Guigon Travels

So even though we got to bed relatively early, we still managed to wake up late for breakfast. Not as big a deal here as it might be elsewhere, because another great bonus is that Ronnie and Angie do not have an end time for breakfast (woohoo!), but I still felt bad about it because we did specify our preferred time. Breakfast was fantastic, just as all the reviews said it would be.

We decided to take our time today, and rather than trying to see all seven places I had on our itinerary (oiy) we narrowed it down to two must sees, and if we had time for any of the others then they would be a bonus. We did not have time for the other five places.

First up was Threave Castle. This site is on an island in the River Dee which can (supposedly) only be accessed by boat. So yes, we had to be ferried across on a small boat.

Tradition says that Ferguson, native Lord of Galloway originally resided on the island in the 11th century. It is believed to have been destroyed by Edward Bruce (Robert I’s brother) in 1308. Archibald ‘the Grim’, third earl of Douglas, later took the island for the Black Douglas’s and built the tower house and a sprawling complex over the southern third of the island in 1369. This was soon after becoming lord of Galloway. The tower house is the only part that remains today.

In 1455, King James II and the Black Douglases had been at loggerheads for a long time, and finally the King systemically destroyed all the major Douglas strongholds, ending with Threave. Threave was well provisioned and defended, and survived the siege for over two months before the King finally ordered a gun to be brought to the island from Linlithgow Palace. The garrison in the castle eventually surrendered, although more likely through persuasion rather than the threat of the gun. An artillery house erected around the tower in 1447 was a major contributing factor to the castle’s ability to withstand the siege.

Various keepers stayed at the castle after that, until 1526, when Lord Maxwell was made heritable keeper. He and his family stayed there until 1640, when the castle faced its second and final siege made by the Army of the Covenant. This time they held out for 13 weeks, until King Charles I gave written authorization to Lord Maxwell to surrender. The Covenanters dismantled the castle so that it could not be used again.

The placards at the site reference a secret causeway that ‘people in the know’ could use to walk across to the island, but we didn’t find or see any evidence of that. I guess we’re not people in the know.

All that history to say that we really enjoyed our visit to Threave Castle. It was really quite fascinating.

We followed this with a quick stop at Tesco for some shopping and then lunch before going to Caerlaverock Castle. This was eventually the primary seat of the Maxwell family, after the Romans abandoned southern Scotland and the British lords of Nithsdale ruled over the lands (400 AD).

The Nithsdale lords built a fort on the site that would later accommodate the first castle in 950 AD. The lands were granted to the Maxwells in1220 by Alexander II of Scotland. They built the first castle, but it was too small, and it was built on a clay foundation where it kept flooding and the buildings were deteriorating. There is not much left of the old castle except the footprint of the main walls.

In 1270 the Maxwells built a new castle, where they remained until 1640. The new castle is considered one of Scotland’s great medieval fortresses. It is triangular shaped, with towers at each corner.

The castle faced two sieges in its time: one in 1300 by Edward I of England, the second in 1640 by the Covenanters. A herald in Edward’s army wrote an extremely detailed account of the two-day siege, which chronicled the fact that Edward’s army consisted of 87 knights, 3,000 men, and a number of siege engines against what turned out to be a garrison of just 60 men defending the castle. The Covenanter’s siege lasted 13 weeks with a castle garrison of 200 before the earl of Nithsdale surrendered.

Both the old castle and the new castle had moats, and the new castle had a proper draw bridge. The new castle had substantive fortifications, cannons, and crossbow holes.

In 1634 the first earl of Nithsdale became less concerned about security and more concerned about looking the part of a nobleman, and renovated the east and south sides of the curtain wall to build what became known as the Nithsdale Lodgings. It’s pretty much what it sounds like: a three-story apartment complex within the castle, including a courtyard. Fancy decorations included.

The surrounding countryside is beautiful, and in fact is now a nature preserve. I imagine during the time the castle was occupied they would not have starved, given the arable land, good hunting and fishing, and plentiful berries, mushrooms, and honey.

Yet another fascinating experience, although I admit to feeling more creeped out at the new castle than anywhere else. Don’t know why. Maybe it was all the pigeons living in the ruins…yeah…

We finished the day off at Bruno’s. No, not this Bruno’s:

Although, don’t let the outside fool you; they’ve got the best pizza in Yellowknife (besides mine, of course).

We ate at this Bruno’s:

Bruno’s Italian Restaurant in Dumfries is another place that deserves all the great reviews it has. The meal was phenomenal, the service was great, the servings were just the right size to not feel overfed. Highly recommended!

