31 Jul 2014. <GB-SCT> Dundee, Angus —

Today was Dundee's turn. We drove to a retail park quite near the city centre, which gave us 4 hours parking. We walked in to Discovery Point, which was supposed to be the main tourist information centre (it wasn't, but they helped us anyway), but which was a major exhibition centre relating to Captain Robert Falcon Scott and (primarily) his first expedition to the Antarctic in 1901-1904. The real hero of the expedition was the ship, RRS Discovery (RRS: Royal Research Ship). The ship was built in Dundee, and performed perfectly. Even when it was trapped in pack ice, it was not crushed, and was ultimately able to be freed to sail home.

Scott is perhaps better known for his failed second expedition to the Antarctic, where he and his team were beaten in a race to the South Pole by the Norwegian Raoul Amundsen, and on the return trek perished, after an 800 mile journey, 11 miles short of a cache of supplies that would have saved them. It's intriguing how we have a fascination with heroic failures — Scott of the Antarctic, Burke and Wills, William Wallace, even Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Warren has a greater interest in Antarctic explorers than most, because one of his fellow students — about 50 years his senior! — while he was studying linguistics was Alf Howard, who was a geologist on the 1926 Mawson expedition to the Antarctic! Alf (sadly, no longer with us) was a phenomenon — but that's another story!

Building Discovery

But the Discovery is a beautiful craft. She was built of wood, but with special engineering to allow her to withstand the rigours of the Antarctic ice-pack. There are multiple layers of different types of wood, running in different directions, to give her incredible strength. She is a combined steam and sail craft, typical of the time. She has a triple expansion engine, an ingenious design which gave maximum power for the energy expended.

The scientific work carried out on Scott's first expedition was exemplary. The geology reports, for example, may have been modified by subsequent research, but are still basically the bible for the geology of Antarctica. They have even provided important data for the development of the theory of plate tectonics, now basic to geological science

Wardroom

Heating system

Stoking

The Galley

We spent an hour or so exploring the craft, lying at anchor at Discovery Point in Dundee. Although she looks comfortable here, one can only imagine the rigours when the temperature outside is getting down to -90C

After satisfying our Antarctic curiosity, Warren took a couple of photos of the nearby Tay railway bridge, the subject of an execrable poem by William McGonagall, arguably the worst poet in the English language. Then we set our compass (actually, our Garmin) for Stirling, and the Battle of Bannockburn site, which we hope to explore tomorrow.

The Tay Railway Bridge

We stopped off on a layby well off the A9, leaving ourselves about 15 miles to go tomorrow morning — with another Turner landscape as our view for the evening!

Distance driven — today, 48 miles ( 77 km ); to date, 5,331 miles ( 8,580 km )

30 Jul 2014. <GB-SCT> Kirriemuir, & Glamis, & Dundee, Angus —

Peter Pan
in Town Square

Today our destination was Kirriemuir, the birthplace of James M Barrie, the author of Peter Pan. Kirriemuir is also known as the 'little red town', because of the reddish-brown sandstone quarried locally and used for almost all its buildings.

We quickly found Barrie's birthplace — the whole town is well signed, and small enough to walk! Barrie's birthplace is 'The Tenements', 9 Brechin Road, Kirriemuir. It stands out, as it is the only building in the street that has been rendered in white! In the 1930s, the house was to be sold to the Americans for reconstruction there as a Barrie Museum. In disgust, Duncan Elliot Alves of Caernarvon bought the property and donated it to the National Trust of Scotland!

The Laundry

Barrie, one of ten children born in this small four-roomed house (of which the two lower rooms were used by his father, a weaver of linen, as his store and workplace). Barrie got a lot of his inspiration from his family, particularly his mother, and the world around him. The little separate laundry behind the house, which Barrie used as a little theatre as a child, is thought to be the inspiration for the "Wendy House" in Peter Pan. There were only three boys, with James being the youngest of them. The middle brother died at the age of 14 — was he perhaps the inspiration for 'the boy who never grew up'?

Barrie ultimately became a well-known and loved writer with rooms in London — we all remember Peter Pan, but what of The Admirable Crichton, Quality Street, and many other plays still performed today. He was also Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh.

