This panorama is not a castle, but an abbey - more about it below. There are a lot of ruins in this area of Scotland. I believe this is the result of two things. First, many of these structures (castles and abbeys) were built in the 1400s and 1500s. So they are very old. Second, many of these structures were sacked as a part of the English invading Scotland. This happened fairly frequently over the centuries. There are some castles that have been restored and are nicely furnished. I didn’t go to any of those. I preferred the ones that were in ruins or at least not fancy.
Castle St. John in Stranraer: It was built in about 1511. I was not able to go inside since it closed for the season two days before we arrived in town.
Maclellan’s Castle: This castle was built is the 1570s. It is located in the town of Kirkcudbright. It was also closed for the winter (as of Sept. 30th).
Cardoness Castle: This castle was built in the 1500s. I didn’t take the time to go in this one…so many castles, so little time.
Dunsky Castle: We had to take a short hike up a hill and along the coast to get to this castle built in 1510. It is located just south of the town of Portpatrick. The yellow flowers in the foreground are on a gorse plant. It is a fairly “spiky” plant and it seemed to be used a lot as a hedge row.
This shot was taken inside a portion of Dunsky Castle.
Orchardon Castle: According the “Historic Scotland” information this is the only round tower house castle in Scotland. It was built in the 1500s. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was open. I was able to go in the “basement” storage area in the door on the right and in the “first floor” up the stairs on the left side.
I was extremely surprised to find a small doorway in Orchardon Castle that led to this very tight spiral staircase that led up to the top of the tower. There was a great view of the surrounding countryside from up there. I also saw a ring-necked pheasant while visiting this castle. The pheasant and country-side reminded me of central Pennsylvania.
Edinburgh Castle: Travis and I had to make a work-related “emergency” drive to Edinburgh (about a 2.5 hour drive). We got there late one evening and left before lunch the next day, so we didn’t get to see much. However, we did walk around a small portion of the “Royal Mile” portion of the city for about an hour. Ian, another co-worker that was already in Edinburgh, was kind enough to be our tour guide. This photo is of the Edinburgh castle which is on a rocky outcropping in the middle of the city. I really wanted to explore the castle, but it was closed at night. Maybe next time…if there is one.
There are quite a few old abbeys in the southern part of Scotland. Many were destroyed in past centuries by invaders from the south (from England). This is the Dundrennan Abbey which was built in 1142. Mary Queen of Scots spent her last night in Scotland here in 1568 before being exiled to England. The circular gray “spots” in the grass in the central-left part of the photo are where the vertical columns rested that held up the roof in the main hall.
This photo shows me (proving I was really there : ) ) beside the base of one of the columns that held up the roof of Dundrennan Abbey. It was very impressive how well built the remaining walls and arches were (behind me).
I visited the Kirkmadrine Church which is a newer church building built on the site of an older church. It is surrounded by a cemetery and is located out in the middle of a field (but is bordered by a stone wall). The “porch” of the church houses the Kirkmadrine “Christian Stones”. The earliest of these stones is a pillar dating from the 400s or 500s and contains a Latin inscription.
I thought this door and stone wall on the side of the Kirkmadrine Church building had a lot of character.
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