A day of relaxation at last

On our drive from Edinburgh to Crieff two days ago, we detoured via Stirling Castle to see what we missed having not come to Scotland a couple of years earlier to take part in Sprint the Castles, two of which were Edinburgh and Stirling.

It was a grey and rainy day and we hoped that the crowds would be smaller. Stirling Castle is much more atmospheric than Edinburgh Castle which is dank and dark and looks in need of a good clean.

Door to Queens chambers Stirling Castle

Stirling continues to undergo restoration. The original building dates from the 14^th century when it was one of the residences of the Stuart monarchs. The kitchens are especially interesting, showing the facilities for food preparation for lavish banquets. No fridges, microwaves, gas ovens or electric rotisseries for the chefs, the rotisseries were turned hour after hour by slave children.

Dungeons Stirling Castle

Canon that fired from the castle at the battle of Bannock Burn.

Queens garden. Stirling Castle

Another point of great interest for me was a display of how tapestries were prepared, and woven. I won’t bore you, sufficient to say I spent a good half-hour browsing, while patient Pete sat on a bench and yawned.

By the way, the sprint would have been fantastic. Lots of stairs (naturally) and alleyways everywhere.

Fast forward to today ….. After yesterday’s debacle at event 1 of the Scottish 6 days, (I still don’t want to talk about it!) we decided that today would be a day of relaxation. We slept in, had breakfast in bed, and then made our leisurely way to see the Beatrix Potter Garden just around the corner from our Wee Nook in Birnam. I found it to be ho hum as I hadn’t grown up with her stories, my boys had preferring books about shiny red fire engines and tug boats. Pete was rather more interested as he had read the stories to his daughter.

Across the road in Birnam

Then on to Dunkeld, just 3 miles on from our digs. It’s a very pretty village with plenty of pubs to chose from for a restoring ale, lunch or dinner, or all the above.

After an earlyish lunch of a smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich (yummy), and coffee, we wandered off to view the main attraction of this area, Dunkeld Cathedral, in a most beautiful and peaceful setting on the banks of the River Tay. Half the cathedral is still used as a church while the rest is in ruins. There is plenty of scaffolding around the ruin as a huge restoration program is in progress. It dates back to 1350 while the tower was added in the 15^th century.

Surviving section of Dunkeld Cathedral

The ruined section of Dunkeld Cathedral.

We then had a quick look at a near Loch that was a Wild Life refuge for the reintroduction of the Beaver and the Osprey into Scotland. They had previously been shot as the beaver prevented salmon management on the Lairds streams and the Osprey took the best fish.

Tomorrow it’s off to slip, slide and wade through more muddy bogs. The course description says “technical area with complex contour detail and a mix of forest types with few linear features, areas of open rough and some windblow (what is that??) many marshes, becoming slow running after rain (there was rain overnight last night) and a lot of rock”. Oh, happy days!!

Ilze