Hello hello!!
This morning Jes and I had a lie in and slept to a whopping 9:30 am. Which was actually a really good thing because the only coffee shop in town didn’t open until 11 am. The real kicker is that same coffee shop closes at 3 pm!
Today is so special because I’m going to Duart Castle! Bad news, is it’s been under construction since 1910, so the photos aren’t super pretty with scaffolding. The good news is that it’s in phase 8 of 10 for renovations, so depending on the angel the castle looks great! I think you can tell by my face I could not contain my excitement at actually being here. My great grandma was a Maclean and this is the closest thing I’ve got to family history. I’m pretty sure my ancestors were never in the castle, but because we can’t confirm or deny one way or another then by that same logic I’m going to pretend they were the clan rulers.
The Duart castle itself was a part of a dowry to Chief Lachlan Lubanach Maclean for marrying Mary MacDonald but only after Lachlan kidnapped Mary’s father to convince him to let him marry his daughter. Apparently the Macleans were quite a determined and slightly violent/reckless lot. One of the chiefs left his wife on the rocks to drown because she wouldn’t give him a male heir, but then the wife was rescued and the Chief killed by her rescuer, and rightly so I might add, I’d be pissed too!! The castle itself was lost because of huge Maclean debt that had to be repaid to another clan. Hmmm maybe after writing this I don’t want to claim Maclean ownership anymore. Then again, we do have a fun clan logo and castle.
The views were amazing from the top of the castle. The castle itself had a bit too many dungeons for Jes and my taste. Also it has the world’s worst layout where to get the food to the dining room it had to go from the kitchen past the dungeons, to the dumb waiter, to then be plated upstairs, and then finally served to the family. It was so far that the food was always served cold! Silly clansmen, highly decorated warriors, skilled artists, good fortress wall builders, yet horrible planners.
Jes told the docent I was a Maclean and he gave me a special guest book to sign! I can say with confidence I was the only one with my name in there. Honestly this entire trip was a dream come true!!
On our way down we had a quick walk around the millennium forest which was part of the castle grounds. Since it was recently planted, I wouldn’t say it was super foresty but it was a nice little nature break.
For our next adventure of the day we drove up the island to a colorful town called Tobermory.
It has a famous orange tabby that apparently runs around town and even lies in the middle of the road and all the cars go around it! I’d say it practically rules the city! So imagine my absolute delight when I met the cat on our way to the hostel. She was so friendly, and didn’t even budge or open one eye as kids yanked at her fur in an attempt to pet her.
The only bad thing about small towns? They close so early!! Literally everything was closed by 3 pm, we couldn’t check in until 5 pm and the only thing open was the one pub in town. Figuring that was my best bet to charge my phone, I walked in an asked if they had a outlet to charge my phone in the wall. Apparently Scottish people have just as hard a time understanding me as I have understanding them because this poor bartender thought I was asking to put my photo on the wall!! You’d think there wouldn’t be any issues since we were both speaking English! But apparently not. So I held up my dying phone and charger and we had a good laugh before she pointed me in the direction of the outlet.
We had a lovely dinner there before I treated myself to a Scottish tea cake, aka a delightful shortbread, marshmallow, chocolate confection that may just be my new favorite dessert, on the way back to our room for the night.
I can’t believe the day is already over, but I’m so excited to take you on our whale watching adventure tomorrow!
Love you lots,
Carolyn
No comments:
Post a Comment