Perth, Balmoral Castle

Although I could have travelled to Balmoral from Inverness, a base in Perth and a car gave a change of scene and a chance to knock 2 of the PLC Castles off the list,

Perth has a beautiful new gallery, with the Stone of Scone being the main attraction.

You have to book a 10-15 time slot, your bags are checked, no photography, then you are let into a little room where you see a video presentation explaining the history and significance of the stone, then led into another room where the Stone sits in an assumedly bullet proof cabinet. I must have seen a documentary on the theft of the Stone because I thought it had happened in my lifetime, but it was in the 50s.

Apparently little fragments of the stone from when it was taken are still in people's secret possession.

They have a great Neolithic collection, of course, and some other more recent history of the town and area. There was a special exhibition detailing Art works which were being put into a few Vennels (the little lanes that run between buildings, usually named for an occupation: Bakers/Fisher etc I took photos of the details to hunt out the actual art works later.

I also visited the St John's Kirk, which is the oldest building still standing in Perth.

Some great carvings on the pews, although I couldn't find any Green Men

and they had a set of bells that you could ring. Of course I had a go. 'Abide with me' was the tune I chose from the songbook

This was my second glitch in accomodation on the trip, this time because I had my dates wrong - I has booked for the following 3 days! The owner lived nearby and came over to explain that there was still someone there, so she couldn't accomodate me, but pointed out a hotel over the road, which fortunately had a spare room, even though it cost me three times the price!

Next day I was hiring a car, so I didn't need to deal with my luggage - just put it in the boot. I drove out through the most amazing alpine valley through to Balmoral. 

Before I went into the Castle grounds, I did the walk up to Albert's Memorial Pyramid. Yes, there is a Pyramid on top of a hill at Balmoral.

This beautiful bridge from 18 led over the river

This is Princess Beatrice's Cairn - not the present one, Queen Victoria's daughter. There are memorials all over the Estate but I only saw these two. 

Approaching the Pyramid - it was a decent climb!

And a panoramic view from the the ledge.

Then into the gardens proper. The only part of the building that was open to the public was the ballroom, which had a photographic exhibition of Elizabeth II. No photos allowed! I did enjoy it though and clearly ER liked Balmoral as much as Victoria had.

The gardens had a couple of mazes, one being developed under the King's planning, some lovely wooded paths and a beautiful walled garden with Conservatory. All the things a good palace ground should have.

The plants are still small, but there are beautiful mosaics on the ground at the Compass points

The path leading to it

And Mother in the middle

The gates to the Walled Garden (you actually enter through a side entrance - George and Mary

 

Flowers in the Conservatory

The range of flowers looks promsing, but didn't deliver

Although there were plenty of Delphiniums - apparently Charles' favourite flower

There was a productive vegetable garden, as you would expect, and they are exploring using wool as mulch. I've read about this before, apparently it is very good for certain plants. They are using it on rhubarb and some vegetables.

I had seen that a little further down the road there was a stone circle, so I ventured further and found it. Actually there are more than 500 known circles in Scotland, and probably many more that farmers have removed, so it probably wasn't surprisng that I could find one close by.

It had a recumbent stone which is apparently unique to this area.

And if you read the sign, you will see that there was a nuclear bunker from the Cold War further down the hill. Did we have those in Australia?