Adelle and Dan

We said farewell to our lovely hosts at Kingsway Guest House, Lizzie and Gary, and their adorable son. I highly recommend staying with them if you’re ever in Edinburgh.

Kingsway Guest House

We hit the road today for our next destination being Brookford B&B in St. John’s Town of Dalry, near Castle Douglas in the Dumfries and Galloway region (south west corner). Now if we had gone straight there it would have only taken us a couple of hours. Do you really think we went straight there? Of course not! Don’t be silly…

No, we drove due south for a couple hours first. Now, when I did my research planning this itinerary I failed to recognize that Hadrian’s Wall is actually well south of the Scottish border. I had it in my head that Hadrian’s Wall effectively WAS the Scottish Border. My sincere apologies to Scotland. Yet another unintentional deviation from the Everything Scotland theme of our trips to Scotland. Unless you look at it from the perspective that Hadrian’s Wall was built to keep the hoards of ancestors of Scotland out of Britannia. Yes! Let’s go with that. And at least now Dan can say he’s been to England.

We visited Housesteads Roman Fort along Hadrian’s Wall, near Bardon Mill. What a fascinating place! It’s a short half-mile walk from the main entry to the site, where a small museum and gift shop are located. The museum is really well done, and very interesting.

The remains are the most complete of the Roman forts along the Wall. You can see where each of the military buildings were placed throughout.

Of particular fascination are the latrines – they also are the most intact Roman latrines in the United Kingdom.

It is remarkable to walk along the walls and contemplate just how much effort was put into building it, how the different parts were strategically placed to make best use of the existing landscape. For example, the granaries were placed near the top of the hill, the stables and bathhouse were midway down to facilitate water flowing down the hill to fill the troughs and baths, and the aforementioned latrines were at the lowest corner of the entire thing. The barracks were at the east end, up the hill from the latrines, while the baking ovens were at the far west end to avoid fires burning down the barracks.

The outside walls, including the north wall itself, were easily three feet thick. The guard wall along the north Wall has long since fallen (or been pushed over to reuse the stones for other purposes).

Needless to say, we ended up staying there a good two hours longer than I planned for. We ended up dropping planned visits to Gretna Green (sorry Chelsea, no surprise vow renewal photos) and the Twelve Apostles Standing Stones.

We did very briefly stop at Bonshaw Tower in Kirtlebridge, though, which was more or less on the way to the B&B. This is where my Auntie Janice should really start paying attention, because Bonshaw Tower is the seat of the Irving family. It is a four-story tower built in 1570 as a power base for the Irving family, but it is believed that the Irving family have lived at the site since at least the 1300s. The property remains the private family home on a beautiful piece of land, but the tower is now available to book weddings. We did not realize we were supposed to pre-arrange a visit, which it turns out we didn’t have time to really do anyway, but we’re pretty sure we technically trespassed to get this quick photo of the tower…Our sincere apologies to the resident Irving family…

Bonshaw Tower

When I looked for a place to stay in Dumfries and Galloway I wanted something central, that we could do day trips from to any of the corners of the region. What I did not realize when I chose Brookford was just how central it was; that being, pretty well off the beaten path. The drive from Castle Douglas was all on narrow roads with plenty of curves and hills, and the ridiculous 60-miles-per-hour speed limit. I did not go 60 miles per hour. That’s insane. And I should have taken Gravol. But the place is worth it! A lovely little town nestled in the hills, and Brookford is perfect. Ronnie made us supper of Haggis stuffed chicken breast with peppercorn cream, garden fresh potatoes, Scottish carrots, and something like eggplant that I don’t remember what he called it, followed by sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream. Sigh. So good!

We are exhausted now, but at least we can have an early night. Plenty to do tomorrow, but we probably won’t get to everything again. Good night.

Adelle and Dan

P.S. I forgot to mention, the Roman soldiers wore leather shoes with hobnails attached to the bottoms for traction. They look sort of like baseball or soccer cleats. Hence the reference in the title of today’s blog. …traction, or perhaps an additional weapon? Imagine kicking someone in the face with nail studded shoes. Just saying.

Well, we planned to go to at least five different places today. We ended up going to two (with one more to come). We missed out on going to Audible Presents podcast recording, and to the Scottish Photo Experience. Don’t worry, Martin, I’m sure we’ll find another opportunity for the photo experience while we’re here.

The reason we missed those things was totally worth it! We visited Hopetoun House and Midhope Castle. Both are owned and managed by a trust created by the Hope family.

