Crieff: Drummond Castle and Gardens

I love castles. The idea that these magnificent stone structures were built hundreds, perhaps thousands of years ago and continue to dominate the countryside around them intrigues me. Drummond Castle in Crieff, Scotland was built in 1490 by John, 1st Lord Drummond and went through major transformations and remodelling around 1630 and 1890.  The imposing Drummond Castle Keep is the first part of the complex that you see from the car park, after driving down the exquisite Beech Avenue which is over a mile long. 

Drummond Castle is not open to the public but that is not the reason you visit here anyway.  The major reason to visit here is to see the exquisite Drummond Gardens.

The Drummond Gardens are laid out in the design of a St Andrew’s Cross.  These formal gardens are expertly divided into sections with shrubs, deciduous tress, maples, topiary, coniferous trees and twenty-one types of apples but I realised quite quickly that I was out of my depth.

I’m certainly not an expert on fauna and plant life so I took a relaxing walk around the gardens and just appreciated all of the sights.  Click on any of the photos for a better resolution.

John Mylne’s Sundial (above left and centre) lies right in the middle of the St Andrew’s Cross and was erected in 1630.  It is known as a multiplex sundial and apparently shows the time in different countries.  I can’t comment on that because I have never, even managed to tell the time on a sundial! 

I loved the detail on this arch that formed the bottom boundary of the garden, leading to the rose and vegetable gardens.

In the bottom photo here you can see the copper beech tree that Queen Victoria planted when she visited in 1842.  It is strange to imagine that this magnificent tree must have been a mere shrub 169 years ago!

I really love this photo and it shows what a gorgeous day it was when we visited.  It occurs to me that I managed to get no pictures whatsoever of the grounds people.  That is quite a feat as there were so many of them!They work nearly every day and it takes them a full year to complete a maintenance cycle!  They are obviously very talented!

It said in the brochure that the bridge in the photos above was the original drive.  I guess that means that we came in through the back entrance and that the gardens were once to the front of the castle as opposed to the back.  That makes sense really.

This is Drummond Castle and was largely remodelled and rebuilt in the mid-19th century.  I saw this particular style of architecture, which I believe to be Scots Baronial Style, all around Scotland and I really love the creepy haunted house look.  If you look carefully at the photo above, you can see black birds flying around the turrets of the castle above and they certainly added to the eerie sense of foreboding!

This last photo was taken from the top and Ste was looking down over the gardens.  The scenery was breath taking (as it so often is in Scotland) and we had a hard time tearing ourselves away. 

Touring Scotland: Crieff Visitor Centre

Back in August, we visited Scotland and we had the most amazing week.  Some could say too relaxing because it has taken me some time to sort through all of my photos.  Well, all stories must have a beginning and ours began at the Crieff Visitor Centre.  We’d been in to Crieff town centre to look for some information on the attractions in the surrounding area and the ladies in the Tourist Information Centre had suggested that a very good place to start was the visitor centre up the road.  There we would learn a bit more about the history of Crieff as an important cattle-droving centre and about the town in general.

This gorgeous young man is an excellent example of kyloe or Highland cattle.  Highland cattle are famous for being sturdy which is important given that they were bred on the treacherous Scottish Highlands.

Groups of Highland cattle are called ‘folds’ of cattle as opposed to normal cattle which are grouped in herds.  We found them to be rather shy except for when we tried to gently attract their attention and then they seemed rather scary.

The visitor centre has a factory and outlet for Caithness Glass, a famous glass-making enterprise.  We had the privilege of watching some of their most skilled glass-makers at work.

 

My photos don’t even begin to do justice to the painstaking pace at which these masters work to make the most beautiful paperweights and other objets d’art.  If you visit the Crieff Visitor’s Centre website, you can see examples of the finished products.

The final part of the centre that we visited was the Drovers Exhibition.  This is a lovely exhibition that tells you all about the cattle-droving trade that made Crieff an important crossroads in Scotland in the early 1700s.  They were really hard and brutal times and the exhibition tells you all about how the cattle drovers survived and what the markets must have looked like.

This was the first major history lesson that I had in Scotland and it was to be a week where I learned much more about the people, culture and history of the land.  It was the first sign I had that Scotland really is a very different country from England and it was really interesting to learn about it all.

We left the visitor centre and headed out on our very first Scottish castle-hopping experience.

Wordless Wednesday ~ 43: Rooftops in Crieff

Click here for more Wordless Wednesday participants

The Scottish Town of Crieff

It seems strange to me that a couple of months have passed since I visited Scotland.  But it is true!  It has been a crazy and busy time but my memories of the most lovely and idyllic holiday remain.  After our first day in which I took a walk around Lock Monzievaird, we drove on down to the nearby town of Crieff to see what there was to do. 

Crieff has a Tourist Information Centre which appears to be housed in an old church.  The ladies at the Centre are incredibly helpful and they really take the time to help each visitor plan their time in the area.  We left with loads of pamphlets and ideas and also a map showing us the way to the Crieff Visitor Centre back on the road to Loch Monzievaird.

