Dunfermline Abbey and Palace

St Margaret in Abbot House

Today we headed back up to the Kingdom of Fife for a visit to Dunfermline Abbey.  The whole family was there with all my nephews and nieces and my parents all coming along for a day out in the park.

We started out the day waiting for everyone to turn up and decided to go for a cup of tea.

Abbot House

The Abbot House heritage site sits right beside the abbey and we went in there for tea and a cake.  The house usually charges for you to get in but today it was free entry.  It was an excellent site.  The guys there had put on a treasure hunt and had a magician around.  The treasure hunt was great fun and the kids liked it.  The house itself has a great variety of areas such as a room dedicated to St Margaret, another which was set in 1964 and lots more including some medieval games.  Well worth a visit.

Bruce's Grave

After that we went over to the Abbey church which holds the last resting place for around 30 members of Scottish royalty including probably the most famous of them all – Robert the Bruce.  His and St Margaret’s graves are marked and unfortunately the rest are not but they are all under there.  The Abbey is split into the Abbey Church and the original nave.  Some of the building dates back to the 13th century and it’s pretty spectacular.  The pulpit above the Bruce’s grave took over a year to carve and really sets off the room.

The old church at the back is looked after by Historic Scotland and you do have to pay to get into that bit (unless you are a member like us) but the entry fee includes the Palace as well.  The Palace was the birthplace of loads of Royals including James I of Scotland and the last King to be bron in Scotland – Charles I.  Also the last king to be executed!!  Excellent place and there was no-one else there today because of the spectacular sunshine so we had the whole site to ourselves.  I was telling the kids all about Mason’s marks and they loved heading round trying to match up bricks and marks!

Charles I

Beautiful place.

Afterwards the kids wanted to head back into the park and go back to the play area from the other day.  On the way there we walked past Malcolms tower which was built circa 1070 by Malcolm Canmore.  Another impressive piece of history and only a few hundred yards away from the Palace and Abbey.

Malcolm's Tower

This site is right up there with Edinburgh and Stirling as far as historical significance but much less well known or visited.  We’d recommend it.

Ben’s favourite bit – Bruce’s grave

Sophie’s favourite bit – Playpark … again!

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Rouken Glen Park

Rouken Glen Park

Today wasn’t a visit to a castle or something like that.  It was just an activity.  Bubble balls!

We headed to Rouken Glen park to take part in this.  When we got there we realised that there was a Family fun day going on and the park was full of activities etc.  It was pretty busy there too though.  We had to park up on the grass near the car park…it was that busy!

Sophie and Niamh

Anyway they had bouncy castles etc and it seemed pretty busy.  Although it was queue central!  Anyway the Bubble balls are based up at the loch/pond in the park.  The pond area, which was famous for being in an episode of Rab C Nesbit ;-), has the bubble balls.  The kids liked them although Ben wasn’t too keen as it was a little disconcerting when the ball was being filled up.

Picnic

Afterwards we had a Picnic in the park and headed home via McDonalds for Ice Cream.

Ben’s favourite bit – The bouncy slide

Sophie’s Favourite bit – The Bubble ball

Bubble balls

Bannockburn and Wallace Monument

The weather has gotten better as the week has gone on this week.  Last week was Ben’s school trip but he was ill so he had to miss it so today we decided to go on the trip now he was fit again.  Carol decided to take Sophie to her Gran’s today so it was purely a boys trip.  We went along to the Bannockburn heritage centre and had a look around.

It’s pretty pricey to get in at £10 for both of us especially as it’s pretty small but it is a National Trust property and it’s very near the site where Bruce raised his standard in 1314 so you pay for the history!  We’d been toying with the idea of joining the National Trust for quite some time but never got around to it and we’d been Historic Scotland members for many years.  They have a special offer on just now where you get 18 months for the price of 9 so we joined up for the family membership which was an excellent £5 per month!  Plus we got a free Saltire in the welcome pack which Ben was very excited about!

