I love a good castle and today we did two with a pub lunch in between. The first stop was Cawdor Castle of Shakespeare and Macbeth fame. Although for our purposes we were at the actual history. Macbeth did in fact exist but the castle was not completed during his lifetime. Shakespeare made him Macbeth the Thane of Cawdor but there was no evidence that he was the actual Thane.

The house was built around a living holly tree in 1454 and you can see it in the dungeon or as we would call it the basement. Although it probably was a dungeon back in the day. In all my many photos I somehow missed the tree but I do have a lovely photo of the dungeon cells.

The current Dowager Countess lives in the house. She moves out during the summer while the castle is open for tours. So although very stately you can also see that it would be comfortable to live in. They said they only moved the furniture out of the way of the paths but I do imagine they move in maybe at least one or two comfy chairs for lounging. Who knows maybe the aristocracy does not lounge. One room was set up and describes as a Singleton for the stay of a single guest.

As you will see in Cawdor Castle and many other homes and castles on this trip, swords and muskets were often used for decor. It seems at least one wall is decked out with a circle of swords or guns. Which shows the importance and the overwhelming number of weapons throughout Scotland.

My favorite part of the grounds was the woodland garden which was basically trails through the woods. There was a nice rambling stream that ran behind the castle which added to the peacefulness of the visit. The walk through the woods was a great escape from the busy days on the tour.

Of course there were also some formal gardens. A little early for the garden flowers but still lovely.

After the castle we stopped at the local pub for a Sunday pub dinner. I chose the traditional roast dinner and it did not disappoint. It was delicious. Sadly I forgot to take a picture or maybe I was hungry and couldn’t wait to dig in. I finished with basically a fudge brownie sundae. The best lunch of the trip. So if ever in Cawdor try out the Cawdor Tavern. Outside the tavern was a lawn bowls club and several people were out playing. Seems like a perfect Sunday afternoon activity.

From lunch we headed out to Ballindalloch Castle. The castle was built in 1542by John Grant who may or may not be my ancestors. My maternal grandmother is a Grant and my DNA shows that I am 56 % Scottish (the rest of me is British, Welsh, Ireland and a little Scandinavian.)

I am sure something historical happened here but I can’t remember what it was. What I do remember is that this estate shows how these families are making these big estates work today. The family opens the home for tours and events, raises cattle, have wind turbines and a whiskey distillery amongvarious other activities. It was interesting to see how it works.

We also got to meet the Baroness and her husband and saw the new laird in passing. They were driving by from their new home down the way and stopped to talk. Their sone is the new laird and he and his family live in the house. They were super cute and she told stories of when her father became the Baroness and Laird and they moved into the castle. He inherited it from her naughty uncle George. This was one of the days the tour split into 2 groups and Alison went off with the other group. I think they were a little disappointed that they didn’t get to meet her. However they were still super cute and posed for pictures. Since we were mainly Americans they talked about Americans that had stayed there and if we were ever to see Robert Zemeckis we should tell him that they said hi. Actually one of the people on the tour does sound editing for movies and does know Bob so maybe she will be able to tell him that they remember his visit.

After the castle we returned for another night in Inverness. Val and I tried to go here some local music. One of the girls had gone out the night before and said the Hootenanny was the place to be. It showed to have ceilidh music from 6:30 – 845 so I thought it would be perfect not too late since we had to pack to move hotels the next morning. We walked into town passing several where we could here Scottish music but kept going to the Hootenanny. The bar wasn’t packed but all the best standing places were taken and the tables reserved for those eating. I got a beer and hoped that the music would be good. There were 5 people with instruments but there was no mics so it wasn’t ever very loud and the crowd never really got into it. We stayed until i finished my beer and walked back to the hotel. We can say we went to a Ceilidh but it wasn’t what I thought it would be. Might try again in Edinburgh

Since we had such a big lunch Val and I split a fish and chips in the bar. The French fries were delicious the fish not so much. So not our best night but all in all two castles in one day is always a good day.