Farewell Arran...Greetings to Traquair

 We awoke to this brilliant view this morning

Yet another day of brilliant sunshine in Scotland.  How lucky is that?

After breakfast, we checked out of our hotel and headed to the Brodick-Ardrossan Ferry line.  When I booked the ferry, the first two time slots had no availability, so I had no choice but to schedule the return for early afternoon.  

But, after the conversation with the "darlin'" director in Ardrossan on Tuesday, we decided to head to the ferry terminal early to see if we could get on an earlier ferry.  We were told to drive into the standby line, and as they began to load countless cars and trucks into the ferry, I had just about given up hope of being added to the queue when we were directed to drive into the ferry.  And, they even managed to squeeze in a few more cars as well as a large truck in behind us! 

Simply amazing!  I was so grateful for the advice earlier in the week, because it made our trek across this beautiful country much less stressful.

In the meantime, we sat outside and watched the ferry pull away from the amazing island that we had visited for three days.

55 minutes later, we were unloading onto the mainland, and making our way across Scotland.  Our destination was Traquair house.  There isn't a direct route from west to east, so we had to travel along stunning country roads and enjoy the scenery along the way.  

In fact, we just so happened to spot this castle not far from our destination.

It was quite obvious that this would be the scene of some spectacular event, as there was a carpet rolled out on the grass, and a grand white tent set up on the grounds.  I'll surmise that some lucky bride and groom are going to be hosting tomorrow.  Hope this glorious weather holds out for them!

After about two and a half hours, we arrived at our destination, Traquair House.

Now, I'll admit, this is not our general mode of accommodation.  But, when I was planning the trip, I was looking for something convenient, that would get us close to Edinburgh for the final leg of our journey.  I was having a difficult time finding a room that would suit, when Traquair house popped up.  I asked Marty what he thought about staying one night in an ancient home, and he thought it was a great idea.  So, I grabbed the Pink Room while it was available. 

The housekeeper greeted us at the door, and led us up the original stone curved steps, to the second floor, down the hall, behind a locked door, to our bedroom for the night. 

As you can see, it is definitely a spacious room.  It was apparently originally Lord Traquair's room, and there is an 18th century trompe l’oeil over the fireplace. I'll admit, I had to look up the definition, and learned that it is an artistic term for the look of a three dimensional object on a two dimensional surface.  

I find it amazing that it has lasted in this condition for so many years. 

The room came with a complimentary bottle of beer, made in Traquair's own brewery, as well as tea and Scottish shortbreads for our enjoyment.

And it has a lovely view of the maze in the back of the house.

That will be tomorrow's challenge. 

Because we are guests, we are able to walk around the house and view the rooms inside, but before we attempted to do so, we needed some refreshment!

That's millionaire shortbread, made on the premises, and it was delicious!

We popped into the brewery that is perpendicular to the house.

In the 18th century, it was common for large houses such as this one to have their own brewery.   But by the early 1800s, there were so many commercial breweries in the area, that it wasn't feasible for the family to maintain their own.  So, it was closed up and the area actually became a collector of a lot of unwanted family items.  

In 1965, when the present day owners were undergoing a huge clean up in order to open the house to the public, they were surprised to find all of the original vessels had survived.  So, he decided to restart the brewery, and it has been producing its own line of product since that time. 

We will be able to investigate the rooms at our leisure tomorrow, before the general public is invited in, but we did manage to check out a couple today.  Marty purchased a book on the history of Traquair house to help understand some of the items in the collections preserved here. 

This is considered to be Scotland's Oldest Inhabited House, having been occupied for over 900 years.  

It began as a defensive tower but in the 1500's, the lairds of Traquair transitioned the house into a family home. John Stuart, 4th Laird of Traquair was appointed captain of the Queen's bodyguard to Mary, Queen of Scots.  He hosted her when she visited Traquair with her husband and son, James in 1566. Apparently the cradle where she rocked James is one of the possessions in the house.  

You better believe that I'll be hunting down that item tomorrow!

In the early 1600's the main building had been extended, and the 7th Laird added a top story.   The 2nd Earl of Traquair, John, was a strong Catholic, along with his second wife, Lady Anne Seton.  Although it was dangerous in that time period to practice the Catholic faith, they were determined to raise their five children as Catholics.  

Tucked on the top floor, in the back of the house, is a small room that would be used as a chapel.  There was a bed for a priest in the room, and, in the corner, is a cleverly disguised set of stairs hidden behind a bookshelf. 

