arrived yesterday.

We headed for that lighthouse

saw a wee cute dog along the way

as well as some fish seeking fowl

a boat getting ready to enter the Irish Sea,

and an stone of some sort.

The weather was quite pleasant. What a difference a day could make!

We are staying in Ayr, and only a few minutes up the road stands the Robert Burns Museum.  As Marty has become a sudden fan of the man, and this area is filled with references to his life, of course that was first on our list.

We parked in the lot next to the cottage where he was born, and headed along the Poet's Path towards the museum.  

The path has interesting markers along the way, each depicting a scene from a famous poem of Robert Burns:  Tam o' Shanter.

If you aren't familiar with this poem, (and I certainly was not), the storyline deals with a man named Tam, who, against the wishes of his wife, goes to the local pub and gets very drunk.  

He rushes on his horse towards home

and passes the local church, which appears to be haunted with witches and ghosts. 

I'm not sure if you can quite make out the ghosts and goblins.  There were several scenes for the poem along the path as well as a Fox, representing "On Glenriddel’s Fox Breaking His Chain", written in 1795 by Burns

and a giant mouse taken from Burns' poem "To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough", written in 1785, based on his own experience of the event.

I'm thinking that if you came across a mouse of that size in the field, you'd be running the other direction!  Not writing a poem about it! 

The museum interior was loaded with all kinds of fascinating information that included originals of many of the poems that Burns had written in his short lifetime.

I found it to be very cleverly presented.  

One thing of interest is the difference in the language as Burns wrote his poems in Scottish.

Under each of the poems that are quoted, there are definitions of the words that are not common to today's English language so that the reader could grasp what Burns was saying.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time going through the contents of the museum, but one thing of note was his father's original bible, where the date of his birth is documented among the pages,

as well as the bible that Robert Burns used to write in the births of his own children:

And a genealogy chart

"The chart suggests that there was some philandering going on, but that is something that was never mentioned when we were in Dumfries." 

Obviously, Tom o Shanter must be a favorite poem of Burns because there was more than one reference on the grounds:

there were these two statues, bantering in a room:

And, the Brig a Doon, which is also mentioned in the poem.

And, there's the testimony to Marty's love of Burns:  holding a collection of his poems while wearing his new Scottish hat.  Doesn't he look like he fits right in?

And the old kirk that was actually a ruin during Burns life but is part of the story itself.

As the day was glorious, we took some time to walk around the grounds.

Which took us to the birthplace of Robert Burns, known as Johnnie Souter's house.  It was here that Robert lived his first 6 years prior to his father purchasing a farm and moving the family.  Note the thatched roof that still adorns the house.

Here is the kitchen, which also held the bed in the corner.

and hanging above the bed were 4 white gowns embroidered with the names of the children who had been born in the house.

Personally, I found this far more eerie than the Tom o' Shanty story!

Since it was such a lovely day, we headed south along the shore, towards Culzean Castle.

We had visited there years ago, but the castle itself was closed at the time, so we decided to make the short trip today.

The interior, as you can well imagine, was quite grand.  This castle had been a holding of the Kennedy clan, and in the late 1700's, it was remodeled by Robert Adam who was a famous architect in his day, making many changes that have stayed in existence to the present day.

There were tall columns between the floors and a double staircase

Above which is an oval roof,

decorative friezes

 and stunning ceilings

and some very unique items among the various rooms that we could visit.

The first room we entered had weaponry hanging on every wall!

 There was a dinner gong

and an organ

an interesting display of china with various queen faces

a rocking cradle in the shape of a boat

the servants' bells

and the Eisenhower room.  Eisenhower had used Culzean during World War II as a base for operations.

The Scottish government was so thankful for his help in winning the war, that they gifted him his own set of apartments on the top floor of this castle, to be used at his leisure.

Probably the most interesting item in the castle (well...at least to me) was this once real alligator that had been shot by J.M. Barrie (of Peter Pan fame), and gifted to the Castle.  It was used as a walking stick holder.

There was a little boy putting his hands all over the alligator and the guide had to ask him to stop.  

Then, the guide, looking quite serious, but obviously joking, told the boy that the reason the barrier was around the alligator was because once, a little boy had been touching it, and the gator snapped the boys' foot right off. Then, the parents blamed the National Trust for the fact that their son would never be able to play Rugby due to losing his foot to the alligator. 

I don't know about you, but the guide's quick thinking really gave me quite a chuckle.  I'm not so sure that the little boy felt the same though.

We took advantage of the beautiful weather and walked around the grounds a bit:

and stopped for a cuppa before heading to the walled garden for a quick peek.

There weren't a lot of flowers, but certainly some very unique and stunning varieties.

On the way back to Ayr, we drove down to Dunure for a quick look.  Driving down the road, the castle ruins are quite obvious.

There is also a very small harbor.

and some lovely views.

By now it was time to call it a day, so we headed back to Ayr, and out to dinner.

And.....I ordered dessert!

And yes......it was delicious!