"To go or not to go?", "that is the question" .... to Floors Castle that is. Now like me you've probably never even heard of the place, but, it is the largest inhabited castle in Scotland; home to the Duke of Roxburghe. The estate is something like 56,000 acres, and has 44 farms and well over 100 houses on it, many of which house some of the 150 staff employed. Impressive stuff. And at only 40 miles away worth a trip over.
We had sort of planned a walk up the coast to Banburgh today and then get the bus back, but being a Sunday the buses were only every two hours so we didn't want to risk just missing one and then having to wait so long for the next one, hence our change of plans and our decision to go to Floors Castle which is on the edge of the famous Scottish town of Kelso.
Our journey into the Scottish Borders began just before 10am, and by 11:05am we had 'flashed' our HHA cards and were within the castle grounds. I must say however, that this is a modern castle not something from the 13th century as we might imagine when someone mentions a castle, it is more of a large country house. That said, it was built around 300 years ago so it's not exactly a Barratt House!
It was a very ornate house, it did remind me a little of Knebworth with how ostentatious it is. Many of the public rooms are far brighter than we are used to seeing in historic houses, much of the decoration was lighter and the blinds allowed lots of light in. It would be been really good for photos, however as with some houses photography is not allowed inside the house for security reasons. Considering however that the house has over 140 rooms, you only get to go in around 10 to 15 rooms, the rest are all used by the family and kept private. That was a little disappointing but it didn't spoil the visit.
What did surprise us, not just in the house but all around the estate was that for the size of the property and the fact that it was a Sunday, it wasn't that busy. It's a good job that the estate generates so much of it's income from other sources as it couldn't survive on the footfall we saw. The walled garden area was a little busier than the house, and the cafe there was quite full and served good reasonably priced food.
For the last part of our visit we decided to do the longer walk around the grounds, taking in the banks of the river Tweed where we had been told that it can cost £1400 for a one-day licence to fish during the Salmon season. But, signage wasn't that great on the walk so we ended up cutting it a little short and just headed back to the car, it was now just after 3:30pm.
For some reason Google Maps took us a longer route back to we didn't arrive back at the cottage until close to 5pm. Now time to get the chicken in the oven and Sunday dinner in a couple of hours, followed, if we have the energy and the weather stays fair, with a walk on the beach.
Update, yes the weather stayed fair so at 9pm we headed down to the beach for a short walk. I grabbed my camera and tripod as the temptation to take some photos was just too great and we joined a handful of other people around the small harbour with their cameras. The sky wasn't as spectacular as it could have been, but there was a few shades of pastel colours in the sky so we went back to the cottage considering our minor outing as a success. And, and, yes I said it twice, we didn't get back to the cottage until just after 10:30pm! Me still up at that time, could I be the next party animal?
We had sort of planned a walk up the coast to Banburgh today and then get the bus back, but being a Sunday the buses were only every two hours so we didn't want to risk just missing one and then having to wait so long for the next one, hence our change of plans and our decision to go to Floors Castle which is on the edge of the famous Scottish town of Kelso.
Our journey into the Scottish Borders began just before 10am, and by 11:05am we had 'flashed' our HHA cards and were within the castle grounds. I must say however, that this is a modern castle not something from the 13th century as we might imagine when someone mentions a castle, it is more of a large country house. That said, it was built around 300 years ago so it's not exactly a Barratt House!
It was a very ornate house, it did remind me a little of Knebworth with how ostentatious it is. Many of the public rooms are far brighter than we are used to seeing in historic houses, much of the decoration was lighter and the blinds allowed lots of light in. It would be been really good for photos, however as with some houses photography is not allowed inside the house for security reasons. Considering however that the house has over 140 rooms, you only get to go in around 10 to 15 rooms, the rest are all used by the family and kept private. That was a little disappointing but it didn't spoil the visit.
What did surprise us, not just in the house but all around the estate was that for the size of the property and the fact that it was a Sunday, it wasn't that busy. It's a good job that the estate generates so much of it's income from other sources as it couldn't survive on the footfall we saw. The walled garden area was a little busier than the house, and the cafe there was quite full and served good reasonably priced food.
For the last part of our visit we decided to do the longer walk around the grounds, taking in the banks of the river Tweed where we had been told that it can cost £1400 for a one-day licence to fish during the Salmon season. But, signage wasn't that great on the walk so we ended up cutting it a little short and just headed back to the car, it was now just after 3:30pm.
For some reason Google Maps took us a longer route back to we didn't arrive back at the cottage until close to 5pm. Now time to get the chicken in the oven and Sunday dinner in a couple of hours, followed, if we have the energy and the weather stays fair, with a walk on the beach.
Update, yes the weather stayed fair so at 9pm we headed down to the beach for a short walk. I grabbed my camera and tripod as the temptation to take some photos was just too great and we joined a handful of other people around the small harbour with their cameras. The sky wasn't as spectacular as it could have been, but there was a few shades of pastel colours in the sky so we went back to the cottage considering our minor outing as a success. And, and, yes I said it twice, we didn't get back to the cottage until just after 10:30pm! Me still up at that time, could I be the next party animal?
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