Anyway, after exploring this house, we walked a couple of streets away and up Kirriemuir Hill, where there are more Barrie sites — his grave is in the cemetery there, and we must say, he has a great view.

Further up the hill is the old cricket ground, sadly no longer used as such. In 1930, Barrie had a cricket pavilion constructed there, so that his team the Allahabarries (he was under the misapprehension that 'Allahu akbar' means 'God help us', which his team of literary luminaries apparently needed as they played) had a suitable place to host thair matches. But the pavilion has another claim to fame — Barrie arranged that upstairs it would have a camera obscura, which he later donated to the town. It is one of only three fully functioning cameras obscura still in existence in Scotland!

We said the cricket ground no is no longer used as such — but there is now a magnificent children's playground built as Captain Hook's ship, which is very well used. Peter Pan still has his place in Kirriemuir!

From here, we drove southwards to Glamis (about 5 miles south) to visit the Angus Folk Museum. We didn't know its opening hours, so were taking a punt. This time we failed — it's closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. But right next door — wow! Glamis Castle. It's the home of the Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne. The family now has the surname Bowes-Lyon, and this is where the late Queen Mother (née Bowes-Lyon) was brought up — so this castle has a resonance with the Castle of Mey in northern Scotland.

Our delightful tour guide took great pleasure in telling us the ghost stories related to this castle — how two early inhabitants were playing cards into the sabbath and were visited by a third player, who turned out to be the devil, who condemned them to continue playing cards into eternity, walled up in the room they were in, and that, on a late Saturday night, you can sometimes hear the sound of card players behind that very wall.

The castle is still in full use as a family home, so its condition is superb. The furnishings are mind-boggling. And the castle itself is one of the most impressive we have visited — the long driveway down to the castle is in itself quite an experience.

In the estate around the castle we found a couple of fields housing highland cattle, which made for a great photo opportunity.

There's also a walled garden, but they only started planting it in 2013, so it's in a very early stage of development.

After enjoying a couple of hours there, we continued on into Dundee, where we found a Maccas to let Susie catch up on her computing, and then Warren put up a couple of days on the blog.

We decided to be cheeky, and remained in the associated car park — somewhat removed from the restaurant, however — until the next morning.

Distance driven — today, 34 miles ( 55 km ); to date, 5,283 miles ( 8,503 km )

29 Jul 2014. <GB-SCT> Drumoak, Aberdeenshire; Montrose, Angus —

Today, because we had decided to return to Drum Castle to check out the chapel we had missed yesterday, we started off on a most leisurely way. Susie caught up on her journal, and went for a walk out upon Newmillhill. She came back laughing — from the top of the hill is a wonderful view of a caravan park with van after van laid out only inches apart — exactly the kind of living we are trying to avoid by finding out-of-the-way (or, sometimes, right-on-the-way) places to stop off at night. So we both went up the hill for the view!

We then went up to Drum Castle. When we went in to check if we needed tickets to get to see the chapel, and were waved away with a smile — that part of the property is wide open to the general public! This lovely little chapel was refurbished by the Irvine family in 1857, particularly by Anna Forbes Irvine in memory of her six-year-old son.

We then set off towards Kirriemuir, birthplace of James Barrie, of 'Peter Pan' fame. On the way, we saw that we were passing the House of Dun, a 17th century Georgian mansion designed and built by William Adam. The exterior was completed in 1730, but the keys were not handed over to the Erskines until 15 years later.

As we came up towards the house, we passed an imposing row of giant sequoias, planted when the tree was introduced to Britain in 1856.

The design of the house by Adam is fascinating. The ideal of symmetry is carried out, almost to ridiculous extremes. (Remember Fort George, also designed by the Adam family, another example of Georgian symmetry!) There are rooms, for example, which have four doors, the two on one side being fully functional, the two on the other, placed only for symmetry, open onto stone walls! Two of the lower windows in the front are in front of the solid stone wall of the kitchen — but from outside, the symmetry of the design is undisturbed!

The plasterwork in the saloon is amazing, having been created by Joseph Enzer, a Dutchman, who was paid £216 for it in 1742 — about 4 years before Culloden. There are Jacobean references in many of the works, but it appears that they were too subtle for the Erskines to be brought to task! One huge relief of the Roman god Mars has the Scottish lion appearing 'couchant guardant' — lying down, but on guard — and Mars himself is 'guardant' — on the alert — but with his foot on the English crown!

