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he would have loved the large rooms so spectacularly decorated with furniture down through the centuries the great room was fun to imagine as the place where all of the action would have taken place dances and get togethers of one kind or another maybe meetings there were fancy bedrooms with imposing furniture a lovely place setting and dinner table with a crystal chandelier of over 5 000 crystals private sitting rooms a smoking room a library etc everything you could wish for your castle furnishing needs i liked the library too it holds over 2000 volumes in it and two turret nooks perfect for following the sunlight and being able to read i didn t go up on the roof though that was an option the spiral stair cases were narrow and you only had a central handrail to hold onto which is to say there weren t rails on the wall just this one vertical rail and with my cane and bad foot i didn t want to walk up another stair case which would mean i d have to come down again overstretching my torn achilles anne did go up to the roof and said the views were especially remarkable but that i really didn t miss that much we stopped in ballater for lunch it had started to sprinkle so i was glad i had my raincoat i wanted to eat at fish shop but when i checked google it had multiple signs indicating it was expensive up to 60 for one person so i nixed that idea and popped into the balmoral bar instead this was much more my vibe a typical pub but with lots of windows so it wasn t too dark inside the rain poured as i enjoyed a delicious fish and chips peas were so so and a glass of coke zero with ice i always think i want a pint to go with my fish and chips but then i never order one anyway the fish was perfect and while i was inside a man walked in with his dog who was very well behaved i noticed on the wall there was a rules sign for pooches three barks and they re out but this dog sat hopefully waiting for someone to drop their chips crathes castle once we were back at the bus the next place on our itinerary was crathes castle it s a handsome looking castle and i did go inside to look at the kitchen and the downstairs servants area but my foot was not up to walking the steps so i made my way out to the gardens they have walled gardens that you need a code to enter this is to prevent random dog walkers and nonpaying visitors from going inside and after a brief call to mom i entered the midgies were out but i didn t let them bother me a tree at crathes castle in the walled gardens crathes castle topiary chock full gently misted flowers the gardens gave off their heavenly scents i walked from place to place finding new to me blooms and little spots to sit and enjoy the afternoon spritz but eventually i wandered back to the gift shop of course and bought a few little things to bring home including what i thought were caramels but turned out to be some weird vanilla fudge i did not care for we went back to aberdeen to spend the night and i worked on homework for a little bit then i crashed early sunday morning i chose to take breakfast in the hotel i saw anne and wanted to sit with her but she didn t invite me so i kept to myself the full scottish breakfast consists of tea toast bacon sausage beans charred tomato runny to my mind eggs black blood pudding yuck and mushrooms they also had cheese and croissants but i stuck with toast ate some slightly dry cheddar and a big portion of sauteed mushrooms the robust tea woke me up and the orange juice while not cold was definitely pulpy and strong i had been running on time but something didn t agree with me and i had to duck into the bathroom for a bit too long i know tmi so by the time i got down to the reception desk i was a few minutes behind and in trying to check out i managed to leave my cane somewhere of course i didn t realize i was missing my cane until i got to fyvie castle which i loved by the way and had to walk a long distance without it possibly fyvie castle or is it the back of crathes in fyvie castle we actually had a guided tour and it made all the difference from the self guided tours of the other castles our tour guide was bright informative and very enthusiastic about the castle she knew everything and could answer any question a person might have fyvie castle is known for its portraits by henry raeburn a famous 18 th century scottish portrait artist who painted many of the people who lived there the castle also has many richly decorated rooms with heavy red velvet curtains and red wallpaper it even has a nursery and a governess s room on the same floor which apparently demonstrates the status the governess had with the family instead of being in the servants quarters she had her own little room the fyvie castle is known for being visited by king charles and camilla and for holding weddings in a room that has a true player pipe organ with huge pipes and everything apparently the songs are printed on scrolls with littles holes in them and where there is a hole a note plays fyvie castle pipe organ fyvie castle also boasts a couple of ghosts one is the ghost of a happy beloved dog who died rather tragically and the other a more mysterious ghost is known as the green lady there are little felt green lady dolls all over the castle and our tour guide mentioned that they tend to move the green lady they think is the ghost of first wife of the earl who lived there who wasn t particularly pleased that her husband married someone young and pretty who gave him children she even apparently scratched something on the window ledge of her husband s bedroom i looked at it it wasn t clear it was a word or phrase it could have been anything to be honest maybe scratching from the claws of a large bird after fyvie we moved on to elgin for lunch where i stopped in an out of the way pub known as thunderton house a sign on its wall outside reads that thunderton house was formerly the great lodging of scots medieval kings re built by alexander 1 st lord duffus c 1650 prince charles edward stuart stayed here in 1746 prior to culloden i was intrigued by the history and the offering of a sunday roast i obviously didn t have a reservation but there was a table for one where they squeezed me in sunday roast was delicious it offered braised carrots some peeled potatoes fancy cabbage curried mushy peas which tasted divine best mushy peas i ve had in all of scotland and a vegetable wellington this would be a mixture of root vegetables wrapped in a pastry with blue cheese sauce on top of all that they offered sticky toffee pudding a scottish favorite and it quickly became my favorite too i had often wanted to try sticky toffee pudding but i don t usually get dessert only this time it was part of the lunch i cheerfully could give up all desserts but sticky toffee pudding it is something you must try one day we spent the afternoon driving to the culloden battlefield and then to the clava cairns standing stones over 5 000 years old culloden was the site of the 1746 jacobite uprising which ended badly for the scottish it is a great field with high grass and you can feel the solemnity there it s quiet and i do want to say there s a holiness there but actually it s just a big grass field had it been a bit drier i might have gone wandering in the grass but i chose to go to the café instead i found a pepsi max they were out of coke zero and i made do because i believe drinking it will shave off a few years from purgatory for me