In order to see the castle, you had to go through this park type thing. (Just fyi, most of the castles and abbeys that we have seen are run by the Historic Scotland fund. They keep all of the sights preserved and whatnot. Culzean is owned by the National Trust for Scotland. In my opinion, I think that Historic Scotland does a better job, but who am I to judge. We had a 7 day pass that let us in to all Historic Scotland sights after paying one fee. It was totally worth it. My student ticket was only 13 pounds (Edinburgh Castle alone cost something like 9), so we saved a lot of money). The area was just...undefinable really. Let me just show some pictures.
We walked in to the visitor's center area and ran into a statue of a pirate. While, I was really excited about this, I can not figure out why there was a statue of a pirate, by a castle, in the middle of a forest, in Scotland. There was also a toy store in this area. The visitor's center pretty much only sold jewelry,
There was also an area that had a pack of fenced in deer. Again, I have no idea why this was here.
This is the deer that I pet. You see, the deer were quit friendly.
After passing a candy store, book shop, and weird porch thing around a tree, we finally found the castle. (Keep in mind that this is all within a forest.)
This is Culzean Castle.
The castle and the inside of the castle were really pretty. It's the only castle that I've seen in Scotland that was furnished. This was really cool to see. The only weird thing, was that there were security cameras in each room in really obvious places. That just kind of bothered me (I mean, I guess Versailles has more funding to make well hidden cameras, but these looked like they should be outside a sketchy gas station off a freeway). Also, the people that were working there were kind of rude. They weren't took happy that we didn't take their audio guides (one lady was really irritated "but they're digital! And they're new!"). I just don't like audio guides. They just don't move fast enough for me.
Overall, the castle was really pretty. It was worth the drive down to see it. And I got to touch a deer.
After the castle, we headed to Turnberry Golf Course. Culzean Castle was really close to it, and my Dad wanted to see it again (he played that golf course on one of his previous trips to Scotland). I was excited because it had a really cool lighthouse.
Here's the lighthouse. (Let me just say, I was beyond determined to get a good picture of this lighthouse. It sits out in the middle of the golf course on the ocean and it's not easy to see clearly. On my first try to find a good view point, the wind (which was really bad again today) blew me into a barbed wire fence. Why the golf course is surrounded by a barbed wire fence is beyond me. Ok...it's probably to keep people like me out, but still; it's a golf course. Hardly something worthy of barbed wire. Prison? Worthy of barbed wire. Golf course? Just no.)
Once I finally got my picture of the lighthouse, we started to make our way back towards Edinburgh. On the way, we stopped at another abbey (that just opened today too) called Crossraguel Abbey. The people selling tickets were really excited to see us. I don't think they get many people that visit because it's kind of in the middle of nowhere. We narrowly escaped a guided tour of it (sorry, but guided tours are fine whenever it's in a large group and I can easily escape and just listen to what I want to listen to, but I just don't like to be lectured at more than necessary. This info is crucial to understand for later in my blog). But, this abbey was one that was actually relatively un-ruined as far as the Scottish abbeys go.
Here's the abbey.
After the abbey, we went to our last stop on the way back to the hotel; Dundonald Castle. This castle sits up on a hill that gives Edinburgh a run for it's money. The sales people were excited to see us here too (today was the opening day for Dundonald too). I think we may have been the first people to go up to the castle in some time (like I said, the hill is steep).
Here is the castle.
My Dad and I (my Mom elected to enjoy the view from below) conquered the hill and were enjoying the view when we saw that 2 people were coming up behind us. This man came up and just started telling us something about the outer walls of the castle. I was thinking "Oh, here we go. One of those people that think they know everything and feel the need to share their wealth of knowledge with people like me." My Dad and I just politely nodded and let them walk ahead, when they turned back asked if we were coming. Thus, we somehow got dragged on a guided tour. No escaping (there were only 2 of us. The other lady was an official worker). This guy had no name tag, no official shirt or anything. We stood there and listened for quit some time and were starting to leave when the guy kind of annoyingly chuckles and is like "the tour is not over yet!" I swear this guy liked the sound of his own voice. The castle consisted of exactly 2 rooms and we had to have been on the tour for 30 - 45 minutes. We kept trying to hint that we had a long drive back, but the guy just couldn't take a hint. He kept saying "You are Americans! There is one thing that you must see since you are from America!" He took his job really seriously. My favorite part was when we pulled us over to a wall and said "Look! See that hole in the wall way up there. [insert detailed stone, by stone instructions here] That...was....the latrine." I thought he was working up to something really good. Nope, just a latrine.
The guy did give us one good piece of information. (And believe me, he reveled in this one interesting fact too. He saved it for last.) There was a dungeon in the castle where prisoners were kept that is supposed to be really famous because it said to have inspired Edgar Allan Poe's novel, the Pit and the Pendulum. Evidently, good old Edgar traveled around that area of Scotland when he was younger and supposedly visited the castle. After experiencing the pit in the dungeon, he was inspired to later right his novel. Also, the guy claimed that there are lots of big black birds in the area and while they aren't ravens, they are often mistaken as ravens. I found this part of the tour interesting. But if you ever need info on Dundonald Castle, I think I can take you through a timeline. (It was built by Richard I, who was a King of Scotland and the grandson of Robert the Bruce. Believe me, I know more.)
After the castle, we headed back to the hotel to pack to leave. Tomorrow, my parents are heading back the the US and I'm heading back to essays and Stirling. My Spring Break was awesome and it was great to see my parents! I just don't want to go back to essay writing.
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