Lady Augusta is a most influential person in the history of this house. Lady Augusta Fitz-Clarence, one of the natural children of the Duke of Clarence (later King William IV) and the actress Mrs Jordan. In 1831 she was granted the rank and precedence of the daughter of a Marquess. There are numerous embroideries throughout the house done by her hand, and they are exquisite!

Outside is a lovely garden. The parterre on the south side has been restored to Lady Augusta's plan. There was a French girl in there, deadheading the roses. She was enthusiastic about the whole gardens — there are three gardeners fully employed, and three volunteers, of whom she was one.

After going round the house, we went on "Lady Augusta's Walk", a 1 km walk through the woodlands near the house. Partway round, Warren turned to where he heard a sound, and saw a red deer disappearing into the underbrush.

After this, we continued on our way towards Kirriemuir. We won't get there today, so we pulled off into a layby off the A90 highway, about half an hour short of our destination.

Distance driven — today, 62 miles ( 100 km ); to date, 5,249 miles ( 8,448 km )

28 Jul 2014. <GB-SCT> Drumoak, & Banchory, & Newmill Hill, Aberdeenshire —

We woke slowly at Newmill Hill. The early sun had burned off the low fog that enclosed us for most of the night. We had breakfast, then drove the one mile to Drum Castle. We were a little early for the castle itself to be open, so we took the advice of the delightful lady who had arrived to keep order in the car park, and we went down to wander in the rose gardens. This is a "Garden of Historic Roses", and is most interesting in that it consists of four formal parterre gardens, laid out in the styles of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, and each containing plants typical of those centuries. So, in the 17th century garden you have, for example, the red and white roses of York (remember the Wars of the Roses, between the two houses of York?). The 19th century planting reminds you of many civic gardens, most of which were laid out in Queen Victoria's time. The 20th century garden features massed plantings with splashes of colour competing for attention.

The castle itself is of three parts, only the newer parts being truly inhabited. The oldest part is a Tower House dating to the second half of the thirteenth century. There were two further extensions, one in the Jacobean period and the second in the Victorian period. These sections were inhabited by the Irvines until they bequeathed it to the National Trust in 1976.

There is a story about the 17th laird, Alexander Irvine, who fought for the Jacobites at Culloden. When he fled back to Drum after the rout, Government troops had occupied the grounds. His sister, Mary Irvine, a formidable woman, was able to smuggle him into the castle where he hid until able to make his way to Paris. He remained in exile in Paris for some years until he was ultimately pardoned and allowed home. Mary had been managing the estates during his absence, and she continued to do so after his death.

The rooms are magnificent, particularly the Library and the Drawing Room and Dining Room. These last two were originally one long High Hall — reputedly one of the longest rooms in Scotland, running the entire length of the long Jacobean extension. In the eighteenth century it was divided into two, and in the 1880s it was redecorated in Victorian style, but with a beautiful oak panelled ceiling and chimney piece in Jacobean style. This is the way we see it today. The library has recently been fully refurbished. The ordering of the books on the shelves has a story — the laird was impatient for the work to commence, so he instructed to decorators to remove the books as quickly as possible and get on with the work. When, at the end of the redecoration they asked him how to put the books back on the shelves, all he said was "As quickly as possible" — and so they did, and this is the order we see today! That's a story to gladden the hearts of all librarians!

The original tower has reverted much to its original state, with bare stonework, dirt floors, and very little in the way of human habitation. It has three levels — the store room, the upper hall, and the battlements. In the store room is the original well. The castle would never have run short of water!

After our time at Drum, we went about 5 miles down the road to Crathes Castle. The gardens are stunning, among the finest in the UK. There are many topiary yew trees, some over 250 years old. Some are trimmed in the rather bizarre 'egg and cup' design. There are eight distinct gardens within the walled garden, and you could just wander for hours, turning corners and coming upon something new to entrance you.

