Kelburn Castle and it's case of graffiti.

It is quite difficult sometimes to be sympathetic to people who live in great big houses especially when they've inherited it from great, great ,great, grandpa who built it with his hard earned/won/stolen loot way back in the dim and distant mists of history. The main problem for many of the country's gentry is that the money run out a century ago and something with a hundred plus rooms and is 300 years old, doesn't keep itself up. That's why many of the countries stately homes are now in the hands of the National Trust (who often let the previous owners stay in an apartment in the main building or a house on the estate as part of the handover deal). Some owners are patently quite good at making a profit out of their stately home and therefore keeping it running (the Marquess of Bath who owns Longleat is a good example) but others appear to be limping along - Kelburn Castle, owned by the Earls of Glasgow seems to be one of those.

Built originally in the 13th century, the tower from that period still forms the core of the house. There was a good bit of building work done 300 years later but most of what you see today was built by the 1st Earl of Glasgow in around 1700. The house itself was not open, something of a disappointment to me, but the grounds have a riding school in them and lots of facilities for kids to play.

The main reason I went to see it, apart from the fact I was passing anyway, was because I had heard of its rather unusual paintwork. In 2007 the current Earl on discovering that harling on the castle was in need of replacing soon, decided to get a team of Brazilian graffiti artists in to decorate the walls at a cost of £20000. Historic Scotland agreed to it on the grounds that it was only temporary. The graffiti is still there but it seems not for long. The Earl would like it to stay (it is probably a fair old money spinner for him) but the lastest news suggests it's on it's way out. If work needs done under the paint, then that's one matter, but if it's just somebodies idea of decorum, then I don't see why the wall can't stay the way it is. We've go no shortage of more normal castles in the country and I'm not sure who would come and look at it anyway if it was returned to the way it was.

The Kell Burn runs through a picturesque glen on the estate. Semi wild, it was regarded in the 18th century as one of the most romantic landscapes in Scotland (so says a sign post).

A sculpture trail has been laid round the walk through the glen. Not sure I'm hugely impressed.

The presence of timber nearby suggested this bridge was in the process of building, though no signs suggested it wasn't ready or safe - The fallen leaves and general dampness of the day made it feel rather slippy and precarious.

Unfortunately it seems that nature is way ahead of their bridge repair program - this one came a cropper from a falling tree earlier in the year.

Of course, a walled garden.

They had this old Vauxhall sitting outside.

The badge is pretty similar to the current Vauxhall symbol......

........though you won't see many of these on a modern Vauxhall's bonnet.

A small museum has been put in a tin shack.

The floor inside was flooded and all was generally a bit scruffy.

The 7th Earl of Glasgow, David Boyle, was made the Governor of new Zealand in 1892. I expect these spears are a souvenir of his days there - they look as if they are Maori to me.

They had a medieval day on when I was there. These two knights are teaching local kids some useful skills.

Wait a minute! Is it not enough that the fellow is wearing armour, fighting kids and has a real sword where the kids have swords made of tin foil and sticks, but he appears to be making use of a third arm.

I think Edinburgh zoo ought to be doing a head count - There was a giant panda there.

A last look at the castle.

Crathes Castle

A little distance south of Aberdeen just outside Banchory stands Crathes Castle. As I was going south and more or less past it, I popped in. As with most National Trust for Scotland buildings, they didn't permit photography inside the castle but it's open season in the gardens and I found a few inside pictures on the net to illustrate my visit.

The castle we see today has been owned for most of it's history by the Burnett family, though the family's presence in the area date back a couple of centuries before the building. In 1323, Robert the Bruce gave the land to Alexander de Burnard and appointed him Royal Forester of Drum. As a badge of office he was given a horn which is known as the Horn of Leys. This horn (pictures right) can still be seen in the castle's main hall and is the family's most treasured possession. The family dwelling at that time was on a crannog on the now drained Loch of Leys, but in 1553, the Burnetts were obviously feeling a bit flush and had the castle we see today built. The Burnetts it seems were particularly good at avoiding racking up too much history and generally keeping their head down has paid off for them. When, in 1644, the Marquis of Montrose led a Royalist army to the castle and demanded it's surrender, Sir Thomas Burnett did so straight away, treated the marquis to a slap up meal and was left in charge of his own captured castle - during the entire civil war, he kept documents from both sides saying that neither castle nor his family were to be harmed.

