This morning during our 50 minute round walk for the Guardian I actually felt heat from the sun on my legs. Spring has sprung and the daffodils are nearly open. So in the afternoon we decided to hop along to Hill of Tarvit Mansion House and have a walk around the woodland there before heading down the driveway to visit the nearby Scotstarvit Tower which we hadn’t been to before. Hill of Tarvit was designed by the architect Sir Robert Lorimer.
The photo below is obviously just taken from a bit further back. I couldn’t get onto the croquet lawn to get a better view as the whole area was covered with huge tents, they had had a bit of a do at the weekend, maybe a wedding.
These fine fat fellows were in a field at the edge of the driveway on the way to Scotstarvit Tower. These are tubby lambs, very different from the newborns which we had passed in fields not far from there. It depends on the variety of sheep I think, as to when they give birth. These ones with black stockings are very cute though. They’re like tubby toddlers.
Below is Scotstarvit Tower, you can get a key for it from Hill of Tarvit House, but we didn’t bother, next time we will though as what we could see through an arrow slit window looked quite interesting. It was originally built in the 1500s by the Inglis family.
Below is a photo of the Lomond Hills which I always think of as being very tame and almost English looking, they’re a very easy stroll up on a good day. It’s the view of them that you get from the road leading to Scotstarvit Tower.
With all that walking involved I think we must have exercised more than double our target for each day. Let’s hope it has an effect on the scales!
I want to see Scotstarvit Tower for myself now! Very handsome indeed. The surrounding countryside looks like Eastern Iowa, which is rolling rather than flat, the way Western Iowa can be. In fact, the area just west of Dubuque looks like Yorkshire.
Thanks for showing this to us.
Sandy,
Most of Fife is quite flat and I’m not used to it, I much prefer the west coast where I grew up. By th eay, those Lomond Hills are nothing to do with Loch Lomond which is in a much more scenic area in that west which I pine for.
I can’t imagine a hot dry Yorkshire!
Katrina,
We’re only hot and dry on occasion. Our climate runs to extremes here – cool and rainy, hot and dry, bitter sub-zero cold, California-style balminess, to say nothing of snow about four months a year. The old joke here is, ‘If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes – it’ll change.’
Sandy,
That sounds like here, we say we have four seasons in one day, and honestly it does seem like it at times. I’m glad that our temperatures aren’t as extreme as yours though as I just couldn’t stand the heat. I don’t mind the cold so much as you can wrap up against it, unless it’s windy too and then it feels like it’s going right through your bones.
I remembered there was a connection with the Inglis family, and strangely enough MY Inglis ancestors seem to have emerged out of the mists of time at the farm practically next door to Scotstarvit Tower at Carslogie. They didn’t own the farm – that was the Clephanes – but lived on the land, probably working for the Clephanes, in the late 1500s. I’ve often thought about visiting Scotstarvit but haven’t done it yet either!
Evee,
I remembered that you said that your family had come from around that area so I thought there was probably a connection. Maybe next time we go there you can accompany us!
That would be good, Katrina.
Evee,
Looking forward to seeing you!
I love the lambs. I can smell the lanolin on their fleeces from here!
Jo,
I think if there was a Crufts for lambs those ones would win rosettes.
Cobby little lambs, nice and forward for the time of year!
Valerie,
Do you know – I had never heard of that word ‘cobby’ – it’s a good one though, I’m going to use it!
That’s interesting! I’ve seen it applied to horses, and cats, and especially to certain breeds of poultry. Quite a descriptive word.
Valerie,
It is descriptive and somehow fits exactly with its meaning.
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