Two members of our group had never been to Scotland before so a day trip was in order. We all piled in the car again and headed north with the plan of visiting the town of Castle Douglas (home to some Wilson ancestors), and also Threave Castle. The drive was uneventful with the exception of about 862 roundabouts, some of which were double roundabouts, which I still am unclear on, but which are like figure eights on an angle where you have to keep track of which exit to leave, and you must stay on the outside of the roundabouts, with the lorries (trucks) so as not to be caught on the inside. Slightly nerve-wracking, possibly more so for the passengers…
Our first stop was the town of Castle Douglas. I had heard that it was worth visiting, but I wonder now if those people had actually ever been there before, or were hoping that if we went there, they wouldn’t have to. Within about 30 seconds of arriving, Travis declared that the place made him ‘feel sad’. We stuck it out for a while – long enough to eat our picnic down by a lake, which, as long as we didn’t look behind us at the town, made for a passable experience. However, the town worked on us, like dementors work on their victims to suck out their souls, and we only just narrowly avoided losing Zoe to an alternative existence as an bitter, unemployed, single mum on the dole with three terribly-behaved kids named Chardonnay, Callum, and Penny. We drove out of there in the nick of time.
See what I mean? Don't look at these pictures for too long...
Fortunately, our next stop was a delight: authentic, unfettered, and fascinating, Threave Castle has stood, in various states of grandeur and disrepair, since the 1300’s and various Kings have fought for it over the centuries. The great thing about it is that it stands on an island in the middle of the River Dee, at the end of a half-mile walk through the countryside, and can only be accessed by boat. In order to get the attention of the boatman, a bell must be ring to summon him and he will come and pick you up for the short ride across the peat-coloured waters. It’s mystical, idyllic, wonderfully simple, and far from the madding crowd –no tourist buses here.
We also had the good luck to arrive on a day when a visiting archaeological team was on site, measuring the moisture content of the ground to determine where there may be evidence of buildings or other structures under ground. Apparently last summer was particularly dry in Scotland and when the ground dries out, things like walls and outlines of structures are easily seen in the ground in aerial photos. The soil directly above a wall will dry out significantly more than the soil around it, telling a story and leaving evidence of what may still be buried underground. The team we met had been brought in by Scottish Heritage to either prove or disprove the findings of the archaeological teams who had, last summer, viewed what they thought to be buried structures. Pretty interesting stuff, if you like old walls and bits of stone like I do. Sleep-inducing if you don’t…
After showing ourselves around the castle and being suitably impressed with the dungeon, which was very dark and horrible, and even had a body in it for effect that you could just make out through the gloom, we made our way back to the jetty and ran into our boatman who told us that the ‘body’ used to have a wig on until one summer when the river flooded and the castle with it, and when the waters subsided, the body no longer had its hair. He thought it was very funny that their might be a pigeon out there with a wig for a nest, or perhaps even a wig on its head. Everyone is very friendly here and happy to talk for hours, if you let them, even if it is about pigeons and wigs.
The boatman telling us how high the waters got during the flooding.
We were all dying for a cup of tea after the excitement of the pigeon story, and headed for Threave Gardens, which is the local Manor House (there’s one every few miles around here) which has a cafe (of course – no self-respecting Manor House would be caught dead without one) and, of course a gift shop, which we cleaned out.
We managed to avoid Castle Douglas, or Castle Duncan as we were calling it, on our way back and were all very happy to arrive home to High Houses.
Five hours in Scotland wasn’t really enough so Zoe and Georgia have decided to take the train to Glasgow for the day tomorrow while Travis and I visit the lovely town of Carlisle, and spend the remainder of the day at High Houses and take walks and naps. I’m looking forward to it already…
Thanks for reading-
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment