Glamis Castle, the walled garden, and more

Posted on 27 October 2021 by Katrina

It’s a few weeks since we were at Glamis Castle, but I htought you might like to see the few photos I took of the walled garden. I love the gates.

There was still a lot of colour in it, despite it being late September.

And there’s a small Japanese garden area complete with Japanese style bridge.

I love old stone bridges like the one below.

And old stone staircases too. This one is a lot wider than most, but Glamis Castle was not built as a place of defence it was never expected that this staircase would have marauders bounding up it. The very narrow spiral staircases in castles make it just about impossible for people to wield a sword, especially if you happen to be right handed.

You can see my previous posts about our day out at Glamis Castle here, here and here – if you haven’t already seen them.

The Italian Garden, Glamis Castle, Angus, Scotland

Posted on 8 October 2021 by Katrina

There are lots of woodland areas to walk around within the grounds of Glamis Castle, but there’s also a walled Italian garden. I love walled gardens, apart from the fact that the high walls protect the plants from the worst of the winter weather, they always feel so private and safe. Below is a view of the entrance to the garden.

Glamis Castle from the walled Italian Garden.

Despite the fact that it was late September there was still plenty of interest in the garden, and quite a bit of colour.

There is of course a fabulous backdrop of mature conifers in the shape of the arboretum.

I’m truly glad that I don’t have the job of trimming all those hedges, they do look great though.

I believe the purple flowers are verbena. I did have one such plant in my garden but sadly it gave up after a few years so I presume they don’t like clay soil.

You can read more about Glamis Castle gardens here. The whole place is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.

Glamis Castle, Angus, Scotland

Posted on 8 October 2021 by Katrina

Here we are back at Glamis Castle, the inside of it this time, below is a photo of part of the sitting room which the Queen Mother used when she visited her childhood home, apparently it has been kept as it was when King George VI was alive and she visited with him and her daughters. You can see my earlier post of the outside of the castle here.

The two wee chairs in front of the fireplace were used by the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret when they were wee. It feels quite homely really.

Below is the dining-room with its unusual ceiling.

And the even more unusually positioned lion and unicorn stained glass windows high up in the walls.

Fabulous table centrepieces.

The rather grand drawing room with the photo of the current Earl and Countess of Strathmore on the small table, in contrast to all the paintings of ancestors on the walls.

With a ceiling more akin to the icing on a wedding cake.

And more small chairs by the fireplace, at least the children in this castle were warm it would seem!

The chapel below has a very unusual ceiling which consists of painted panels. Originally this would have been a chapel for the Celtic church I think but over the years it will have been Roman Catholic but now it is ‘ High’ Scottish Episcopal I believe, which is very similar in looks to Catholic. You can read more about the castle here.

It’s a beautiful castle – fit for a queen as you can see. We had a lovely walk around the grounds after touring the castle, next time I’ll blog about the Italian Gardens.

Glamis Castle, Angus, Scotland

Posted on 5 October 2021 by Katrina

At last we got around to visiting Glamis Castle which was the family home of the Queen Mother. It’s still owned by the Strathmore family, they’ve been there since the 1300s. We tried to visit the castle years ago but by the time we got there it was too late go around the castle and as we walked along the driveway we were walking against a tide of people who were leaving. This time around there were very few people there which was good as when we toured the interior we had all of the rooms to ourselves as by the time someone else was entering – we were exiting. Sadly it was a bit of a grey day when we were there this time around but it didn’t detract too much from the castle, I think it looks like an illustration from a fairy tale, which is quite apt since the yougest daughter of the family ended up marrying a prince, then went on to become a queen. The castle’s name is pronounced ‘glams’.

If you’re interested in the history of the castle have a look at the timeline here. The castle has links with Macbeth and Shakespeare.

The yew hedge lined driveway below is not the main driveway, that one is flanked by fields, but we drove down it this time so I didn’t take any photos, and the last time we were there it was full of people. You might want to look at my previous post which I’m amazed to see was written nine years ago!

The view below is of the castle from the right hand side as you look at it. Sadly the old stone fountain isn’t working.

I’ll show you the interior and also the lovely Italian garden sometime soon.

Glamis Castle grounds

Posted on 30 August 2012 by Katrina

The long driveway which leads to Glamis Castle is flanked by fields of cattle, if you have to be a cow this is one of the best places to be one I think. Good grass, lovely trees to hide from the sun, when we get it, not a bad life – for a while anyway.

This fountain is just beyond the field of cows and if you’re in the castle you would be looking out on to it from the front windows, unfortunately it wasn’t up and running, which is a pity because I love fountains and for some reason there aren’t enough of them in Britain. Nice trees though, the whole area is well planted tree wise. As you can see from the blue rope there was some sort of festival going on at Glamis and they were busy preparing the grounds for it.

Going beyond the castle you come to this dinky wee bridge which I just had to have a look at, bridges being something else I’m keen on. We never did find out what was over the bridge as you can see you aren’t meant to go over it. There were a few cars coming over it in the other direction, belonging to the Strathmore family I suppose.

These two statues are of Stuart kings. This one is James VI of Scotland – he was Mary, Queen of Scots’ son and when Elizabeth I of England died with no heir, he was next in line for the English throne. He’s known as James I in England and he is probably best known nowadays as the man who had the bible translated into English – hence it being known as the King James bible.

This one is King Charles I (Stuart)

He was a bit ‘thrawn’ as we say and his determination to hold on to all of his power led to him having his head chopped off which more or less ended the English Civil War (which actually spread all over Britain.) It was about fifteen years later the Restoration brought his son, Charles II, back as king.

Captain Hook from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is traditionally modelled on Charles I.

Glamis Castle, Angus,Scotland

Posted on 29 August 2012 by Katrina

During the last week of the school holidays we took ourselves off for a day trip up to the Kirriemuir area, north of Dundee. Well the sun was shining and you know what it’s like, you feel you have to grab every good day that comes when the summer has been so pathetic. Before I go any further I must just mention that Glamis is pronounced Glamz, the ‘i’ is silent. I saw on a blogpost written by an English person recently that it should be ‘Glarms’. Well it gave me a laugh anyway because of course it’s an appearance of the sound of an extra ‘r’ which people from the south of England somehow manage to conjure up in their speech, which makes things like the phrase law and order sound like Laura Noddah – while they miss out the letter ‘r’ when it is there to be pronounced.

Driving past the sign for Glamis village we decided that we would stop off there on the way back and have a look at the castle. Unfortunately this meant that we were too late to actually go into it as by then it was after 5 o’clock. Luckily the grounds are open until 6 o’clock so we took a walk down the driveway and we walked and walked and we almost gave up but then decided that we must be at least half-way there so we eventually made it. It was supposed to be a kilometre but I think that it must have been a country one!

This castle was the childhood home of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the lady known to my generation as the Queen Mother although of course to older people she was the Queen. She was particularly loved for taking the job on when she hadn’t expected to have to, due to the dastardly abdicating behaviour of Edward VIII (as wasn’t). You can read more about the castle’s history here.

As you can see, it’s a Scottish baronial castle and is set in beautiful countryside, but more of the surroundings another time.

Pining for the West

Meanderings about recipes, books, craft and more

Tag Archives: Glamis Castle

Glamis Castle, the walled garden, and more

The Italian Garden, Glamis Castle, Angus, Scotland

Glamis Castle, Angus, Scotland

Glamis Castle, Angus, Scotland

Glamis Castle grounds

Glamis Castle, Angus,Scotland