Exploring the area

This is Castle Kennedy, a large ruined towers house with wonderful gardens.

I dropped off MrA for school and drove on out off town to take the dogs on a walk as my day off 'outing'. I missed the turning for the planned coastal walk but instead turned down the road for Castle Kennedy, that promised coffee, gifts, cakes and walks. Sounds like a perfect combination!

Of course I was an hour early in arriving at the gate, but they kindly let me in to walk the dogs. And wow! What a beautiful place!

I learnt that the Castle had burnt down in the early 1700s and the family had rebuilt an impressive mansion instead with fantastic views of Loch, hills and woodland. The lord who lived in the original Castle had spent some time in France, and so there is a lovely combination of a walled formal garden and hours of walks through a varying and highly designed 'wilderness'. I saved the formal garden for another day, but the gate looked so inviting.

It is so old that much of it feels natural and random, and then you turn a corner to walk along a wide avenue of monkey puzzle trees, or red cedars. Hundreds of man hours were spent building all the earth works to create vistas, clearings and nooks, and they are evidently still cared for really well.

It is a rather wonderful place and I paid for a year's membership so that I can get lost there as often as I wish- between March and October that is!

An aside, apparently I am descended on my mother's side from a disinherited daughter of the Kennedys of Kennedy Castle, who ran away with a groom. How intriguing.