Crieff is a market town and is famous for being a major cattle droving hub for hundreds of years.  I really loved the creepy architectural style of the town (and I mean ‘creepy’ in the best, most admiring kind of way!)

In the week that we were in Scotland, we spent most of our time in the council area of Perth and Kinross.  A ‘council area’ is similar to a county in England and it is a local government administrative area.  Perth and Kinross crosses the southern boundary of the Scottish Highlands so while we didn’t get to see huge mountains or majestic waterfalls, we did get to see breathtaking views wherever we went.   We visited Crieff, Aberfeldy and Pitlochry and you just had to look down the side streets to see incredible views like the one above.

We were rather amused to discover a dedicated Christmas store in Crieff.  The store is open all year round and we were amazed that they manage to stay in business!  I imagine the tourist trade helps somewhat as we certainly couldn’t resist buying personalised gifts for all of the grandchildren, nieces and godchildren in the family.

Their prices were really good too so perhaps that accounts for them staying in business!

If you follow the Scotland Here and Now blog, you will know that one of the biggest attractions to Scotland is their food and drink.  I didn’t sample nearly enough of those in my time in Scotland and that is one of the biggest reasons why I intend to return there!

We did visit this divine Whiskies and Cheese shop which was a lovely little shop full of… you guessed it, whisky and cheese.  I bought a lovely little orange and port pâté and I wished that I drank more whisky as they had a really impressive selection. 

And so with map in hand, the five intrepid travellers set off for Crieff Visitor Centre.

Wordless Wednesday ~ 39: Lamp Post

Click here for more Wordless Wednesday participants

Walking Around Loch Monzievaird

Shortly before I went away to Serbia, a colleague told me that she hoped it would be everything I was looking for.  When I came home overwhelmed and exhausted, it made me think about exactly what I wanted from my upcoming holiday to Scotland.  I had an idea of greenery and wide open spaces, lazy afternoons reading books while I looked out on to the loch* and visiting places steeped in history.  My boss had a good old laugh at that as the week we were up in Scotland was meant to be rainy, cold and grey and to top it all off, it was midge season.

I am more than pleased to say that I got my wish and we had a full week of the most incredible late summer weather topped up with a life affirming dose of greenery, blue skies and incredible nature.

Now I know that other people’s nature photographs can seem a bit boring sometimes but I hope you’ll enjoy taking this photo walk with me.  This is a walk I took around Loch Monzievaird on the first afternoon after we arrived.  It took 75 minutes and the closest word I can find to describe the experience would be exhilarating. 

Click on any of the images to enlarge them

Before I embarked on my walk, I took a look back up to the cabin.  Doesn’t it just look like the archetypal holiday cabin in the woods?

I tried macro photography for the first time this holiday.  I did not realise how very hard it is and the two photos above are the only ones out of quite a few that came out reasonably well.  It makes me appreciate all of your macro shots so much more now!

I think it is pretty safe to say that I will never, ever in a hundred years tire of this view (and that I will be back to visit Loch Monzievaird).

I walked up a little hill and saw this ancient structure standing on it.  It looked like it was only about 15 feet by 10 feet in diameter.  We think it might have been where they lead their sheep at night.  The sheep would have stayed in the bottom and the men would have slept a level above them, benefitting from the warmth that the sheep would have emitted. It looks like wooden beams would have run into the wall in the third photo above and that was shot at an upwards angle.  Although crumbling at the top, it does look like there were some defensive structures built in and that would have been protection from marauders.  Due to the precarious state of the building, entry was prohibited but I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know that I had a run in with some stinging nettle in order to get you these photos.

I was quite enchanted to see how these stairs above seemed to disappear into nothing but lush, green forest.  It was really beautiful and green and abundant in the forest and soon I arrived again at the water's edge. 

I soon came to a fork in the path and decided to go right, along the path that was less travelled.  It was a good decision as the path went back into the woods.  I soon came upon a tumbled-down house and a fence. 

This massive tree had obviously fallen down on the house one stormy night as it looked like it had been quite intact before the incident with the tree.

By now, I was on the other side of the loch and all of a sudden, I was in a meadow.

 

Laugh, if you will, but I totally had an Edward and Bella** moment and laid back in the meadow watching the clouds go by for a good quarter of an hour.

Back on the path, I just loved how the edges of the path was dotted with little yellow flowers (you might need to enlarge the photo to see them).

I clowned around on those tree skeletons for a while, as I phoned Stephen and asked him if he could see me.  He made me clown around and jump up and down for quite a while before owning up that yes, he could see me very clearly.

All too soon, I was on the other side of the loch.  Just right of centre in the photo are the tree skeletons.

Then al that was left to do was to hop over the stream next to my cabin and then I was back ‘home’ again.  What a fabulous walk!  If you have ever been thinking of visiting Scotland than don’t delay!  It is gorgeous and you certainly can’t go wrong with Loch Monzievaird.

* Loch is the Irish and Scottish Gaelic term for a lake or a sea inlet.
** Twilight reference for men and non-Twilight readers.