Lord Hopetoun and his family still live in a wing of the House. The rest of the House is open to the public, and is magnificent! The House is considered Scotland’s finest stately home, and displays throughout it the history of the House and Hope Family.

They have converted the attached stables into a wonderful restaurant. They have a ballroom that is available for booking events. The original part of the House was built in the late 1600s and was designed by William Bruce. It was later altered and extended by William Adam. Both men were noted architects of their times, and have designed multiple buildings throughout Scotland.

The lawn appeared to be well-groomed primarily by the goats, which were kept in check by the Ha-Ha. Good luck Googling that. The Ha-Ha is what they call the stone-walled ditch separating the grounds from the access road. We got a kicked out of it.

Before I forget to mention, we did have lunch at the Stables Restaurant and enjoyed our first bowl of Cullen Skink. We’re old hats at haggis, now, but hadn’t gotten around to Cullen Skink. Turns out it’s just fish chowder. Really good fish chowder, but fish chowder nonetheless.

Outlander reference: the Paris street scene where Claire and Mary get in trouble, the room Mary is brought to at Claire and Jamie’s, the duelling scene, and the Duke of Sandringham’s room were filmed there, and the outside rear view of the house was used to represent the Duke’s residence. Oh, yeah, the existing stables were used for the Edinburgh brothel, the bowling green was where Jamie and Lord John Gray played chess, and the path where Geneva Dunsanay fell off her horse into a mud puddle was filmed on one of the paths of the forested grounds.

Midhope Castle was a shorter visit as we could not explore inside. The interior of the building is in a dangerous state of disrepair, although the outside still looks solid. It’s really too bad it wasn’t kept up, because it looks like it would have been a fine home. We certainly understand the attraction for the Outlander producers to use the site to represent Lallybroch. As Dan has mentioned at least three times today, this is the first site we’ve seen that you knew where you were the moment you saw the building. I wonder if Dan is going senile…?

About five hours later we returned to Edinburgh. You know that point when you’re so hungry you don’t know what you want to eat and therefore cannot decide on what to eat? Yeah, here, that resulted in eating Mexican food in Scotland. The Mexican food was really good, despite not exactly fitting into our Scotland theme.

On our way to find food, we happened to walk up alongside the Edinburgh Castle terrace. You know, the one surrounding the esplanade where the Tattoo is performed? Yes, that one. You can’t really appreciate the engineering of the bleacher support structures until you see them hanging over the rock face. Dan’s comments: “Last night whilst everybody in the audience was swaying in unison while singing Auld Lang Syn (sp), I was gauging the deflection in the floor to see if a resonant structural failure was imminent, while simultaneously looking for an exit route, be it over or through women, children or old people. And there were LOTS of old people.”

Now we have an few hours before our next show (Rachel Parris’ A Musical Comedy), so thought it best to take the opportunity to write this blog. Especially appropriate since we won’t get out of the show until Midnight, and we drive all day to our next destination tomorrow.

We promise not to have any more noteworthy adventures today. But if we do, I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.

Adelle and Dan

It rained again today. But it’s okay, because we started the day spending money on two new rain jackets, so we didn’t get quite as wet as we could have. Despite taking a boat ride.

Yes, a boat ride. And we even stood on the top deck for the outward sailing. In the rain. Where we couldn’t see half the points of interest referenced by the guide due to the fog. Stupid Canadian northerners, you’re probably thinking. But you’d be wrong! Because in this case it was the destination that was worth the journey. We went to Inchcolm Island and explored Inchcolm Abbey. Or what’s left of it. Which is actually quite a lot. It is the best preserved medieval abbey in Scotland. The Abbey was built by King David I on behalf of his late brother King Alexander I. Alexander went and got himself stranded on Inchcolm Island in 1123, where he and his retinue were helped by a hermit living on the island until they could be rescued. Alexander was so grateful to the hermit, he promised to build the abbey there as a thank you. Now, as I type that, I find myself wondering how appreciative a hermit would actually be to suddenly have a bunch of monks sharing the small island with him…

Anyway, we had a great time exploring, we saw some grey seals, and Inchgnome Island.

Our next stop was supposed to be to see Frankie Boyle’s show, but I underestimated when we’d be back to shore from Inchcolm Island, so we missed the show. Instead we took a leisurely stroll up The Royal Mile, I got me some dark chocolate fudge, and we made our way (in more rain – good thing we have proper rain coats now) to The Scottish Cafe and Restaurant. Why there? Because I splurged and got us the Piper’s Package to see the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, that’s why! The package included a light supper at the aforementioned restaurant, with a piper’s escort to Edinburgh Castle, and reserved seating at the event.

