Culzean Castle

What a day today…headed to Culzean at the second attempt and took in the superb castle and surrounding area.  To be honest the fun we had in the surrounding area was probably better than the castle itself!  Arrived on site at around mid day and had a picnic as the weather was lovely.  We had taken along Ben’s pal Mark so there were 5 of us again.  I needed to go to the loo when we arrive (why is he telling us this you are asking ;-)).  The view from the toilet was by far the most spectacular I’ve ever seen so I had to take a picture!

We then had lunch and walked round to the castle.  You could not use any recording devices in the castle so we have no pictures but it was really nice inside.  Loads of fantastic antiques and weapons etc.  They do have a lego guy hidden in each room for the kids to find which helps with keeping them occupied as you wander around and take in the splendor.  Towards the end they have an excellent exhibition on Dwight Eisenhower who was based here during WWII and who was given part of the castle to live in until his death in 1969.  We then took a walk round to the toy shop (which was a little over priced) before heading for a cup of tea up at the visitor centre.

After tea and ice cream the real adventure began.  We saw on the map that there were caves at the bottom of the cliff below the castle so we went for a look.  When we got to the bottom of the cliff the tide was just going out so the only way around was to climb over the rocks down there.  We did this and firstly found a pretty cool cave which was difficult to see into as it got too dark and we didn’t have a torch.  We ventured further round and found another cave which this time had light at the end of it!  It was like something out of the famous five (I was thinking about lashings of ginger beer the whole time!).  The second cave had a lintel which led though to another cave which led back out to the cliff but where the two caves met there was a large clearing…all boys own adventure stuff!  I was a little concerned about the tide coming in so we stopped there and headed back.  When we got back to the top of the cliff we decided to see what it was like at the other side so walked round to that end where the boat house is.

This was where it got even better.  We worked our way round and found another small cave but working round further we found a building cut

Bottom of Cliff

into the side of the cliff which was marked on the map but was very difficult to access.  In fact I fell and managed to hurt my knee, ankle, elbow and worse derrier!  Plus I fell into the water at the same time…worse still was the dent in my pride!  I was trying to help a young guy who had fallen at the time and went spectacularly over!  Anyway we got round to it and it was pretty spectacular.  I’m not sure what the building was but I’m investigating.  It’s not something they push for obvious health and safety reason I would say but it was great for the kids as they felt like they were in a great adventure.  I suspect it was part of the old castle which was there before Robert Adam (son of William) designed the news castle in the late 1700’s.

The trip back was less eventful as the tide was much further out and the sun was drying out the slippy rocks quite nicely.  We then made our way round to the adventure playground past the spectacular Swan pool.  Home and a traditional Fish supper for dinner! Superb day!  Lots of pics below.

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Inchmahome Priory

Headed out today to Inchmahome Priory on the Lake of Menteith.  We had originally been heading to Culzean today but we left it too late and as it’s a 2 hour drive we scrapped that idea and decided that Inchmahome was a better bet.

It’s up near Callandar and sits right in the middle of the Lake of Menteith which is unique as it’s the only ‘Lake’ in Scotland (the rest are Loch’s) (or at least this is the story…).

Originally built for Cannons (different from Monks as they also had pastoral duties (you learn something new every day).

It later became a mausoleum.  We were walking in the footsteps of Robert the Bruce, Mary Queen of Scots and even Sir Walter Scott to take the wee boat over to the island to see the Priory (Obviously they did not use the same boat as us though ;-).  The Priory is pretty impressive and must have been superb in it’s day.  It was also nice to be able to walk round the island which was very scenic.

Ben in the Woods

We didn’t spend too much time there (maybe an hour or an hour and a half) mainly because the kids are not excited about the history of the place as I am!  After this we headed to King’s Park in Stirling which has a superb kids play area.  Sophie’s pal Rachel came with us today.