Chain Mail - Still standing...just

Anyway the centre was pretty small but had a reasonable amount packed in there.  The best bit for me was the chain mail,  They had real chain mail for the kids to try on.  I don’t know if you’ve ever lifted chain mail before but that stuff is HEAVY!  Ben tried on the suit and the head dress…he could only stand for a few minutes before he started to droop!  Very heavy!  There is a 10 minutes video in the auditorium and lots of history of the area and the battle itself.  They were still running their Easter egg hunt which occupied Ben – you had to find easter bunnys amongst the exhibits and then you won an easter egg.  We found them all…eventually!

Bruce Statue

Nearby is the famous statue of Robert the Bruce that you see on all the postcards so we wandered down to take some photos. 

After this we were getting hungry so we headed over to the Wallace Monument and had some lunch in the cafe there. Once again they were pretty friendly..although I think they overcharged me!  Anyway the monument itself was about £12 for the two of use to get into…and I warn you it’s not for the unfit or unhealthy!

There is a fair walk up a steep hill to get to the monument…then there are 246 steps to the top…a lot!  We were really unfortunate as we arrived at exactly the same time as two bus loads of French teenagers who packed the place out…and being teenagers generally felt that social niceties like politeness were for someone else (can I say that?  ;-0)).  So it was very busy at first.  However we did stay for quite a while so they had left by the time we were going and we got to see the monument at it’s best.

Audio Tour

We paid the extra £1 each for the audio tour which Ben didn’t want to do at  first – till he worked out how it worked then he loved it.  He kept asking…can I listen to number 24 again?  He was loving the fact he could pick what he want to hear about when he wanted to hear about it.  Well worth it – especially at the top where the views are spectacular and there is literally thousands of years of history to be explored…and obviously the scenery!

Top of the wallace Monument

There are 3 levels before the top which look at – Wallace, other famous Scots and the history of the monument respectively.  They even have Wallace’s famous sword…which I believe is bigger than Mel Gibson!

Afterwards we drove back to Glasgow to pick up the rest of the family but it was an excellent day out…and now we’re NTS members we can go to much more!

Ben’s Favourite bit – The Audio Tour

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Culross Abbey and Pittencrieff Park

Culross Abbey

After yesterday’s disappointment at Cadzow I was not hoping for too much at another unmanned Historic Scotland location but we headed to Culross Abbey anyway as once again we’d never been there and we were taking Katie home to Fife and it was on the way.

However I could not have been more wrong.  Culross Abbey is a superb property for HS and is now up there as one

Culross Abbey church

of my favourites.  The kids loved it too.  There is no office at this site and you get to explore on your own.  The first thing we found was an excellent Balcony which had a steep ladder to climb which then afforded excellent views over the Forth.  The kids loved it.  They even loved the latrine which was still intact although thankfully not used now!  I say thankfully – as Sophie climbed down it thinking it was a chute we were lucky!

Balcony at Culross

Further round there were various cloisters and bits of the ruined abbey to look over.  One piece of the old Abbey is still intact and they use it as the local church also so we couldn’t access everything but other than that it was excellent.  There is a ruined little house in the graveyard which was quite spooky for the kids.  The graveyard has lots of really interesting gravestones as well.  From the gardner at Blair castle to childrens graves each of them told a bit of a story.  The kids enjoyed walking round it and for the adults it was a real glimpse of history.  It was in good condition though and the only piece of graffitti we found was pretty funny – It was a bit of a dark area and someone had written in red ‘the chamber of secrets has been opened’ – the kids liked that 😉

After much excitement from me we headed back to the car and drove through to Dunfermline.  Before we got to Pittencrieff Park we were all hungry so we headed to the Glen Tavern near the park for lunch.  Standard pub fayre but really enjoyable.

Play Park Swing

Then the kids went into the park to play.  They loved the play park in there and we went for a walk round the rest of the park.  Once again we were really surprised by how much was in there.  We’re going to visit the Abbey and Palace later this week but even missing those out there was loads to see.  The park is full of spectacular views and historic areas.  From Pittencrieff House, Wallace’s Well to the waterfalls and huge amounts of squirrels – it was excellent.