It was a potential escape route for a priest, should it be necessary. 

The opposite corner of the room held vestments that date back to the 1600's!

I don't know about you, but I find that to be pretty amazing!

There is a museum room on the top floor, and we need to really delve into it tomorrow, but I did spot these rosary beads, originally belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots.

Just to get you up to date on the history, the house as it stands now, was completed of all renovations by 1695. No major renovations have taken place since. 

When the previous owners were renovating some of the rooms for repairs in 1965, they were surprised to find the original ceilings had been covered with plaster.  The decision was made to keep some of these beams exposed to show the integrity of the original structure. 

As you can see, just the living room holds a lot of character with so many fine paintings, and a rare harpsichord in the corner.

There are two libraries on the second floor

and that's just a glimpse of what's to come.  I'll do my best to give more details regarding the contents of this home tomorrow, after we've had more time to explore.  One could spend hours just trying to digest all of the historical items here. 

In the meantime, we decided to walk along the grounds to the road that leads to Traquair Arms, where we enjoyed a delicious meal.  

There were marked wooden posts to help keep us on track.  (and believe me...we needed some  help.)

We crossed the river Tweed on the way to dinner.

And back again, with the sun setting in the distance, afterwards.

Back on the path, we passed this friendly fella who seemed interested in our whereabouts.

Then we went through the gate, followed along a stone wall

passed through yet another gate

along a gravel path

and ended up at the bridge leading to the estate.

The walk to and from the restaurant was a little over 2 miles (actually longer due to us getting lost a few times in the woods), so we certainly did manage to get in some exercise today.

Tomorrow we plan on delving into the rooms in the house to see what special secrets they might hold.

If we make it out of the maze, I'll give you the update. You can choose whether or not your are interested in learning more about this ancient estate. 

In the meantime, I'll be able to say that I have slept in the oldest inhabited house in Scotland....presuming that I actually do!

Until tomorrow!

 

Delightful Day on the Isle of Arran!

 When I posted my blog last evening, the rain was beating against our window, and we could hear the howl of the wind deep into the night.  My weather app showed 100% showers predicted for this morning, with it becoming partly cloudy by mid afternoon. 

I was also still feeling the results of the 6 mile Glen Rosa hike that had been quite a challenge for me to complete. I was certain that I'd awake with certain body parts issuing strong protests.

But, surprisingly enough, not only were the skies clear when I awoke, but my body seemed to have forgotten about the previous day's challenge, and we were back to our original plan of hiking the Fairy Dell on the northern part of the island. 

We drove to Loch Ranza, and found the car park at the edge of the trail, grabbed my hiking sticks, and headed out on the trail.  I am curious as to how it got its name, Fairy Dell, as I could see no connection between fairies and the trail. Although there were some gorgeous vistas along the way.

Unlike yesterday's hike, which began with a gusto, this one began gently albeit with a steep incline for awhile.  

and when we finally broke out through the wooded area, I could see Castle Lochranza in the distance.

The sun wasn't yet breaking through the clouds, but that didn't diminish the beauty.

After a bit, the path changed from a road to a narrow walkway, and we soon found ourselves trekking through some marshy areas.  I had checked the ratings on the walk and it had a 2 grade bog listing. 

That certainly seemed doable in comparison to the highest rating, and we were both equipped with waterproof hiking boots anyway.  If we'd have needed snorkels, I'm sure we'd have passed on this one.

We were delighted to stumble upon some small waterfalls.  We could hear others, but the brush was so thick, that we could not see the water tumbling over the rocks beneath.

As you can see, the path became more and more rocky

and some jumping from rock to rock was necessary here and there.

Luckily, there were signposts to keep us on track.  If you've followed my blog over the years, you might recall that I have an uncanny knack for becoming quite lost in this fair country.

We were sure to stop and take in the vistas, which were continually changing due to the terrain as well as the weather patterns rolling by.

We knew when we saw the stone engraved "Hutton's Unconformity" that we were not much further from the end of the trail. 

If you are unfamiliar with James Hutton, (and I'll admit that I was), he is known as the Father of Modern Geology, having made his discoveries in the late 1700's.   His theory of Uniformitarianism involved the idea that natural processes occur at the same rate as they had previously.   When he visited Arran from Edinburgh, by studying the rock formations, he concluded that when one rock fits above another that is tilted, that is called "Unconformity", and the event implied that the earth was far older than the 6000 years previously determined at the time. This became a fundamental principle of geology and opened up an entirely new way of thinking for the geological community. 

There is a geology center located near the trail that goes into great detail about the discovery, thereby a stone named in Hutton's honor exists in memory of his work. 

Walking a wee bit further, we were delighted by small cozy white cottages along the once again flat road.

and Castle Lochranza appeared once again along the shoreline.

We had completed the walk in a little over 3 hours, which probably wasn't too bad, considering all of the boggy areas that we had to maneuver along the way.  We certainly paled in comparison to the locals who walk this path daily with their dogs.  But we weren't out to set any records, just to enjoy the day, and how fortunate were we, once again, to have such a brilliant day in which to do so!

I had scheduled a Chocolate and Whiskey tasting at the local Lochranza Distillery, for 3:15, just in case the walk took much longer than expected, but we had quite a bit of time to spare.  So, I suggested that we drive to the distillery, which was just 3 miles away, and see if they had a Cafe so that we could partake of some lunch. 

We were in luck!  We did have to wait a few minutes for some seats to open up, but before too long, we were enjoying some lunch in Cask Cafe.

I had heard rave reviews about the Arran cheese while here on the island, so I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to have a taste, so I ordered the Arran cheese sampler for my lunch. 

I paired it with the Arran Gold Latte, which contained a dram of the creme liquor made at the distillery.

and, much to my delight, it came with a luscious creme filled chocolate, also made locally.

After our lunch, we enjoyed our much needed rest after our hike, and waited for the scheduled tasting to begin.

There was just one other couple who had signed up for the event, and we were greeted by Scott, who was our tasting director. 

Scott was a delight, and made the experience a ton of fun for all of us!  

We entered the small tasting room, and each of us had a set of whiskeys and chocolates to pair together. 

I'm not a fan of whiskey, but my husband surely is, and I'll give just about anything a go if it involves chocolate!  Scott was happy to take our photo just as we were getting ready to taste our first chocolate creation. 

A 10 year old Arran Single Malt Whiskey was paired with a Passion fruit cream and  a Coffee and nut Ben Hur.  Marty and I both preferred the fruit cream, and I was amazed to find that I enjoyed the taste of the whiskey when it was accompanied by chocolate.

The second pairing was the Sherry Cask Bodega Single Malt, with an Orange Velvet chocolate and Pistachio chocolate.  Once again, we both preferred the pistachio. 

The final grouping was Machrie Moor, a peaty single malt whiskey, with a Soft Caramel & Nibbed Hazelnut chocolate and a Champagne & Ginger chocolate.  Marty and I both enjoyed the ginger connection, but I will admit that I was not a fan of the peaty whiskey.  In my opinion, the ginger made it tolerable.  

As I have mentioned, I'm not really a connoisseur of whiskey.  In fact, I've often stated that the so called "liquid gold" tastes like soap on my tongue.  But today, the first two whiskeys that I tried did not have that reaction, even before tasting the chocolate with it.  However, the third one did disappoint. 

I was quite up front with Scott regarding my lack of taste for whiskey, and he was great at understanding, and actually a bit excited that I was open minded about tasting, and actually enjoyed the first two that he had poured. 

As an extra treat, he poured a 21 year old Arran whiskey for us that sells for £125 per bottle, of which he had only a limited supply left.  I can assure you that age and expense did not affect my taste buds, because, once again, this dram left that same soapy taste in my mouth.  Not to worry, we were given vials in which to pour what we had not consumed so that we could leave with it, and Marty was more than happy to enjoy my share later. 

Our tasting fun having come to an end, we made our way back to our hotel for our last evening on this lovely island.  On the way, we stopped to admire a beautiful flowing waterway that I had spotted earlier on our drive out to the Fairy dell walk. 

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Picture perfect, don't you think?

A little closer to our hotel, we pulled off the side of the road to enjoy some wildlife antics.

and, quite by accident, we noticed the back side of the summer house that is located in Brodick Castle Gardens.  We had seen the front side and its interior, but had no idea that it hung out over a cliff to capture the views from the sea.

All in all, I'd say that we had an awesome day, mostly due to the sudden change in weather, which allowed us to get outside to enjoy some nature.  But this is Scotland.....and in Scotland, one can never predict the weather!

Tomorrow, we head out on the ferry, back to the mainland.  We've only two more days before we head back home.  I certainly hope to make the most of it!