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It was light very early again today, which was just as well as we needed to get up a bit earlier. After breakfast at the hostel, we packed up the car and heading North up the road. A few minutes later, we turned around and headed back after realizing we had left all our food on the kitchen counter !
Our second attempt was more successful and we were soon passing through downtown Inverness, on our way to Cawdor Castle. Cawdor Castle is linked fictionally though Shakespeare's Macbeth when Macbeth is made “Thane of Cawdor”. Though there is no historical link to the event that the play is based on, I am eager to see the Castle that serves as some of this plays setting.
The Castle is well maintained as is still used as a family home for half of the year. Standing on the drawbridge at the gate, I could picture the gate keeper from Macbeth and hear the lines about being the gatekeeper for the gates of Hell.
Visiting the castle is a bit odd has a mix of antique furnishings and contemporary details as there is a family who still lives there. It seems
strange to see their own family snapshots mixed in with 15 th century tapestries and the like. It is a bit like if you cordoned off parts of someones grandmother's house with purple velvet rope, and then ushered the public through it.
After visiting the castle, we walked down to the river where Benjamin and Joshua had fun skipping stones, seemingly oblivious to the majestic castle standing above them.
Evy and I toured the gardens. These were quite interesting in their use of small hedges and various kinds of thistles, all beautifully kept up. The formal layout seemed contrast with things like the wild roses.
Leaving the castle, we had our picnic lunch on the grounds and after buying some ice creams, set the GPS for our next destination and home for tonight, Carbisdale Castle.
The drive took about and hour and a half, much of it on quite small and narrow roads. The scenery was dramatic and we stopped for photos on the way.
As we got closer to our destination, we entered as small village and then took some side roads eventually following the course of a river. In the distance, high above
the river, we could see Carbisdale Castle in the distance. It looked to the classic castle of fairy tales, with high towers and multiple spires.
The entrance to the castle road mimics the look of the castle, and sets the mood well as you drive the kilometre or so up to the Castle entrance. Benjamin and Joshua were quite obviously impressed saying “Our we really staying here ?”. After some “interesting” places over this last year, this is definitely a high point.
After checking in, we walked across a large hall full of marble statues to our room. The room itself was a good size, but the castle itself is the main draw so after depositing our bags, we explored.
The library, which is just the down the hall from our room, was huge with a good selection of books. Back in the hallway with the statues, we climbed the large wooden staircase, with its wonderful carved details, to the second floor. Here a large room serves as a hallway and art gallery, with many portraits hung on the walls.
After our exploration, Benjamin returned to our room to do school work, while Evy and I
took a walk back down the long drive and turned along a footpath. The path led past fields with large black stairs and others with sheep, seeking out the cool shade. We followed the path and crossed over the river on the railway bridge trying to find a vantage point to take a photo of the Castle. Unfortunately, every angle seemed to have power lines in the shot, so I ended up walking across a field to take a photo.
Back up at the castle, there was a guided tour set for 5:30. The tour guide gave some more background on the Castle. It is actually relatively recent, having being build in the early 1900s to look like it had parts from different architectural eras. A Sutherland, whose wife died, married again. When he died and left most of his estate to his new wife, the family was very upset. She ended up taking a settlement of cash and the promise to be built a house “fitting her station” but it had to be outside the family estate. Her choice of location had to do with its visibility to the family as they passed alongside the river, as if
to rub their noses in it.
In the hallway with the statues, our guide gave Joshua the challenge to find the statue that acts as the lever to open a secret trap door. While the guide continued with the tour, Joshua searched the room. When we returned, he had spotted the statue, based on some scratch marking on the stand where the statue rotates to open the door.
After the tour, we went to the dining hall as we have opted for the hostels dinner rather than cooking our own tonight (there aren't any stores close by). We have dubbed this meal “Mom's birthday dinner” figuring tomorrow's dinner, on her real birthday, may not be so grand. After a good meal, we returned to our room. Just after nine, we heard a bagpipe music coming from outside, completing this quintessential Scottish scene.
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