We had breakfast at the hotel, which did a pretty good traditional Scottish with potato scones, sausage, bacon and eggs. We ate heartily knowing we had a pretty full day ahead of us. We thought we would start with the furthest thing away from us and headed off for Hermitage Castle. We trusted the Tom-Tom to guide us there and soon found that the GPS did not take into account our full stomachs. We were sent on shortcuts using small 'un-named' roads that more resembled private driveways. The other roads it has us take were winding and full of ups and downs that soon all three of us a little queasy.
So we eagerly jumped out of the car when we finally arrived. Hermitage Castle is listed as the 'guardhouse of the bloodiest valley in Scotland' due to its position in the line of march between England and Scotland. It was definitely not a manor-house type castle, but one built for a military purpose. It was big and fore-boding, the type of place you would think that the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail would come from. But for a place whose primary purpose was as a battle centre, it was in really good shape, at least on the outside. The corners were all still straight and sharp and the walls rose vertically in one piece to the place where they had previously constructed a wooden parapet to better defend against incoming soldiers. The inside was massive and utilitarian, with little if any decorative features. In fact, the only decoration was a beautiful orange moss or lichen that was growing on one of the walls.
We hiked up and around the inside, coming to the prison pit where one of the castle lords threw his rival, starving him to death over a few weeks so he could inherit his position as local sheriff. The castle also had a broad ditch and earthen barrier to better defend itself, and it continued to be highly effective in keeping the local sheep out. Next to the castle were the remains of a small chapel where the local lord was buried. Not far from them, and outside the chapel ruins, was a small mound where the locals buried one of the Border rovers who had been terrorizing them. Apparently his armour made him impossible to defeat in battle, so they lured him to the creekside and drowned him in a small pool.
Reluctant to take on the winding roads again, but too creeped out by the castle to stay, we hopped back in the car and made for a different county of Scotland, Dumfries and Galloway. It was about an hour and a half drive through some very pretty countryside. We even dipped into England for a little bit, coming back in to Scotland at Gretna Green. We stopped in Dumfries at the Globe Inn for lunch. It was apparently one of Robbie Burns' favourite places to go and it had a great homey feel to it. There were some locals having their pints and we got a booth further down the bar. Fiona had a great chicken and leek pie and I had a nice breaded haddock. The pub did great fries, but the mushy peas were clearly from a can and well-nigh inedible.
A little bit outside of Dumfries was our destination, Caerlaverock Castle. We pulled in and were immediately greeted by one of the docents. He instructed us, kindly, on how to pronounce the name of the castle and pointed us on our way. Caerlaverock is a beautiful ruin - triangular in shape and placed in the middle of a large moat. It's a fantastic red colour and is set against a backdrop of trees and swamp that acted as effective defences back in the day.
We quite liked our tour of the inside. There were nice decorative touches that are usually missing in other castles. You could tell that someone wanted to make it look nice, as well as be an effective defensive structure. A lot of the internal structure was still intact, so we could wander around, up and down between the floors to get better views. Given the long drive, we were definitely worried that it wouldn't be worth it. I'm glad to say we found we hadn't wasted our afternoon.
Our last stop of the day was Kelso Abbey, which is quite near to the hotel. We parked in the centre of town, put Casey on the leash and headed off. We were soon stopped by a couple of locals who had stumbled out of the pub. Apparently one of them also had a Wheaten Terrier. Casey took in all the attention he gave her. He tried to call his wife, who was apparently shopping somewhere else in town, but we had to push on.
Kelso Abbey was the least impressive of the ruined churches we have seen. It was like they gave up on it as soon as it started to go downhill. Sections were built over for the local school and rock carted away for other projects. Fallen gravestones weren't picked up and restored. It was kind of sad, really.
We headed back to the hotel to clean up before dinner. We got a smaller dining room because the rest of the hotel was being used for a wedding. It was kind of strange to be having a nice quite dinner while dance music pounded in from the adjacent room. It was the same menu as the day before, but we each had something different. I had a pigeon breast starter, which was OK with the exception of the lead shot I bit down on. We had another great wine - a St. Estephe for a cheaper price because our Bourdeaux selection was no longer available. The wine went great with Fiona's lamb and with my risotto.
We hit the bedroom utterly exhausted but looking forward to another exciting day on Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment