Robert Burns Cottage, Alloway, Ayrshire

Robert Burns cottage, Alloway, Ayrshire

In October we spent a couple of nights away in Ayrshire, Jack had a football match to go to and we also wanted to visit Dumfries House, but we also managed to squeeze in a visit to Robert Burns’s Cottage, his birthplace in Alloway, the last time we were there it was shut so I had never been inside before. The photo above is the front of the house, right on the main road. Robert Burns was born here in 1759.

The photo below is the back of the cottage, the left hand side would have been where the animals were housed in the past.

Burns Cottage , Alloway, Ayrshire

I was shocked at how small the cottage is. It’s quite expensive to visit this place and I was thinking it was way overpriced, but I hadn’t realised that the entrance fee also included entry to a nearby Burns museum and it took us a long time to look around that, so it was well worth the cost – and the cafe was good!

Robert Burns,Inside Cottage 1

Inside Cottage, Burns Cottage, Alloway

Robert Burns, Inside Cottage

The three photos above are of the living/dining/ bedroom. It’s a very small room with a bed recess and the four wee gowns represent the children who shared the bed apparently, however there’s only one bed in the place so I suspect everyone piled in this, or some were on the floor, otherwise they must have had another bed in the other room in those days.

Below is the kitchen/living room.

Inside Cottage , Burns cottage, Alloway

Inside Cottage, Burns Cottage, Alloway

About three or four steps in either direction is the length and breadth of these rooms, I suppose they would have been cosy, especially with the heat from the animals who were housed in the other side of the cottage. This is a clay and thatch cottage which was built by his father in 1757. It took us about five minutes to look around this cottage, it’s so small and if anyone else is in a room you are in it’s crowded. I’m not sure about the pieces of his poetry which have been written on some of the walls and furniture, it sort of detracts from the historic feel of the place I think, no doubt others would disagree.

We didn’t have time to look around the area this time, but we did that on a previous visit, when the cottage was shut, it’s a really lovely area you can see a previous blogpost here.

Dumfries House, Ayrshire

Since we visited Dumfries House for the first time last month the house keeps popping up on TV. First it was featured in The Repair Shop, with King Charles. The yesterday it was on TV again with a documentary about how it was saved by the King who headed a consortium of like-minded people.

It was interesting to see the gardens being planned and constructed, but here are a few photos of how it looked in October, with the planting really coming on.

flowers, Dumfries House gardens, Ayrshire

If you ever are able to visit Dumfries House remember that the tours of the house are guided and you must pre-book.

Below is a photo of the steps leading to the Belvedere.

, Dumfries House, Ayrshire, Belvedere steps

The garden areas are coming on nicely.

Dumfries House garden, Ayrshire

garden, Dumfries House, belvedere

Dumfries House, Garden Arches

Probably the house below is /was for the head gardener.

garden house, Dumfries House gardens

The cute wee house below is in the kitchen garden. It’s my idea of a dream house, or certainly from a fairy tale. I/we could just move in, there wouldn’t be much to do in the way of housework, and it has a handy chimney!

Wee House, Dumfries House, Ayrshire

garden path, topiary, Dunfries House gardens, Ayrshire

Dumfries House Urn + Steps

It wasn’t great weather-wise when we were at Dumfries House so we didn’t spend a lot of time exploring the grounds, we’ll do more of that the next time. It does have a great play area for kids though, so it’s a place for all ages to enjoy

As ever, click on the photos if you want to enlarge them.

If you are interested in visiting the area you might like to look at the nearby small village of Maybole which you can read about here.

Dumfries House, Ayrshire, Scotland

I’ve been meaning to visit Dumfries House for absolutely ages and last week we got around to it at last. I thought it would have taken us longer to get there, it was about a two hour drive from Fife, but we stayed in the area overnight so we would have plenty of time to look around. The house is part of the Prince’s Foundation, does it have to be called the King’s Foundation now? Anyway, the fine Georgian mansion was due to be auctioned off piece by piece and some furniture was actually in a London auction house, when the then Prince Charles stepped in and organised a financial rescue package for it. The name of the house is somewhat confusing as it isn’t near the town of Dumfries, it’s actually in Cumnock, Ayrshire. It was designed by the Adam brothers – Robert, John and James.

Dumfries House, Georgian mansion, Ayrshire, Scotland

Sadly they don’t allow people to take photos inside, suffice to say that it’s well worth a visit, it has all sorts of bits and pieces in it and glorious furniture, including Chippendale pieces, one cabinet is valued at £25 million! But I loved the clocks and the huge orrery which is 260 years old, so of course isn’t correct now.

Below is the back of the house, where the guided tour begins.

Back of Dumfries House, Georgian mansion

The whole place is incredibly vibrant with all sorts of things going on educationally with lots of apprenticeships available, and it is now the second largest employer in the county.

The Lugar Water runs through the estate and there are some lovely bridges spanning it. But I’ll leave that and the grounds for another blogpost.
Adam Bridge, Dumfries House, Georgian mansioen, Lugar Water    tr

You can see the Education Tour in the You Tube video below.

If you’re interested in the history of the house you can read about it here.

Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeenshire

Kildrummy Castle, info board

We had to have two goes at visiting Kildrummy Castle when we were in Aberdeenshire for a few days in August. The first time we tried to go there it was shut, normally as it’s a ruin you would have been able just to wander around it after hours, but for some reason we weren’t allowed to do that at this castle. It dates from the 1200s so I suppose it can be forgiven for being a ruin.

Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeenshire

The castle was originally the seat of the Earl of Mar but over the years it has been under siege several times and so has changed hands, it’s thought that the English King Edward I took it over at some point.
Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeenshire

You can’t really tell from what is left of the building but the design of it was similar to French castles, as so many Scottish castles are, they looked to France and Italy for inspiration and obviously didn’t want to be like English castles.

Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeenshire

Certainly Kildrummy was inhabited by some of the Bruce family, including Robert’s brother and sister, but its downfall came much later than that at 1716 after the failure of the Jacobite ‘rebellion’ the previous year. Obviously the then owners backed the wrong side!

Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeenshire

Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeenshire

The information boards give you some idea of how the place would have looked in its heyday. The one below shows the Snow Tower which was the castle keep, one of the tallest buildings of its time.

Kildrummy Castle, info board, Aberdeenshire

As you can see from the photo of a model below, it was quite elegant in its day. Even although it’s a ruin it’s still worth seeing.
Kildrummy Castle model, Aberdeenshire

Craigievar Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

At the end of last week we drove up to Aberdeenshire in the north-east of Scotland to spend a couple of nights there, we were so lucky with the weather. We spent our time running around various castles, Pictish stones, halls and gardens, the first one we went to was Cragievar Castle which we had never been to before. It’s pink!

Craigievar Castle, Aberdeenshire

Obviously it’s in the Scots Baronial style, sadly you aren’t allowed to take photos inside, but it is lovely, despite it having very steep spiral stone stairs which get narrower as you get towards the top, which was the domain of the servants, so it didn’t matter much if they broke their necks falling downstairs! They slept four to a bed. But they did live in a beautiful part of the country as you can see from the photo below, they may not have had much time to appreciate it though.

Fields at Criagievar Castle

Kirbuster Museum, Orkney, Scotland

Kirbuster Farm Building, museum, Orkney, Scotland

Orkney isn’t all about Neolithic and Viking heritage, we visited the Kirbuster Museum which is about far more recent times, it was a farm in the 19th century and was occupied and farmed by two brothers up until the 1960s. It was opened up as a farm museum in 1986 and it’s the last un-restored ‘firehoose’ in Northern Europe, with the fire being in the centre of the room. It certainly smells very peat smoky.

The bedroom in the photo below has a Victorian cot at the foot of the bed, the quilt in it is exactly the same as two that I have!

Kirbuster Museum, Victorian bedroom, Orkney,Bed

Kirbuster Museum, bedroom, Orkney, farm museum

The living-room, or maybe they called it the parlour below is very typical of a Victorian one, complete with harmonium. I managed to capture a very sinister looking Jack in the mirror above the harmonium, complete with face mask on!

Kirbuster Museum, Orkney,Harmonium

Fireplace , Mantel, Kirbuster Museum, Orkney

Below is a box-bed in a bed-recess which is in the kitchen. I suppose that the children probably slept in those, or maybe a servant/farmhand. The walls don’t look that different from how the Neolithic dwellings would have looked in their heyday.

Bed Recess, box beds, Kirbuster Museum, Orkney

You can see a cruisie lamp hanging from the wall.

Kitchen Dresser, Kirbuster Museum, Orkney

And there’s a building full of old farm implements, we had fun trying to guess what some of them were for. We swithered about going to visit Kirbuster Museum but it turned out to be a very enjoyable visit, we had the whole place to ourselves, which was a shame really. I hope they get more visitors in the future. The guide was a lovely woman who was chatty and informative. I hope she had something to occupy her time as she was the only person there and it must be a lonely job!

Kirbuster Museum, Orkney, Farm Implements

Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire – the walled garden

As you can see from the photo below box topiary is quite a feature of the walled garden at Castle Fraser, they don’t seem to have a problem with box blight – fingers crossed for them!

Castle Fraser, walled Garden, Aberdeenshire    3

Aberdeenshire is quite far north so it takes the plants a bit longer to get going in the spring.

Castle Fraser Garden, Aberdeenshire

I absolutely love walled gardens though and I still miss the high wall that we had in our old garden.

Castle Fraser, walled Garden 4

Click on the photos to enlarge them if you want to see them in more detail.

Castle Fraser, walled Garden

There’s an unusual old sundial in the garden.

Castle Fraser, walled Garden, sundial
Despite Castle Fraser being fairly far north they are still able to grow fruit, thanks to the walls, and the apple blossom was just beginning to flower when we were there a few weeks ago, it’ll be looking great now I imagine.

espalier, fruit trees, Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire

Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire

A few weeks ago we went up to Aberdeenshire, for one night only, it was mainly so that Jack could go to a football match, but as you can see we managed to visit Castle Fraser too, which is good as I’m really not much interested in football. The earliest part of the castle dates from 1575, you can read about it here.

Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire

It was a grey morning and really quite freezing and slightly misty for mid April.
Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire

The castle is in the Scots baronial style which is more akin to the pepperpot towers so beloved of medieval European castles than anything that you would find elsewhere in the UK.
Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire, Scots baronial

The photo below is of the Great Hall.
Great Hall, Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire

Below is the library, a room I could have spent a long time in, apart from the books it was the warmest!
library , Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire

The doorways are very ornate.
ornate door , Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire

We of course slogged up to the top of the tower to get a good view of the surrounding area.

courtyard from tower, Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire

In the distance we could see the walled garden, so we made our way carefully back down the long spiral staircase so we could go and get a closer look at it. I’ll leave the photos of the garden for another blogpost. Castle Fraser is definitely worth seeing
walled garden from tower, Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire

Balvaird Castle, Perthshire

Balvaird Castle

Last week we had wonderful weather, it felt more like June than March, so we grabbed the day and drove to Balvaird Castle which is just about ten miles from where we live. It lies off the A912 road about halfway between Gateside and the Bein Inn in Glen Farg. There were two other vehicles parked by the farm gates at the bottom of the track which leads to the castle, it’s a fairly steep walk from there, but not a very long one.

Balvaird Castle, Scottish tower house, medieval castle, Murray, Perthshire

It’s thought that the castle dates from around 1495, built for Sir Andrew Murray, but over the years it has been extended and altered, as you would expect. Apparently it was owned by the Murray family until 2017 and then it was bought by an American, however it is maintained by Historic Scotland. The original Murray owners ended up moving to Scone Palace – they went up in the world it would seem but I must say that I prefer this setting to that of Scone Palace.

Balvaird Castle, Scottish tower house, Murray, medieval castle, Perthshire

It’s a lovely setting for a home though and the views of the surrounding countryside from the windows must be quite spectacular, unfortunately, it isn’t possible to get into what is left of the castle although you can walk around the ruined parts. If you’re inclined to picnic then it would be a good location for one.

view from Balvaird Castle, Perthshire, Scotland

There’s the gable end of a cottage ruin in the photo below, I suspect that most of the stone it was built with has been robbed to build the nearby wall and the stone to build the cottage was robbed from the castle!

view from Balvaird, Perthshire

aview from Balvaird  Castle, scenery, Perthshire, Scotland

view from Balvaird Castle, Perthshire, Scotland

If you look right in the middle of the photo below you will be able to see the top of some roofs, beautiful trees and a walled garden, presumably it’s the home of whoever farms the land, it looks like my idea of heaven.

aview from Balvaird Castle, Perthshire, Scotland

The roofs are towards the right hand side below. As ever, click on the photos to enlarge them.
aview from Balvaird Castle, Perthshire, Scotland

aview from Balvaird Castle, Perthshire, Scotland

Balvaird Castle , Scottish tower house, medieval castle, Perthshire

Hill House, Helensburgh, Scotland, Scottish National Trust

One day six weeks ago or so we took the opportunity to travel across to my beloved west of Scotland, to the coastal town of Helensburgh to be precise. We were taking a friend of ours for her first ever visit to The Hill House at Helensburgh, it was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It was a wonderful commission for him and his wife Margaret Macdonald, as not only did he design the house for the publisher Walter Blackie but Margaret designed all the decor, art works and the soft furnishings, upholstery, bedcovers and such. Charles Rennie Mackintosh said that he had talent but that his wife Margaret Macdonald had genius. Below is one of her designs for a CRM chair. I must admit that I think those beads might be a bit uncomfortable if you lean back!

Margaret Macdonald chair, Hill House Helensburgh, Charles Rennie Mackintosh

The artwork above the fireplace was also done by Margaret, annoyingly you can’t see it all that well in the photo below.

Fireplace, Hill House, Helensburgh, Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Below you can see some of the detail of the fireplace.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh fireplace detail, Hill House, Helensburgh

To the left of it is this built-in shelving unit. I’m not a big fan of the sugary pink, but he was keen on pinks, lilacs and purples as was Margaret.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh cupboard, Hill House, Helensburgh

I love the window seat which is in the same room. From previous visits I hadn’t remembered the small niche at either side of the seat, it’s the perfect size for parking your glass of wine, or cup of tea. It must have been a great place to sit and read.

Hill House, Helensburgh,Bench , Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Hill House Bench end, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Margaret Macdonald, Helensburgh,

The lamp below is in the same room, I think.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh lamp, Hill House, Helensburgh

Sadly Hill House itself is in a bit of a poor state. I believe that the Portland cement which was used to harl/roughcast the walls has never been weatherproof, as CRM was assured by the builders, so dampness has always been a problem as you can imagine, in the damp weather of the west of Scotland.

So a huge metal framework has been erected over the whole building in an attempt to dry out the building while they come to a decision as to how to tackle the problem best. There is an advantage to this for the vistors as it’s possible to walk up a metal staircase which reaches right above the roof of the house, so you can get a really good close up view of the outside of the building, and you can get a great view of the Firth of Clyde, but it was a bit misty when we were there. I’ll leave Hill House for the moment but if you’re interested you can see better photos of an earlier visit here.