Next stop is Drumlanrig Castle near Thornhill just a few miles north of Dumfries. This castle is one of the homes (although not the current favorite :rolleyesof the Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry. (For those of you into geneology I think the current family name is Montague-Douglas-Scott.)
The front forecourt:
Even though the Duke and Duchess were not in residence when we were there you can see an extra Rolls Royce parked out front.
Here is another view of the castle from one of the gardens. Due to the shape of the shrubbery I dubbed this the Baby Bottle Garden.
This approach road was built at the request of Queen Victoria in preparation for her visit to the castle. I suppose so the magnificance of her entourage could approach in a single straight column.
On an interesting side note, Queen Victoria never did make that visit. Like any good Scot would, when the Queen didn't show The Duke sent her the bill for the new road. It was paid.
Here are some shots of the gardens surrounding the castle. They're quite spectacular.
I was just a bit disappointed in the visit. Not with what we did but what we didn't do. As you can tell by the pics the day was quite...what's the word?...dreitch. We had planned to spend most of the day hiking in the surrounding countryside which is crisscrossed by hiking trails.
This is the countryside I'm talking about:
One thing that seems a bit incongruous with all the natural beauty here is that the RAF uses the place for target practice. (for a fee, I'm sure). It's quite disconcerting when a fighter jet swoops by close enough to see the pilot's sun glasses.
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