Scotland Vacation June 2007

[McClef]

Superb pictures Dee!

I drove through Carlisle last year and remember seeing the castle as we struggled through the horrendous traffic.

[porrick]

Thanks for posting, Dee! Looks like you had a smashing time - and I am sure you'll be back. How about including Norway next time?

[Phil]

Great pictures. They had to have a castle in Carlisle to keep the marauding Scots out. See you made it though.

[Alan H]

Ah, this looks like fun!!!

[starbkjrus]

And now for the Carlisle Aviation museum:

First here are myself, David and Alex discussing pointy things that go boom. I'd like to borrow some of those to use on my homeowner's association just now.



Here are a couple of flight suits on display. Seeing these in person makes me wonder how people walked in them must less flew aircraft.



Now take a look at the instrument panel shots below:





Can anyone tell me how on earth to skip to the next CD in the stereo?

A nice diorama with a simulated view from the tower:


This case of model aircraft is just amazing:



The models are all metiulously accurate and there is a book (put together by one volunteer) that catalogs and cross-references each and every model. These guys put in a LOT of work here.

Can anyone tell me how to check my email on this thing?


Bradley, could you get this in your earlobe?

Thanks again to David, Helen, Alex & Anne for a great day out in England. After the musem we had tea at David & Helen's then back to the trusty rented Vauxhall and across the border in the direction of Ferintosh.

[starbkjrus]

Next stop is Drumlanrig Castle near Thornhill just a few miles north of Dumfries. This castle is one of the homes (although not the current favorite :rolleyes of the Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry. (For those of you into geneology I think the current family name is Montague-Douglas-Scott.)

The front forecourt:



Even though the Duke and Duchess were not in residence when we were there you can see an extra Rolls Royce parked out front.

Here is another view of the castle from one of the gardens. Due to the shape of the shrubbery I dubbed this the Baby Bottle Garden.



This approach road was built at the request of Queen Victoria in preparation for her visit to the castle. I suppose so the magnificance of her entourage could approach in a single straight column.



On an interesting side note, Queen Victoria never did make that visit. Like any good Scot would, when the Queen didn't show The Duke sent her the bill for the new road. It was paid.

Here are some shots of the gardens surrounding the castle. They're quite spectacular.







I was just a bit disappointed in the visit. Not with what we did but what we didn't do. As you can tell by the pics the day was quite...what's the word?...dreitch. We had planned to spend most of the day hiking in the surrounding countryside which is crisscrossed by hiking trails.

This is the countryside I'm talking about:







One thing that seems a bit incongruous with all the natural beauty here is that the RAF uses the place for target practice. (for a fee, I'm sure). It's quite disconcerting when a fighter jet swoops by close enough to see the pilot's sun glasses.

[McMurdo]

Those garden pictures are just superb, thanks for posting them.

[starbkjrus]

Next stop...Wigtown - abt 60 miles west of Dumfries. Wigtown bills itself as Scotland's Booktown and it did not disappoint. The High Street here is devoted almost exclusively to book stores. Now I don't mean it's full of W H Smiths I mean bookstores. The kind that smell musty and have quirky little corridors lined with bookcases and staircases lined with books. More than one bookstore was continued by walking through the back garden to one or more small outbuildings devoted to more bookshelves. I could have stayed there for days!

I don't have any pics in the stores themselves - it just felt too touristy. Plus I was busy debating just how much weight I could add to the luggage.

Here are a few pics of the town itself.

The library (which for a town this size is huge).



Here are some houses in the High Street. The one on the end had a beautiful flower garden.



The Church:


The cross in the square:



Oh look! Is that some sun on the hills on the other side of the bay?!



Needless to say we brought home an extra suitcase due to the books we bought.

[McClef]

Next stop is Drumlanrig Castle near Thornhill just a few miles north of Dumfries. This castle is one of the homes (although not the current favorite :rolleyes of the Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry. (For those of you into geneology I think the current family name is Montague-Douglas-Scott.)

You are correct Dee, and they are related to the Royal Family and produced their longest-lived member in the woman who became the Queen's aunt:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princes..._of_Gloucester

[starbkjrus]

You are correct Dee, and they are related to the Royal Family and produced their longest-lived member in the woman who became the Queen's aunt:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princes..._of_Gloucester

...and the Gold Star goes to Trefor! She was indeed HM The Queen's aunt. HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. AKA Lady Alice Montague-Douglas-Scott. Wife of the late Duke of Gloucester, third son of George V. (the Queen's grandfather) She died at nearly 103 in 2004. In addition to the Wiki article that Trefor cites there is this link.

Next up ( I told you all we took too many pics) is one of the more unique adventures we had. The Sculpture Garden Walk just outside Dumfries.