The land was given to the Burnard (later Burnett) family by Robert the Bruce in about 1323. The castle itself was built in the sixteenth century and has been occupied by the one family until passed over to the National Trust in 1951. One of its claims to fame is its painted ceilings, most of which were covered over until revealed during the restoration process. Many have been fully restored, but a couple have been left in the state they were when discovered. In the Laird's bedroom is a magnificent carved oak four-poster bed dated 1594. It is too large to have been brought in, and tradition has it that it was carved and built in situ, in the room where it now stands!

After spending a lovely day at these two castles, we returned to last night's stopping place at Newmill Hill, just down the road.

Distance driven — today, 25 miles ( 40 km ); to date, 5,187 miles ( 8,348 km )

27 Jul 2014. <GB-SCT> Kennay, & Newmill Hill, Aberdeenshire —

Getting closer to Aberdeen. Out first port of call today — Pitmedden Garden, near the town of Pitmedden, about 15 miles north of Aberdeen. The 'Great Garden' was originally created in about 1675 by Sir Alexander Seton. Under successive owners, it ultimately became a magnificent working kitchen garden but, when the National Trust took it over in 1952, they determined to restore it to reflect its 17th century origin. They have certainly done that.

The Great Garden is the ultimate in formal gardens! It lies on two terraces, with a low stone balcony allowing you to look over the lower level. To the left and the right on the upper level are parterres, formally laid out gardens delineated by low box hedges and planted with colourful annuals to produce intricate designed patterns.

The lower garden — actually the true 'Great Garden' — has four of these parterres, each to a different design. Forming a corridor down the middle of the whole garden is a double line of yew trees, trimmed into pyramidical shapes. This last is not truly 17th century design — more 19th century — but the planned anachronism works well.

One thing that surprised us — there are no 'Keep off the grass' signs. In fact, you have to walk the immaculately manicured lawns, as these form the only paths through the gardens!

In talking to the head gardener, we found that Pitmedden has escaped the various plant diseases that have plagued other gardens by the simple expedient of raising all their own plants, getting nothing at all from outside suppliers. This policy has allowed them to maintain a garden that is totally exquisite.

There's a lot more to Pitmedden — a museum of farm life, walks round the large estate, and so on, but we mainly wanted to see the Great Garden, and when the rain came down, we decided to move on to Castle Fraser, about 15 miles southwest, about the same distance west of Aberdeen.

Castle Fraser is interesting. It began as a simple square tower house in the mid 1450s, and in the sixteenth century a square and a round tower were added at diagonally opposite corners, forming a 'Z' shape. The round tower disturbed Susie, as once you get inside, you find that all the rooms have been squared off to suit Victorian tastes! The castle has been in the hands of two branches of the Fraser family, and then recently, the Cowdrays. It came to the National Trust in 1976.

We toured the castle — this time is was self-guided, but with attendants in most of the rooms to fill out the history. One of its oddities — off the Laird's bedroom is a small room, which has ladder access to a listening hole opening out into the Great Hall — the 'Laird's Lug' — where he used to sit to eavesdrop on his guests!

The Great Hall itself has been put back to an earlier form, and is rather bare, being mainly a lime-washed barrel arch of stone, with parts of the raw stone being left exposed. This was much to the disgust of our guide here, who was rather partial to the Victoriana that had been collected in this room and its fabric — the organ which once blocked the west window, for example, has gone to a church in nearby Kemnay (where, presumably, is will get a more constant use).

After touring the castle, we went into its walled garden. This was (and still is) a kitchen garden, at least in part), and continued to supply the castle with fruit, vegetables and flowers. (Cut flowers are no longer used in the castle, partially because of the number of visitors with allergies, but also because their pollens and oils have unexpected effects on the conservation efforts within the castle.)

And then into Aberdeen. We were quite excited at the prospect of being able to use one of the two bus 'Park and Rides' to give us access to the city. We went to check them out. Height restricted, to 2.1 metres. Blast! The main thing we wanted to get into Aberdeen for was to replace Warren's main camera lens, whose auto-focus has finally failed! (Not that he can't use it manually!) But, Aberdeen, you have missed the boat, and we've decided to drop you from our itinerary — so we left for Drum Castle and Crathies Castle, stopping off for the night at Newmill Hill, a forest area on the A93 near Drum Castle.

Distance driven — today, 74 miles ( 119km ); to date, 5,162 miles ( 8,308 km )