So we sit at our designated table at the restaurant and an older couple sits down with us, so we start talking. You know, where are you from, what do you do, that kind of thing. The couple, it turns out, are originally from England, but have been living in Australia for the last 50 years. I’m helping the lady put her hospitality wristband on and she makes a comment about her husband being an engineer. I look at her and comment that so is mine. Her husband says he’s a mine engineer. In my head I’m like, seriously? A mine engineer from Australia? I look at him and Dan and say, you two need to talk. So you say you work at a mine? Yes. Which one? Rio Tinto. Really? Yes. So does he, I say, referring to Dan. So, yeah, they talked. What are the odds? We had a lovely conversation over supper.

After supper, as mentioned, we walked up to the castle for the tattoo. Which was a great show. The theme this year celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force and young people. There were performers from all over the world. And my favourite thing of all: Switzerland’s Top Secret Drum Corps was there! Don’t get me wrong, everyone was great, but Top Secret is just phenomenal! Precision drumming at its finest. YouTube them! Right now! Go on…

Adelle and Dan

P.S. Bonus points to anyone who gets the title reference.

So it rained today. Well, the majority of the day. But if we were looking to get away from the weather we’ve been getting all summer in Yellowknife, well, Scotland would not be where we would go. We did not come to Scotland for the weather; we came to Scotland for castles and battlefields…and Outlander…and Fringe…

We got three out of four of those things today, after a delightful breakfast that included haggis.

Blackness Castle was first. We drove about 40 minutes from the B&B to the southern shores of the Firth of Forth to what would have been a spectacular view were it not cloudy, rainy, and foggy. Despite getting waterlogged — turns out Dan’s water resistant jacket was unable to resist that much water, and the rain jacket Jarod made me believe was mine did not in fact fit — the visit was pretty cool.

Blackness Castle is a 15th century fortified castle shaped like the prow of a ship, which while odd is rather appropriate given its location. It was originally built as a residence for the powerful Crichton family, and then soon became a garrison fortress, state prison, and then ammunition depot. When used as a state prison it often housed both noble prisoners as well as common prisoners, although they enjoyed vastly different accommodations. While the common prisoners were left to rot in the pit, the nobles lived in the four-story tower with their families and servants, and they were able to continue working.

For the Outlander fans, Blackness was used to film the Fort William scenes (ie Jaimie’s flogging, and saving Claire from Black Jack Randall).

Next, and not far down the inland road, was Linlithgow Palace. The palace was used as a peaceful residence (pleasure palace — that’s what they called it) for the Kings and Queens of Scotland and then England. James I built the palace in 1424. James V and Mary Queen of Scots were born there. It declined after James I and VI moved to London. The North quadrant fell to the ground, but was rebuilt about 13 years later. And then about 120 years after that the palace was destroyed by a great fire. It never recovered. While James V reigned, he commissioned a tiered fountain, which remains at Linlithgow Palace as the oldest functioning fountain in the United Kingdom.

For the Outlander fans, Linlithgow was used to film the Wentworth prison scenes.

The rain calmed down a little bit while we went on a boat cruise to the Avon Aqueduct. Linlithgow Canal Centre offers the two-and-half hour round-trip cruise. The Avon Aqueduct is the largest in Scotland, second largest in the United Kingdom. It’s really a lovely little tour. Don’t let my having a little nap on the return leg fool you, it wasn’t because of the cruise, that was the jet lag talking. All of the volunteer staff were wonderful and very kind.

We drove back to the B&B, making a couple of wrong turns on the way (Lady Sat Nav sulked for a little bit). We still managed to make it back with enough time before our first Fringe show to stop for supper at a place we happened upon called Buffalo. The food was really good, but nothing unusual or that we hadn’t tried before.

Okay, so, the first show was David O’Doherty. Now, this whole trip and during the planning stages every time I pronounced David’s last name as it’s spelled Dan would correct me and insist it was pronounced O’Dockerty. My mouth resisted that pronunciation, no matter how much I wanted to believe Dan I just couldn’t do it. So we go to the show, and the man says his own name. And how did he pronounce it? That’s right, he pronounced it how it’s spelled! I just looked at Dan, and Dan didn’t say anything for a bit. Then he says to me, I guess Jimmy Carr was saying it wrong…on purpose maybe? Turns out David O’Doherty has been a panelist on 8 Out of 10 Cats Do Countdown and Jimmy Carr has been introducing him as David O’Dockerty. Uh-huh. Insert eye-roll emoticon here.

