Author Kim J Cowie's travel blog
National Trust for Scotland
Visited Crathes Castle, a tower-like castle. From the upper floor one can get a fine view of the extensive walled gardens. The castle has an attached wing in a Victorian style. This wing was formerly bigger, but was burnt out in the 1960’s and was rebuilt to a lesser height and ground plan. We walked around the walled gardens which are arranged in multiple sections and are very fine.
Visit date: May 2014
National Trust for Scotland
Castle Fraser is a substantial tall castle built with three wings, and a long courtyard enclosed by a pair of service wings. We were able to visit the entire interior on a self-guided tour, and were able to get onto the roof of one of the wings, which gave a great view of the grounds. We visited a walled garden.
Visit date: May 2014
National Trust for Scotland
Pitmedden Garden is a fine walled garden, originally created in the 17th century. When visited there were a few modern sculptures in the grounds, and displays of farm life in outbuildings. The attached house is not open to the public and of no particular interest.
The gardens are well worth a visit.
Visit date: May 2014
Historic Scotland
A ruin with interesting carvings on the gatehouse.
We also visited Tarves Churchyard, where there is a tomb for William Forbes, featuring an arch with carvings.
Visited May 2014
NTS
There has been a castle on the site of Fyvie since around the 13th century. It was originally a square fort built around a courtyard, but with successive phases of construction it became a grand house built on part of the square outline, with major phases of construction in the early 17th century, the 18th century, and the 1890’s. The South Front preserves the original entrance and the lower part of the original South front. The last owner sold the castle and most of its contents to the National Trust for Scotland in 1984.
Internally, the castle contains a series of grand, fully furnished Victorian interiors, and, dating from the sixteenth century, a fine spiral staircase or ‘wheel-stair’.
In the grounds is a grand lake.
(visited 6 May 2014)
NTS
Craigevar Castle was built in the late 16th century by the Mortimers of Craigievar. Like many of the Scottish ‘castles’ it is more a defensible house than a castle. In the early 17th century a new owner ‘Danzig Willie’ removed the parts above the fourth floor and had them replaced with a highly decorated array of turrets, dormer windows and balustraded viewing platforms. Internally, the castle has moulded plaster ceilings dating from 1624. A new roof and other minor alterations were made in the 19th century.
The thick-walled ground floor has a lobby protected by a heavy door and the traditional Scottish iron grille or ‘yell’, two cellars and the kitchen. Above is the double-height Hall with a vaulted and plastered ceiling, and a small musicians’ gallery above the screens passage.
Above the Hall are two floors with bedrooms, and above that a floor with the maids’ room and the Long Room, originally a long gallery with (almost certainly) a fine plaster ceiling, but later partitioned up for servants’ rooms, and opened up again in the 1950’s.
The castle is surrounded by an extensive park with trees.
Scottish Heritage
The most famous building in Edinburgh. If you are expecting massive medieval walls and a keep or towers on the lines of English or Welsh castles, you may find Edinburgh Castle a bit of a disappointment. The crags, with a wall across the neck behind the shooting-gallery of the Castle esplanade, were enough to see off medieval attackers. Cannon fire in various sieges demolished most of the original medieval buildings, and what stands today are mostly barracks and halls of later date. A few bits were rebuilt by the Victorians to make the castle look more like a Victorian baroque castle.
However there is much to see, enough to keep a visitor busy for several hours.
The St Margaret’s chapel is the oldest building. There are regimental museums, and around a square you will find a Royal Palace built for James VI, the Scottish Crown Jewels, a magnificent Great Hall, and the massive Scottish National War Memorial. There are prisons of war, and a medieval prison. A modern gun is fired at 1pm, and you can look at Mons Meg, a medieval large-bore cannon.
A regular adult ticket costs £16 (2014), but if you have a qualifying English Heritage card you get in free, haha.
The Edinburgh Council really don’t want you coming to their city centre by car, so unless you are willing to pay over £13 for a day’s parking, come by bus, train, or the new tram.
Tea rooms were a Glasgow institution in the Edwardian era. Among them were the Willow Tea Rooms, with interiors designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for Kate Cranston. Tea rooms fell out of favour, but with renewed interest in Mackintosh, the Willow Tea Rooms were recreated. Some parts of the interiors are original.
Actually, Mackintosh is not a difficult style to copy, judging by the ‘Rennie Mackintosh Hotel’ at which I stayed, originally a temperance hotel.
The tea rooms are part of the ‘Mackintosh Tour’, so they are used to people popping in to have a look, but remember that their main business is to sell teas and souvenirs.
The Willow Tea Rooms are at 217 Sauchihall Street and 97 Buchanan Street.
Gallery
GoMA is housed in an elegant neo-classical building in Royal Exchange Square in the city centre. It is claimed to be Scotland’s most visited modern art gallery (presumably because it’s free and in the city centre.) Previously, the building was a business and commercial exchange. The main hall is used for changing exhibitions, and there are smaller spaces upstairs. There is also a general public library in the basement.
The exhibition in the photos is Aleksandra Domanovic ‘Things to Come’ (Modern gender-conscious art with images from sci-fi and manga).
It is recommended that you travel by public transport if visiting GoMA.
Visit date 4 May 2014.
Glasgow Cathedral was founded in the 12th century and is still in use as a church today. Unusually, it is owned by Historic Scotland. It is open daily for visitors when not in use for services.
The Cathedral has an extensive Lower Church under the south transept and the eastern end. There are relics of the cathedral’s long history, and some modern stained glass.
Inside, the Cathedral is rather dark. It is an impressive building, and worth a visit.
There is a striking Necropolis on a hill nearby.
Admission is free.
Visited May 2014