and looked around the café to find a place to sit this time anne invited me to join her and we both talked about having been to culloden before and what we thought about the tour etc anne who will turn 60 in july had been really kind to me throughout the tour constantly checking up on me because i moved more slowly than the rest of them she was very afraid she might have overstepped her boundaries but actually it was quite nice i felt cared for and seen i even gave her my phone number and email in case she wanted to get together while i was in town so far i haven t heard from her but she might contact me yet clava cairns the bus tour guide rounded us up afterward and we went to the clava cairns which i ve also seen multiple times they re interesting but they are just stone mounds off the road anne told me she loves them and i tried to look at them through her eyes but i think by then i was really too tired to appreciate seeing the stones anew still i took a few pictures then wandered off to find a tree stump to sit on for a few moments we drove to our accommodation in nairn i stayed at the glen lyon b b which was charming and my room was teeny but the bed was soft and comfortable and i went to sleep early clava cairns standing rock cardhu distillery stills the last day of our tour we stopped at cardhu distillery i had also visited there before when i took rabbie s speyside whisky tour but it was nice to see the mash tuns and copper stills again this was especially nice because cardhu was in their summer break so the still room wasn t hot as hell i love the smell of malted barley and whisky it smells of honey and earth you can almost eat the air and at the end of the tour we tried a flight of cardhu whiskies and a whisky highball with ginger and johnny walker the cardhu workers were kind enough to deliver the whisky to me instead of my having to go up a windy spiral staircase to get to their tasting room i wasn t feeling very well so it was nice that i could find a comfy seat and have them cater to me after drinking three drams and a highball i was a bit tipsy so it was a good thing we still had to drive to one more place blair castle the seat of the duke of atholl the 11 th duke of atholl john murray lived with his wife in south africa they weren t exactly rich in fact they had been arguing over whether to buy a second hand car or take a 2 week vacation with his wife favoring the vacation but anyway he didn t know he was the heir in fact he was a second cousin once removed from the 10 th duke and when the 10 th duke died with no issue apparently the office of the deeds and titles called murray and said something along the lines of we have great news you re now the next in line to be the duke murray thought it was a prank call and hung up the office called back and said don t hang up but we want you to know you re the new duke after a few choice expletives he hung up on them again desperate to communicate they called back one more time and this time the wife answered they instructed her not to hang up too and then told her that her husband was now the duke and would have access to a castle and lands as far as the eye could see he would have his own private army and he would have 250 000 000 and that s when his wife called her husband over and said listen to this guy and don t hang up the duke of atholl was charismatic and helpful to his community and he gave much of his wealth away he became ill though and spent the last few years in a care home in south africa the 12 th duke of atholl and the murray s other children weren t too happy with the philanthropy but that s my little historical lesson about the atholl dukedom blair castle home of the duke of atholl as for the castle blair is a fairy tale white monstrosity but also a beauty with turrets and little spires the grounds have a deer park as well as trails and flowers including a 9 acre walled garden i went to look for the deer first but they were all crowded at the other side of the paddock under some trees and then after phoning mom to check in i went into the castle the very first room you go is deep dark wood with hundreds of various weapons on the wall because it s the entrance and they don t want people impeding entry you re not allowed to take pictures you have to wait till you go upstairs on the bridge and take photos looking down but it is impressive to see all of the weapons the various dukes collected next you re led into a hall of antlers and you make your way through over 30 rooms the bedrooms are sumptuous with their drapes and duvets and there are so many paintings on the walls the dining hall was a converted great hall and the elegant tableware looks as if it s awaiting a banquet i was very fond of the red drawing room which not only held lovely antiques but there were three women s dress forms wearing the kinds of dresses women of the 18 th century would wear they were film reproductions did i get the names of the films of course not but i think keira knightley wore one of them i enjoyed the trip but it began to feel a little long and repetitive and i was barely acclimated to the time zone shift i can t say i m any more acclimated now it is very hard to go to bed when the sun is still out there was so much to see that in a small way it kind of all runs together but i appreciated seeing new to me castles and gardens and seeing a few new places in scotland than i have before i know this was a long post thanks so much if you ve read this far stay tuned i ll be writing about the isle of skye next castle fraser dining room castle fraser dining room chandelier renaissance style dress blair castle dining room with wedding dress in the background a fancy ceiling at fyvie castle regency pelisse regency dress castle fraser gentleman s smoking room castle fraser library 18th century dress a thirsty baby moo another 18th century dress castle fraser bedroom with crib castle fraser morning room castle fraser governess suite castle fraser nursery a quiet little nook in the walled gardens at crathes castle an image of the green lady but the camera was doing something funky with the colors thunderton house our wonderful tour guide at fyvie castle the dining room at fyvie i think my tour friend ann is at the right of the photo more topiaries at crathes castle this might be a large poppy at crathes castle this obstreperous guy kept stealing the bread from the crows on the streets of st andrews 18th century men s fighting tartan uniform atholl nursery blair castle p s my pictures got scrambled when i uploaded them so i m a little uncertain about the provenance of some of the photos i might be telling you the wrong castle sometimes that s ok it just means you have to come over to scotland and find out for yourself p s 2 i actually have more photos from this trip but i can t seem to access them on the computer just the camera wha i ll try posting them another time although they kind of are more of the same share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on linkedin opens in new window linkedin share on x opens in new window x share on pinterest opens in new window pinterest like loading posted in travel tagged blair castle cardhu distillery castle fraser clava cairns crathes castle culloden battlefield dunnotter castle falkland palace fyvie castle scotland st andrews leave a reply little house in the highlands posted on may 8 2026 by jc reilly reply it s the first week of ...
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