Scotland Vacation June 2007

[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.

[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

[Kiltman]

Thanks for the photos. Brave to do Hamish II.

[McClef]

The Rodin statue is saying "where's my kilt"?

And yes the flower is a foxglove.

[starbkjrus]

And we're back. That pretty much concludes the foray into Southern Scotland. The one impressive day not documented here was the day we went to Sweetheart Abby. The Abbey, the village of New Abbey and then on to Southerness Point were wonderful but alas I didn't charge the camera batteries the night before so there is no record of it.

Next is the final night at Ferintosh.......
Pics to follow:

erp....Photobucket seems to be down.....I guess the new pics will come tomorrow...

[starbkjrus]

And we're back. That pretty much concludes the foray into Southern Scotland. The one impressive day not documented here was the day we went to Sweetheart Abby. The Abbey, the village of New Abbey and then on to Southerness Point were wonderful but alas I didn't charge the camera batteries the night before so there is no record of it.

Next is the final night at Fernitosh.......
Pics to follow:

erp....Photobucket seems to be down.....I guess the new pics will come tomorrow...

...and it's up......

the last night we were in Dumfries Robertson (P1M) and Emma (Mrs. P1M) surprised us by saying the wanted to throw us a BBQ. I can only assume it's because as we've been staying there for a week that they are celebrating getting rid of us.

I talked them out of throwing the BBQ and got them to instead use the BBQ to cook on....

Here is a pic of P1M looking not so much like a cook but more like he'd rather have run down to the border and thrown the BBQ at someone....



After a few pints and drams he warmed up to the occasion and really got into it all...

Here he is in the kitchen doing prep work...



Emma outside prepping the NEW AND IMPROVED patio @ Ferintosh...



Please note: The NEW AND IMPROVED patio at Ferintosh is part of the private apartments of said owners. It's lovely and we felt very privledged to be invited for dinner.

Robertson getting busier at the BBQ. It seems that by this point he had abandoned reiving for the evening...



Here he is even more into the BBQ thing with one of the dugs verifying that he's paying attention....



Or perhaps the dug needs someone to make sure HE's paying attention.

Pause to save so I don't lose this.....

[David Dalglish]

Very nice Dee--Keep them coming

[Freelander Sporrano]

I must admit I had a "Wilson, Kepple and Betty" moment when I saw that last picture.... Keep um coming Dee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkhJp...elated&search=

[Hamish]

I must admit I had a "Wilson, Kepple and Betty" moment when I saw that last picture.... Keep um coming Dee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkhJp...elated&search=

A 'Classic' if ever there was one, David. Brilliant! I don't know how you find these things, but I thank Goodness that someone had the foresight to film AND SAVE them!