It was a long walk for us having already climbed a big hill to get to Culross Abbey.  We finished off the day by going back to the play park.  It was so good that we’re not just adding a couple of photos today but adding a slideshow at the bottom.

Ben’s favourite bit – the Squirrels

Sophie’s favourite bit – The Balcony at Culross Abbey

Katie’s bit – the playpark!

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Cadzow Castle and Chatelherault

Plaque at Cadzow Castle

Jack went home last night but his sister Katie is still with us.  Today was a mixed bag weather wise but more on the good side than the poor.

The kids started out the day at the local soft play area at Broadwood stadium and at lunchtime they came home and we decided where to go.  After a quick scout on the Historic Scotland website we decided to head out to Cadzow Castle because we’d never been there and we knew it was near Chatelherault which has an excellent kids play park.

Cadzow under scaffolding

The Historic Scotland site said that exterior access was all that was possible to Cadzow…well that was certainly the case as most of it was behind a huge fence and it was difficult to make out much of it.  The usual plaque was there but we were a little disappointed…especially as it had been sunny and just as we got to the castle it started to rain.  The views across the glen however from the beautiful Duke’s bridge on the way to the castle were spectacular.  The castle itself has had much of it’s history lost through the ages as it was a Folly for the Dukes of Hamilton for many years and gardeners may well have added to it to make it more scenic!

However Chatelherault was excellent anyway.  We went inside and had a wander around.  I even found myself proving to the kids that the recreated badger set was not scary by crawling through it myself…there is a badger and a fox in there for those of you who fancy a crawl through it ;-).  The building is excellent even if the subsidance that hit the building in the first half of the 20th century, before it was redone, does make the room seem a little weird and can make you feel a wee bnit sick.

Katie modelling fashions at Chatelherault

The main part of the visitor centre is centred on the house and the natural history of the surrounding area and there is another exhiition space behin which talks about local industry and another which focusses on fashions through the ages…the kids get to try on different hats and pretend to be fashion models!

The spectacular Adam interior is superb in the West lodge but can be a little strange as I said because it’s a wee bit lopsided.

Sophie's Sandcastle at the Playpark

After that we headed back to the excellent children’s play park and the kids played there for a good hour whilst we all had a picnic and enjoyed the April sun.  Sophie built a Sandcastle in the playpark also which she was quite proud of.

Sophie’s favourite bit – The playpark

Ben’s favourite bit – The playpark

Ben at the top of the play park

Katie’s faourite bit – The playpark…

I don’t know hundreds of years of history and they just want to swing around like monkeys!

Kelvingrove Art Galleries and Museum

The organ and main hall

Still had Jack and Katie today.  The weather was dreich to say the least.  Carol called it April showers I called it a torrential downpour!

It was reasonably dry earlier in the day and after a few problems with parking at Kelvingrove in previous trips we decided to go by train to the museum.  We headed into Glasgow and used our recently purchased Family rail card to get through – which was brilliant value at £23.40 for 60% off kids fares and 30% off adult ones.  So it cost us less than £6 for 4 kids and 1 adult (I have a zonecard so didn’t need to pay).

On the underground

We headed onto the underground when we got off the train and that was a big adventure for the kids from Dunfermline who had never been on the Glasgow Underground before.  They were loving the underground travel as you can see on the right.

Welly Dog

The art galleries and museum is a great place for kids and even has an interactive kids museum for really young children where they can dress up and play plus there are lots of interesting kids stuff like giant shoes and dogs made out of wellies!  When we first arrived there was a recital going on in the main hall which was being played on the giant organ that they have which was a spectacular site to say the least.  Great start to the visit.

After wandering round and encountering some interesting stuff like a stuffed wild haggis!  Which was a creature I’d not seen before 😉

The elusive Haggis captured

We went upstairs which is the best place to encounter the excellent laughing heads which are dangling from the roof.  The kids picked a head they liked the best and tried to make those faces.  The object cinema was also pretty good which had a picture with built in speakers which the girls especially liked to stick their ears up to.

On the way home the heavens really opened and we all ended up soaked…unfortunately I was the only one without a hood or umbrella so I was pretty soaked by the time we got back to Glasgow and then Cumbernauld.

