Stately Barrett Manor

Camelot! (It's not even a model!)

Paul in front of Doune Castle

Doune Castle Courtyard. Imagine a swordfight up those stairs.

(Pay no attention to that figure in the corner.)

Naughty Zoot! She's set alight the grail-shaped beacon again!

Same room, different angle.

This was the kitchen tower, and the lower room was servery to the Great Hall.

The Queen Mary Room

Mary, Queen of Scots was rumored to have stayed here. It was certainly a grand guest chamber.

It even had an en suite privy!

Looking down through the privy

The Great Hall

View from the Great Hall into the Courtyard

One of the upper chambers.

One day lad, all this will be yours!

What, the curtains?

The duke's privy was beyond this barred door

It must have been horrid to be a peasant living in the courtyard.

The Parapets

More Parapets

The Duke's Hall

This may have been the Duke's dining hall, but it was given a makeover in the 1880s.

The Duke's Hall

It's a Victorian ideal of what the dining hall might have looked like

Minstrel's Gallery in The Duke's Hall

The Wall Below

Now leave this castle, or I shall taunt you a second time!

Lunch Along the River Tay

The River Tay at Dunkheld

A Layby at Blairgowie

Dufftown Tower

Dufftown

What a day! Much driving around narrow, curvy roads.

But first – Camelot! Okay, Doune Castle. Built in the late 1300s by the 1st Duke of Albany, it has quite a colorful history, much of which is related in an audio tour narrated by the late Terry Jones*. He was a perfect choice, since Doune stood in for Camelot and other locations in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” Of course, coconuts are for sale in the gift shop!

We took many pictures and climbed even more stone stairs. I am amazed my knees survived.

We then hit the road stopping at Dunkheld for lunch at an open-air restaurant along the River Tay. It was a good day for it. Guinness and pizza fortified us for the wildest two hours we have spent on the road so far.

Yep, it took over two hours to drive through narrow, twisty roads, often with 60 MPH speed limits. An English acquaintance tells me that no one ever drives that fast on those roads, but she could have fooled us. Some of the roads were only a single lane with passing points where one could pull over and let the other pass.

Lovely country, though.

We finally landed in Dufftown in time for check-in at the B&B. Went straight out for a beer and a curry, then fell into bed.

*Obviously he recorded this while he was still living. Otherwise, that would be too silly, even for Camelot.

(Go to the next day)