Edzell, Glamis and a Quadventure!

We wrapped up our castle tour with a few more visits, and a surprise, which I will leave for the last paragraph. First, we stopped at Edzell Castle, a 16th century castle in ruins that is most famous for its 17th century walled garden. The garden features a glorious collection of roses, hemmed in by formal boxwood hedges, but since the roses aren't yet blooming and the boxwood was suffering from a major case of blight, it wasn't the loveliest garden we have visited. It was redeemed, however, by the gorgeous bathhouse in the corner of the garden and the peacock roaming the grounds. We did enjoy the relief carvings in the garden walls that depict the seven cardinal virtues on one side, the seven liberal arts on a second, and the seven planetary dieties on a third. For £2, we bought a guidebook in the ticket office, and had a great time going through the gardens and reading about each relief.

My sister in the garden at Edzell

Emma reviews the guide book

The garden and the ruins at Edzell Castle

One of the Liberal Arts reliefs

A sea of daffodils

An added bonus to our visit to Edzell was the drive to the castle. Along the way, we passed a daffodil farm, and there were fields and fields full of daffodils in full bloom. Again the blue sky and white clouds, the rows and rows of yellow were just stunning. The field extended right up to the castle walls, and to one side, there was a field full of white poet daffodils in full bloom. It was lovely!

After a quick tour, we ventured on to Glamis Castle. Emma and I have visited before, but since this is a guided tour and it's a bit different every time, it's always an enjoyable one. This time, though, just after the guide told us about the story of the castle's resident ghost who lives in the chapel, I swore I heard a whispering in my ear as we crossed into the drawing room Creepy! That may be my last visit to Glamis!

The gardens at Glamis are always a highlight, so we enjoyed an hour-long stroll through the walled garden and the Italian garden. There's a nice collection of conifers at Glamis, and a wooded walk along a stream as well. 

Glamis also has a herd of Highland cows (pronounced "coos"), and in the spring when the babies arrive it's such fun to have a look. We couldn't find the herd this time, so we had to stop along the side of the road on the way home to grab some photos instead!

The next day, we decided to give Scotland's castles a rest, and we left Emma at home and took John for a treat. That poor kid has missed out on our adventures since he is still in class, though touring historically furnished castles isn't really his thing. So, we booked an ATV tour for the four of us in Perthshire. The tour was led by a Lithuanian guy who leases land from a local farmer, and when we arrived he gave us a quick safety demonstration and had us put on full suits and helmets. It was a dry day so the suits were probably unnecessary, but I was happy about the helmets as Perthshire is pretty rocky! He gave us each a 125cc quad bike, and took us to a pasture full of lambs to try it out. John and Ted and I had a blast zooming around the pasture, and my sister tolerated it all quite well. After a bit, he took us up a steep hill and we continued to zoom up and down for a bit. The he offered to take us on some trails, and the three of us managed to convince Amy to agree. I could tell by her face that she wasn't thrilled but she went along anyway.

The guide took this picture of the four of us at the very top of the trail, and I took this photo of John on the way down. It's not easy to take a picture while on a quad bike!

This was a fabulous afternoon out! John gave it a big thumbs-up, as did the rest of us...even Amy!