It’s hard to believe but Peter and I have been married 7 years today. Considering I got married for the first time at age 60, who knew that we could pull this off. Given the potentially disastrous fall Peter had just over a week ago, we consider ourselves very blessed to celebrate the day together.
September 4, 2015
We started our special day with a nice breakfast and, of course, mimosas.
After breakfast we headed about an hour north to Dunrobin Castle. As with most of these ancient castles, it started as a Keep (1401) and was continually built on by subsequent generations. The part of the castle we saw was primarily from the mid-1800s.
Unlike the other Castles, this one had parking directly in front so getting a “clean” picture was pretty much impossible.
We arrived just after 4 coaches of tours arrived so the number of people to see the castle was ridiculous. One of the stewards told us that they would be leaving in about 45 minutes to see the falconry demonstration and the castle would empty out nicely at the time. Since we’ve seen things like that before and weren’t interested in standing in the rain to see it again, we went to the café for a mid-morning snack to wait them out.
I had delicious hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows while Peter had coffee Americano. For our snack Peter had a tea cake (foreground) which is basically a cold S’more of grahm cracker bottom, topped with marshmallow and covered in chocolate. I had the chocolate and coconut flapjack which is an oat bar covered in chocolate and coconut. It’s a traditional Scottish snack.This gorgeous silver mantle clock was hanging in the café’s Firehouse Room. Guess this is why the room was named Firehouse Room. Painting says this was the first Lord Sutherland but gave the date of the 1800. But, the Earldom (in Scotland Dukes are also called Earls…very confusing) in the 1200s so it’s a little confusing as well. Bagpipes of one of the later Dukes. Green and gold room.This tea set was from 1844.Drawing room.While the ceilings in this Castle aren’t as ornate as many of the others, these carvings on the ceiling in the Drawing Room were remarkable. One corner of the Music RoomAnd the other corner. This was one of two grand pianos in the Castle. Grand StaircaseDining RoomDuke’s Study. Handkerchief left by Queen Victoria after a visit in 1872. Don’t you just hate it when guests leave their stuff behind!NurseryNanny’s room. She would stay here with the youngest kids. Seamstress Room. This is also called the Haunted Room. In the 15th century, the Duke captured a beautiful young girl from the Mackay Clan and wanted to marry her. She said no and tried to escape from this room by climbing out of the window with bedsheets tied together. The Duke came and and, in his anger, he cut the sheets with his sword. Of course she fell to her death so now she haunts this room. The Coronation Room and Cornet in the back was worn to coronations in both 1937 and 1952.One of the interior courtyards. This is in the oldest part of the Castle…early 15th century.Formal gardens on the shores of the North Sea.
As you can tell from the pictures, it was a cloudy, rainy day. But, since we’ve been in the UK exactly 6 weeks today and this was our first real rainy day, we’re not complaining. The weather has been absolutely amazing so it was no big deal to skip the walk through the formal gardens. It’s not like we hadn’t already seen gardens.
Tomorrow we leave Inverness and head southwest towards the Isle of Skye where we’ll see another castle (seriously, how many are there??) and go for a tour of a whisky distillery. We’ve been trying to do that since we got to Scotland and haven’t been able to get in. Hopefully it will be worth the wait. We’ll let you know.
