It's summer in Scotland today

Monday 16th July

Scotland, here we come. Another long drive today, for the first 200k on the motorway. Boring!

Once we actually crossed the border into Scotland at Carlisle, we got off the motorway and headed towards our first Scottish castle, Caerlaverock Castle. This castle is unusual in that it is a triangular shape. It is actually now a ruin, but has information boards about each area of the castle. I said to Rob, 'this would be a fabulous cubby house'.

Living quarters added in 16th century.

Odette warming her tootsies again.

Caerlaverock Castle - the tower on the right is one of the triangle points;
the tower on the left has been destroyed.
This castle dates back to a siege by Edward I in 1300.

From there our aim was to follow around the Ayrshire coast for the scenery, but the traffic was so heavy and it was getting late in the day, so we took a shortcut to trim 100k off the distance, and missed the coastline. We didn't get to our hotel till 6, so it was a long day in the car.

Tuesday 17th July

Today has been about family history, more specifically, Rob's maternal grandfather Muir. We travelled up to Dalry where he came from and visited the church - apparently there has been a church on that site for over 400 years.  We found one Muir headstone in the churchyard, then visited the cemetery where we found about a dozen Muir headstones. We have no information about any other family so these may, or may not, be related.

Dalry kirk.

The first Muir headstone we came across
was actually in the church grounds.

From there a visit to Craighead Farm just out of Dalry where grandfather Muir was born. No one was home but we phoned the owner and got permission to take photos. He also told us that there was a painting of the farm in Dalgarven Mill which we were passing on the way back to the hotel.

Home to the Muir family back around 1900s.

The old farm sign, hidden in the trees.

The painting of Craighead Farm, Dalry, Scotland.

Still bears resemblance to the old photo Rob has,
which was taken back around 1900.

We stopped at the mill for lunch and had a fabulous conversation with the ladies in the tea room about places to visit and things to do. I could have listened to that lovely Scottish accent all day. They loved to talk so Rob had some competition.  They found the painting for us and we were able to take some photos.

One more visit on the way back to the hotel - Culzean Castle. The top floor of this castle was actually gifted to Eisenhower after WWII as a thank you for what he did to save the country. Now the Eisenhower apartment on the top floor is an exclusive hotel.

Culzean Castle, Ayrshire.

View from the castle walls down to their private beach.

Just one of the fabulous weapons displays in the armoury.
They had lots of different weapons displayed in patterns like this.
One of the biggest and most complete armouries in the world.

The oval staircase.

The kitchens - apparently not part of the tour until recently
when they found people did have an interest in 'below stairs'.
There is a separate exit from the kitchen just for the staff,
so the hoi poloi don't have to see them. 

 

Looking back to the castle from the road on the way back to the hotel.