We were tempted to view that castle, not realizing what might expect us. The weather was not very welcoming, cold and rainy, so we decided to visited Queen Mum's home from the inside as well. The old castle has been hugely extended during the centuries and, as it seems to be quite common in these furnished homes everything seemed to be stuffed in, regardless whether the color or item was matching the color scheme of the whole room. However, Queen Mum seemed to have loved that manor and some of the stories told were quite interesting.
Restenneth Priory
The sky didn't clear up, but at least it stopped raining when we stepped out of the car. Some of the remains of that priory are told to date back to 715 when king Nechtan was converted to a Christian and ordered a stone church to be built on this site. However, most of the remains of this church date back to the early 12th century. It was destroyed during the wars with the English under Robert the Bruce who helped to rebuilt it later.
Pictish Heritage - Aberlemno
Well, to be quite honest, I was very ignorant to the Pictish culture before, having only a little knowledge from films and comic books. We didn't want to only view places that have mainly been built by the conquerors or later Scottish kings or church buildings from a religion that was brought by Irish missionaries. Pictland or Pictavia is located in the north of Scotland, while Celts were living in the middle of Scotland; both kingdoms were united later and the lands seemed to have been conquered by Vikings later on.
Most of the remains are stone carvings or metalwork. In and around Aberlemno are some of these stones located. We visited the church and the cemetary first, before heading to the single standing stones...
Montrose
We had a short stop in Montrose to visit the House of Dun, a nice Georgian countryhouse, but didn't go inside. There was a pigeon house in the courtyard and a very nice garden. We enjoyed a cup of tea and drove to Montrose Beach.
Brechin
After having arrived in our B&B for the night, we left again to stroll to the nearby cathedral where more Pictish stones awaited us.
No comments:
Post a Comment