Travel: Scottish Lochs, Castles, Houses, and Gardens and Stuff

For one more time, I took the opportunity to take an excursion to Scotland.  This would be the fourth time I’ve done so, through the same company nonetheless.  Lochs and Glens offers bus tours to various sites in Scotland, with exclusive hotels along the many different lochs.  One relatively low price pays for the travel, the accommodations, and food for any number of days.  Going on these trips is a leisurely and relaxing affair; I never have to fret about driving or scheduling the stops or arranging meals or anything.  As long as I’m there at the right place and the right time, the bus will whisk me away to the next greatest sight.  If there’s anything amiss with this service, it’s simply that I seem to be the youngest person to ever attend these trips.  Most everybody else on the bus are somewhere between thirty to fifty years my senior.  I’ve never been certain as to whether L&G caters specifically to this demographic, or if every young person in the UK prefers to make their own way to Scotland.  Regardless, I’ve been pleased with these trips.

This time around, I stayed at Loch Achray.  For the next few days, the tour would take me to some National Trust sites; mostly castles and stately homes.  All of the first day was spent in driving; despite spending something like six hours on the bus, I slept for most of the journey, and it was over before I knew it.

This is not the actual hotel; this was the view from the hotel.  The building was a former hotel made into luxury apartments.  This might be my favorite picture taken on this trip.

One of the biggest attractions to the L&G sites to me is the areas surrounding the hotels.  All of them are located within a close vicinity to a loch, each offering a gorgeous view of tall green hills and expanses of crystal-clear water.  Loch Achray is not terribly huge, but it offers as much of a pleasing view as the others.  In the evening, the gray clouds parted and the sun came out to illuminate the rolling green hills and the tranquil loch.  There were highland cows all over the place (rather cute, distinctive beasts that always remind me of the Banthas from Star Wars).  The opportunity for pictures was abundant, but above all, it was tranquil.

The next day, the bus took me to see Pollock House, near Glasgow.  It’s an eighteenth century estate, featuring a fairly lavish interior with a collection of fine Spanish paintings, antique furnishings, and exotic ceramics from China.  On the exterior, the castle features a decent garden laid out in solid geometrical patterns, and some nice countryside to explore.  Later, we visited Green Bank Gardens.  It was a nice, orderly perimeter of greenery and fine flowers. 

Next, we visited the town of Falkland.  The town is a small but characteristic place; the buildings show lots of history with their construction and preservation.  The town features a few interesting shops, selling antiques and crafty items.  Most importantly, however, the Falkland Palace dominated the town.  It has a long history, going as far back as the fourteenth century.  Parts of the palace were in ruin, especially since a fire had taken out part of its roof and some of the old apartments.  A lot of it is intact though, and is especially noteworthy for the preservation of the king’s and queen’s quarters.  These rooms featured very lavish furnishings and finely painted walls and ceilings.  The palace also features a garden.

On the next day, I had the chance to see a tenement house in Edinburgh.  I skipped out on that one; I had been to Edinburg just earlier in the year, and had little desire to see it again.  Instead, I spent the day hiking around the hills of Loch Achray.  It rained on me, but the path to Ben Venue was never too treacherous.  I walked through the bitter rain until I got sick of it; it was clear that the path continued to wind all around the hills, and it could take half a day to traverse all of it.  Going back to the hotel, I was content to relax for a while.

Next, the weather managed to clear up some, and the bus took me to Culzean Castle.  This was an impressive eighteenth century palace along the coast.  It is a massive, square building surrounded by walls and cannons, with an astonishing panoramic view of the ocean.  Inside the castle, the rooms are clean and well-preserved, and are laden with incredible naval history.  One of the very first rooms in the castle had swords, guns, and bayonets all along the walls; hundreds of them formed patterns on all the walls.  The only display more impressive than that would have been the Leeds Armory.  In all the other rooms, there were fine paintings, exotic architecture, loads of cannons, ship models, and old photographs.  The next most impressive room would have been the kitchen, which is spacious and loaded up with all kinds of copperware.  Outside of the castle, the grounds are huge, encompassing an archway, a visitors center (which appears to me made from another old building), and at least two gardens that feature plenty of exotic flowers and plant-life.  On the drive back to the hotel, I got a good glimpse of Ailsa Craig:  an island on the sea that appeared like a giant mystical mound sitting on top of the water.

On the final day, the bus first took me to Geilston Gardens.  There is a quaint little house there, but the gardens are quite colorful and lavish, loaded with wonderful flowers, ripe fruit and vegetables, and tranquil woodlands.  It was a fantastic opportunity to photograph butterflies, which fluttered around all over the place.  Afterward, the bus took us to Helensburgh; a rather run-down coastal town, but with enough character to make it a pleasant stop.  It was a chance to walk around the small town, shop, grab a quick lunch, and take some fine pictures of the coast.  Up the road from the town was our next biggest stop though:  Hill House.  Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the house has an extremely funky and blocky exterior, appearing like an ultramodern mini-castle of sorts.  Its interior is a sight to behold though:  using the architect’s signature combination of geometric shapes and organic motifs, the house has a strong art-deco appeal.  The use of squares, lines, colors, lighting, and mood helped make the place appear modern, stylish, and welcoming all at once.

Before I knew it, an entire week had passed by.  I had seen quite a few good sights and had taken well over a thousand pictures.  It has been a fun and satisfying excursion altogether.  Truthfully, all my trips to Scotland have been great; something about Scottish food, culture, and countryside strikes me as being pleasurable, tranquil, and wholesome altogether.  It is a rugged yet beautiful land full of history and character.  For all who are interested in traveling, visiting Scotland comes  highly recommended.