It's only a Model

Doune Castle near the picturesque village of Doune, is a 14th century courtyard castle, that sadly, was never completed. It's well known for being the setting of the movie...Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The entry gate and into the courtyard was used for the Trojan Rabbit scene, the servery and kitchen was used for the scene where Sir Galahad the Chaste was chased by seductive young girls and the Great Hall was where the Knights of the Round Table did their song and dance routine. Finding myself alone in the Great Hall, I did break into dance singing 'spam-a-lot'

The marks on the wall are from cooks sharpening their knives

The wood oven

John wondering...about wood ovens or seductive young girls

There is an audio set with the tour done by Terry Jones, one of the Pythons, which has excerpts from the movie. Very entertaining indeed.
A well spent couple of hours....

A Night in Callander

We had been recommended a stay at Callander Meadows Hotel by John's cousin. It was very well written up in Tripadvisor and they had enjoyed it very well, so off we went.

By Day

Sadly, the owners were not home that day but we were looked after very well. They are well known for their good food so we booked a table and hoped for the best......we were not disappointed.
We started with a Smoked Lamb salad which is quite unusual, don't see a lot of smoked lamb,..... beef, chicken, salmon, and fish,.... yes, but lamb ...no.

Super

Then I had a piece of Scottish Salmon on a bed of pureed garlic mash with a citrus touch which was a bit weird. But the salmon was yum.

John had a very expensive piece of Scotch Fillet, which he said was the best steak he had ever had in Britain, so I guess it was worth it. Looked good, cooked to perfection for the old boy.

We finished our last night in Scotland off with a walk up the road to the Waverely for a night cap. The place was jumping with baby boomers sitting down at tables listening to a 'rock band' playing old, old hits. Dancing on their seat, also weird. We stood at the bar and wiggled with a whisky and contemplated our next move ......The Lake District.

By Night

First a good sleep in our 4 poster bed.....Night night

Enroute to Callander

We leave Inverness and Billie & Stephen, too much fun had here. We take a slow drive passing through Pitlochery again. This is our fifth stop in this pretty little town and it has rained on each and every occaision.

Still they have very good pies, fine wool shops and very attractive seagulls.

It's close to the water and we found this chap fishing in the rain.

 Very relaxing...

Peas in a Pod

Like father, like son. They had a good time together

Two little sillies, out for a good time, and found it!

Abandoned

We found this poor little baby seagull abandoned outside our house. Seagulls are in plague proportions in Inverness and they are huge. Leave your car parked long enough, and it will be covered in crap. So no one would be interested in rescuing it, however, it's distressing to see.

Cawdor Castle

This castle has the reputation of being the most romantic castle in the Highlands. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens and was so interesting we spent nearly 4 hours here. It's about 10 miles east of Inverness and was built around a 15th century tower house and has been added to as the centuries have gone by. That sounds really old and it is!

The most amazing thing about this castle is that it is still inhabited by the Dowager Countess Cawdor. She is the 2nd wife of the 6th Earl Cawdor, who sadly died 20 years ago and left her the property. She is the stepmother of the 7th Earl who lives in London. She lives here 6 months of the year and the other 6 months, it is open to the public to wander through. It is funny to wander through the bedrooms of such an old place that has somewhat modern telephones on the bedside tables and a copy of 'The De Vinci Code' in the book shelf. It has a huge renovated kitchen that was re done in 1971 with modern fittings and a dishwasher and the old kitchen downstairs for contrast. it was fascinating.
The Dowager is 69 years old and practically runs the castle herself. She does all the ordering of food for the café, even waits on the tables! She spends most of her time here, even when she's living 2 miles up the road when the castle is open.
She also has an integral part in planning the gardens. She goes to the Chelsea Flower Show each year and steals ideas for new plans. This ball was built from slate tiles taken from the roof when it was refurbished in 2009

 

 

A further selection from the walled garden.....

Hang on..
What's that up in the sky?
Christ... it's the sun...

A perfect day,

The interesting thing is, when the Dowager dies, nobody knows what will happen to the castle, wether it will close or remain open. One assumes it will pass to the 7th Earl, but will he be interested?

Long live the Dowager....

Sunset on the River Ness

One could spend all night doing this, but it is so pretty....