Friday, July 19

Today is our last day on the Scotland mainland, if you can call a large island a mainland. The one thing left on our "To Do List of places to see in Scotland" was Drummond Castle. We have a friend named Mike Drummond and we thought it would be nice to checkout what may have been his family home. We had passed it three previous times, so we thought we knew where it was - no need for maps or Louise, our Tom-Tom voice, we would just run down the road and be there in about 1/2 hour. Well, that's not exactly how it worked out. After one hour, we start looking at each other looking for reassurance. Within another 1/2 hour we knew we had made a mistake. We stopped at Crianlarich where we had caught the train to Mallig, a week ago, and ate lunch at a very nice hotel with WiFi. The Google Maps app told us just how badly we had performed. After fish and chips for me and grilled Sea Bream for Linda, we started backtracking. Ok, now here is an interesting technical note: as we're driving down the road Google Maps is talking to us. It must have loaded everything it needed into the iPhone before we left the hotspot and was then able to guide us an hour, back up the road to the castle. This was particularly valuable because the Tom-Tom couldn't find the castle.

And, then, there it is. We turn off the road and drive up a mile long driveway with 300 birch trees on each side. The ticket taker tells us that Ms Willoughby Drummond is 78 years old and owns 360,000 acres at this site. One of the first Drummonds fought with Robert the Bruce in the 1300's and was given the land for his service. Robert was the first ruler to unite all of the Scottish clans. Later, because the family was supporting the Jacobites who wanted to restore the Stuarts to the English crown, they nearly lost it all. There are two buildings: the old Keep was built in 1490 and extended in 1630; the mansion house was started in 1689, but the main part is Victorian.   She also owns a castle in England and one in Wales. She lives in this one and the one in England, so we can only tour the grounds. And what grounds they are. As we come up on a viewing area in front of the main house, below us is an elaborately manicured garden to take your breath away. You hear the few others who were around gasping and ooooing and ahhhhing. We may have chatted with a Ladyship. Two women came up beside us and chatted a little and asked us where we were from. One referred to her friend as "Her Ladyship". We couldn't figure out if this was just a joke or real. We weren't going to ask.

We spent the next hour taking pictures and leisurely walking around the garden that included strolling peacocks - all males. The whole design was in the shape of the St. Andrews Cross with lots of colors: flowers, hedges, trees, and specially shaped bushes. This was really good and we were glad we made the effort to see it.

Tomorrow, off to the Shetland Islands for 4 days.