Ben’s Favourite part – The Arctic world!  With the polar bears.

The heads at Kelvingrove

Sophie’s favourite part – the white heads in the museum

Guest Favourite parts

Jack’s favourite part – The guns display at Kelvingrove

Katie’s Favourite part – Everything!

Colzium House Easter Monday

Sophie at Colzium House

Bit of a poor day as far as the weather goes today.  We once again didn’t get out till later because of the rain.  So we stayed local for that reason.  We went down to Colzium House in Kilsyth.  There is the Colzium Lennox estate down there which has a variety of things to do for kids.

Sophie and I went for a walk through the park whilst the rest of the kids (Ben plus Jack and Katie who stayed last night) headed straight for the play park.  Sophie and I walked around the house and then started down the hill towards the play park.

Tree Trail start

There used to be a Pitch and Putt course right below the house area but it seems to be away now.  we walked over where it used to be and started to find some logs in the ground with numbers on them which we didn’t know what they were.  It turns out it was a tree trail which marked trees in the park with details of which trees were beside them.  Great for identifying new trees in the area.

Model Rail track

We then headed further towards the play park and found a small football or hockey pitch which has a model railway track around it.  There was no-one there running trains today but the little track is nice.  We then caught up with the others at the playpark.  the best bit abouit the play park is that it can be used by  kids and adults (well most of it can anyway) so you can really take part with the kids and they love the adults getting involved and swinging with them.

Colzium Play Park

The estate has much more in there such as woodland walks, a curling pond, the Clock theatre and an excellent walled garden.

Finally we headed back to the car which was parked beside the clock theatre which had originally

Ice House door

been part of the laundry for the house but was refurbished from derelict in 1974 by members of Barmulloch college with help from the SSEB training school.  Before we got there we headed down to the slightly spooky icehouse – which is just that – an ice house in the woods which you can go down and look into.  It’s pretty dark though and the steps down were pretty treacherous today as it was wet and muddy.  The top hatch for the ice house leads down below so if someone is down investigating the dark door then dropping something through the hatch can lead to a spooky moment as there is movement and amplified sound in there!  It was an accident…honest!

Well worth a visit on a nice day for picnics etc.

Ben’s Favourite bit of the day- The Ice House

Sophie’s Favourite bit of the day – Wood carvings around the play park

Stirling Castle Easter Sunday

So a blog which will document our travels and our days out in and around Scotland.

First post today…busy day.  We went to the Stirling Castle Easter Revellry today.  It was a superb day out for the kids.  Tons of things to see and do.

Ben at the Owl Show

We didn’t arrive till later in the day (around 2.30) but we still got a lot in.  We were joined today by Jack and Katie our nephew and niece  from Dunfermline and our Historic Scotland membership came in very handy as we had a family membership we all got in for free to the Castle.  Carol’s brother Steven joined us but paid full price for entry – although at just £9 it’s not too bad at all.

We started the day at the Owl show which was run by Falconry Scotland.  The guys running the show got into period costume and they tried to include all of the kids who were there.  Entertaining and the kids got to stroke the owls afterwards.

Juggling Jester

After that we wandered out to the main courtyard area where we encountered a man dressed as a jester who was putting on a juggling display and was showing his skills on the diablo with a decent line in patter too.  Enjoyed that and the kids were laughing away at his jokes and found it particularly funny when things went wrong for him!

New York Puppet

That was followed by a wandering clown/magician and a puppeteer.  The Puppet was a New York policeman who insisted on interogating the kids…not sure it was period but the kids loved it.

The clown/Magician did some street magic with the kids and Jack got to be his assistant for a while which he enjoyed.

Finally we went on to a small show which was running in the Great Hall about a Baron and a baby…not sure exactly what was going on we arrived late but the kids liked it also.  After a quick wander round the ramparts afterwards we headed home to their Grans house where she cooked for 15 people and it was a great way to round off the day.

Clown at the Castle

Sophies favourite part – The Little Owl.

Ben’s favourite – The Juggling Jester!