Crathes Castle

October 19, 2012

What a fabulous dinner we had last night at Glen Lui!  I had salmon and bc had venison with red wine vanilla sauce.  For dessert we had sticky toffee pudding.  This was the best sticky toffee pudding we have had yet.  Heather who owns the B&B we are at gave us her recipe for this dessert.  Yum.  A perfect Christmas treat. 

We had a nice breakfast in the dining room this morning.  Then off to visit Crathes Castle.  It was about a 45 minutes’ drive through pretty fall scenery.  We drove through Tullich, Dinnet, Aboyne, Ballogie, Inchmarlo, Banchoy and Milton of Crathers. 

It was raining when we got to the Castle so we got out the lightening rod, I mean umbrella, and made our way to the ticket office.  This castle was built in the 1650s to 1680’s by Mr. Burnett.  The Burnetts of Leys had been “gifted” the lands from a King.  The Burnett families lived in the castle until 1952 when they “gifted” it back to Scotland.  It is well furnished and is amazing to see how they lived.  There are the steep and winding stairs, with the 11^th step a “trip step” and amazing ceilings painted in the 1600s with sayings and pictures.  I thought of my friend Diana when I saw the 2 exquisite framed cross stitch pictures.  They were done by 12 and 8 year old girls in 1814 and 1827!  Again, we couldn’t take any pictures of the inside. 

It had stopped raining so we walked around the wonderful garden.  We took lots of pictures.  I can only imagine how beautiful the garden is in spring or summer. 

Can you imagine fuchsia's like this in fall!

In real life the fall colors are even more beautiful

These hedges are bizarre!  We saw a garden note.  It said the hedge trimming was done for the season.  They trimmed 3 miles worth!

On the way home we stopped at “Rock Salt and Snails” for a snack.  It’s a tiny bistro with good food.  We enjoyed it so much; we booked a table for this evening.  We plan to have a lighter meal after last nights!  While having lunch there I saw my boss Joan having tea and visiting with a friend.  She pretended not to notice me, but I saw her just the same!

We walked around Ballater and bc got to visit the butcher shop.  We came back to the B&B to re-sort through all our stuff.  The suitcases were a mess but now we know where stuff is!  It’s been cold and foggy, but we don’t let it stop us. 

Tomorrow we are off to another B&B.  Take care, bc and gc