Saturday, June 30, 2007

Dollar, Drummond Castle, and Loch Katrine

I signed up for an International Students trip to Dollar Glen and Drummond Castle Gardens. Below are the shenanigans that followed.


Forth train bridge
The train bridge over the River Forth. The bridge used to need to be painted constantly- it was so long that once the workers finished painting, they had to start over again, hence the phrase "it's like painting the Forth Bridge." I've never heard that phrase before, so it doesn't matter.

We were heading to Castle Campbell in Dollar Glen. We took a hiking trail through Dollar Glen. It was entirely uphill and took about a half an hour, thereby exposing my extreme out-of-shape-ness.

Interesting greeneryA spring

At the castle

Iris at Castle Campbell

You've never seen me so happy to be at a castle. Really...except maybe in this photo:


At the castle

Iris at Castle Campbell (again)


Campbell Castle was formerly known as "Castle Gloom" (situated between the River Sorrow and the River Care. I'm not kidding), until one of the Dukes of Argyll took over and had it renamed to Castle Campbell.


View of Dollar

The view of the town of Dollar (where our hike began) from atop the castle tower


Campbell Courtyard

The courtyard from atop the tower


Entire castle

The intact tower with the crumbling main hall in the foreground


Flower in front of castle

Arsty. Very.


Campbell garden

The castle has a very small garden, much smaller than in the castle's heyday.


CastleCampbell

Castle Campbell again, on our way back to the bus.





Drummond Castle was next on our list. It features a symmetrical garden that was popular at some time in Italy.


White roses with castleGarden viewA thistle, the emblem of Scotland

Drummond Castle Gardens


The garden focused in the center a sun dial which supposedly tells the times of different capital cities. Really, it just looked like a bunch of protruding nails and metal shards, to me:


Sun Dial

Drummond's "Sun Dial"

And then someone pointed out the obvious futility of having a sun dial in Scotland. Maybe a rain dial.


When the owners of Drummond Castle no longer saw a need for a fortress, they built a manorhouse right next to it:


Drummond Castle and House

Drummond Castle on the left, the manor house on the right.


Next we went to Loch Katrine (made popular in the poem "Lady of the Lake" by Sir William Scott), but it began raining (surprised?) pretty heavily, so there's no photos.



Out of 40-some foreigners, I was the only American- which seems to be a common trend, leading me to the hypothesis that there are no Scottish people or Americans in Edinburgh.

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