Eureka!

So I was less than kind this time last week about the little goblins I was sure stuffed around with Scottish street signs while we slept. After all, how else can you explain why we've been so unsuccessful in finding castles and lochs that we've been searching for on weekend road trips? Last weekend we experienced roads that led nowhere, and castles that simply couldn't be found (by us). This weekend was markedly different. I'm talking a 100% success rate!

I finished work early on Friday, because Paisley was having its Fair Day on Monday and we all got the day off work. Let me just add here that just because you have a Fair Day, doesn't mean there is a Fair to go and experience. It is just called "Fair Day". Presumably because working 9 to 5 is so unfair to begin with.

So over the weekend, as card carrying members of the Historic Scotland organisation (seriously - we get in for free now), we set off in search of the following sites:

• Dundonald Castle - spider sacs in the prison;
• Troon - because I saw a cute boy on the train once who got off there;
• Bothwell Castle - see picture above;
• Cadzow Castle - couldn't go in, so we parked in the disabled park and took pictures;
• Craignethan Castle - beautiful and green, and a very windy road to get in there;
• Cairnpapple Hill - communing with nature;
• Torpichen Preceptory - home to the St John Ambulance tradition - sort of; and
• Blackness Castle - where Mel Gibson's "Hamlet" was filmed.

So you can see it was a non-stop and action-packed weekend. My favourite was probably Bothwell Castle, because it was so well laid out, with lots of nooks and crannies to explore. The grounds were set a way back off the road and it makes a nice picnic spot.

I spent Monday just relaxing until Batreg made me go for a walk into the woodlands. Photographic evidence of all of this weekend's antics, including the bushwalk, will follow.