Moving on, we went to The Best Of Scottish Comedian of the Year. The host and two comedians performed. One was a finalist in the Comedian of the Year competition, the other actually won it. I don’t remember which was which, but I really enjoyed Ray Bradshaw’s show. Turns out he has another show he’s just started that he gives simultaneously in English and sign language. He was born to deaf parents, so his first language was actually sign language. It should be a lot of fun, so if you get to see him I recommend it.

And that’s about it for today. Have a great one!

Adelle and Dan

So…very…tired…

That overseas overnight flight is going to kill me if I keep thinking I can do things when we land. I did manage to get a couple hours sleep between Halifax and Glasgow, though. Once we landed we took a cab to Glasgow Central Station, where we had breakfast and went for a walk before catching the train to Edinburgh.

We managed to catch the tail end of a marching band parade, something to do with being the sons of King William. I heard the drums as we were walking out of the station, then I heard the pipes and ran to see if I could catch them at all.

We got first class tickets on the train, which put us in the front car. Unfortunately our seats faced backward, which was just ugh. (All the seats faced backward, just to be clear). We’re optimistic it will be reversed when we return to Glasgow.

The car rental wasn’t quite ready when we were, so we went to get our Fringe tickets. That ended up being way faster than we anticipated! Their computer kiosk is so much more efficient than I’ve seen before. All I had to do was put the credit card I paid for the tickets with in the slot, the system found my tickets and printed them. That’s it. Crazy!

By the time we got the car, dropped it off at Kingsway B&B, and cabbed it back to The Stand Comedy Club, we had no time for lunch before watching Jessie Cave perform. She was funny, but still relatively new to the game. How did one critic put her show? I think it was described as awkwardly funny.

We followed that up with a walk to The World’s End for a very late or very early supper (perspective, right?), which was actually really good. The place isn’t very big, it’s a pub/restaurant, but it was decent.

Then I suckered Dan into going to Hamilton and Young’s jewellery store Nd picked myself up a likeness of Claire Fraser’s wedding ring as described by Diana Gabaldon in the Outlander books. Yes, I did that. Go ahead and call me a dork, but I think the ring is lovely. Don’t you?

Last show for the day was Ari Shaffir. Also a very funny show. He clearly has more experience than Jessie. The guy in the front row with the distinctive laugh kept making Ari laugh, which was funny too.

But we are back at our room now. Before I close, I want to apologize for this boring post, but as I opened with…so…very…tired.

Signing off. Talk to you tomorrow.

Adelle and Dan

…but Javaroma sorta made up for it with their blueberry oatmeal muffin.

Yes, we are on our latest adventure to Scotland. As the title implies, our beautiful daughter graciously got up to take us to the airport at 4:15 this morning. No trouble checking our bags, and security was a breeze. Of course, we did beat the rush, so that might have had something to do with it. To be fair, though, the airport just renovated the security screening area. It’s still only one line, but there’s more room before and after the scanner to get your things out and pick them up. I choose to be optimistic that the new setup will adequately serve Yellowknife’s needs.

The flight to Edmonton was uneventful, despite flying on the ever-so-cramped Q400 (Dash-8) for nearly two hours. We both actually slept on the flight, which is normal for Dan but not so much for me. I admit, I felt better when we landed.

Our connection in Edmonton allowed us to get the obligatory Cookies By George. Happy camper here. We assumed Wok Box would not be open so early in the morning, and did not learn we were wrong until it was much too late to get something to bring on the next flight. Dan got a kick out of finding the University of Alberta vending machine. It’s true, they have a vending machine at the airport to sell their logo’d shirts, sweaters, hats, and other swag.

The remainder of our flights were on 737s, and Plus seating to boot, so definitely no complaints. Toronto airport was actually pretty boring, but we did a lot of walking while waiting for our next connection; gotta make sure the blood is circulating before the longest leg of the trip, avoid deep vein thrombosis, and all. I hate to admit it (or act it) but we’re not getting any younger here…

I decided to try out the WestJet Connect Internet connection during our last leg. I’m writing and posting today’s blog at 39,000 feet in the air between Toronto and Hamilton. So weird! I’ll try playing a couple of my online games in a little bit, see how well that works.

Anyhoo, we land in Glasgow Saturday morning at about 1:00 am Yellowknife time, 8:00 am Glasgow time. I intend to try and sleep for some of the Halifax to Glasgow leg. Talk about to you tomorrow!

Adelle and Dan