Castles are expensive things to keep up and the Burnetts handed over Crathes to the National Trust for Scotland in 1951 but continued to live in a wing until a fire in 1966. I believe they still live in a house on the grounds.

There are in the house, a few restored painted ceilings from the reign of James VI (1567 - 1625).

This ceiling features the Nine Nobles (sometimes known as the Nine Worthies). They were nine people who were seen as exemplary in the medieval ideals of chivalry. They were the three pagans, Hector, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar, three Old Testament characters, Joshua, David, and Judus Maccabeus and three christian heros, King Arthur, Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon. They were a common subject for art in this period and featured on some of the Stirling Heads we saw last year in this blog. We get used to the modern image of Julius Caesar, which is probably quite near to how he really looked - you can see though from this ceiling he is depicted in a suit of armour with a big red beard.

 

This shield was on the outside of the building - it features the Horn of Leys, that we saw earlier on, as part of the Burnett coat of arms.

One of the castle officials opened a window to let another visitor take a few pictures of the surrounding gardens. It would seem wasteful not to take advantage of it myself.

Back at ground level, what had been rather a rainy morning dried up in time for me to have a wander round the gardens.

You might notice in the last picture a weather cock on top of the castle. I zoomed in on it and didn't realise until I looked at the pictures on my computer what a crazy looking creature he was (in a good way.)

Just a few general shots from around the walled garden.

By the time I came out of the green houses, not only had the rain stopped but the sun had come out. Here's a fellow I've not seen for a while.

The flowers might have been past their best but there was still a butterfly out and about looking for a little lunch.

The gardens have some large and ancient yew hedges that date from 1702. They have been trimmed into shapes but, to me, it seems that the hedges themselves have long since decided what those shapes will be.

By the time I got here, the sun had started one of the flower beds steaming.

One last shot of the castle. Have a great day.

Nearly wild camping.

Camping at the end of October, you might think I'm mad - I know many of you do already. Actually the weather was far kinder to me than it was a month ago. A little chilly perhaps, which is easily sorted, but a lot drier. Once I'd found the Gimme Shelter campsite on the net I was intrigued - only the most basic of facilities but almost universally good reviews. Shiny loos and electrical hookups can certainly make life in a tent more comfortable but part of the attraction of camping is being out in the wild and this campsite is about as near to living in the wild as you can get without actually being in the wild.

Chris and Yvonne who run the campsite have a wee blog here and a pile of videos on a Youtube channel here.

As you can see from this shot at the entrance to the campsite that Autumn seems to have arrived all of a sudden this year. Perhaps I was still waiting for Summer, which has been distinctly A.W.O.L. this year.

First things first.

Tea made and tent up. Each of the little camping areas around the site was given a name, this one I was in was called Burro.

Just behind the tent was a caravan with a shack built on the front which was also available for hire. This one was called Rosebank, if my memory serves me correctly.

This was simply called Shack.

Two more of the little camping areas in the woods.

It had Brockfield House on the door. I'm not sure this one was in use.

Up towards the top end of the campsite the pitches become more open, which is perhaps reflected in some of their names.

The loo.

Complete with an elegant mirror. Here I am seeing how presentable I am before wandering back out into the real world.

The gallery and shop. Which sold odd supplies and hired occasional camping supplies like bedrolls and seats.

Chris, the owner (and pleasant fellow), makes things out of some of the wood found on site (also walking sticks and chairs) which were for sale.

Now here I was tempted to part with cash - a complete fire kit from paper, through kindling, to logs enough to keep a campfire going for a couple of hours.

All transactions for the shop were carried out through the honesty pot.

Just because I'm having a big dose of back to nature, doesn't mean I can't take advantage of the shop's wifi and check my e mails.

Perhaps it's something primitive or perhaps it just takes me back to my scouting days (though my memories of trying to light fires then always seem to involve great difficulty and this one went easily on the first attempt), either way, I did enjoy a couple of hours in the evening at my fire.

Good night all.