After a rainy start and a walk with Tim and Annika in the
drizzle the sun came out about lunch time, which was just perfect!
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| Picture of innocence! |
Making good use of our National Trust card we chose
Pitmedden Estate, a delightful garden established by Alexander Seton in 17th
Century. It is not too far from here and
a very pleasant drive through little towns like Old Meldrum.
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| The pond/fountain |
The garden is breathtakingly beautiful. It comprises a series of 17th
century parterre designs and topiary along with sundials. The sun was shining and the newly rained
drenched plants glittered: a lovely sight.
The kids saw the freshly trimmed hedges as a challenge for hurdle
practice but I doubt Alexander Seton envisaged this sport when he designed his
magnum opus. The newly invented sport of
elite hedge jumping came to an abrupt end as Annika decided to temporarily
rearrange one of the hedges. The said
hedge was neatly restored and we moved on to the avenue of Yew trees instead.
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| One of 4 square beds. |
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| Arise Sir Tim! |
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| Not a leaf out of place! |
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| Hedge leaper |
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| So perfect! |
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| Colours of our wedding flowers. |
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| Ah to capture a butterfly on a flower! |
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| The bees were abuzzing! |
After a brief look through the old farm buildings and
expanding our knowledge of Scottish words we headed off for our next bit of our
agenda. I should mention some of the Scottish
words: a bothy = bachelor’s pad, neeps = turnips, hairst = harvest – no wonder
we feel as if we are in a foreign country!
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| Alexander Seton |
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| One of two towers overlooking the garden |
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| Espaliered apple tree - I want one! |
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| Sundial at 2 PM - correct time! |
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| Under the arches |
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| White dogs on mantelpiece seem to be everywhere |
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| Worker's cottage |
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| Workers' houses |
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| Grand house at Pitmedden |
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| Woodland walk Pitmedden Estate |
We drove to Tolquhon Castle ruin just a few miles down the
road. Although we have had the privilege
of walking through much older still intact castles, this one is beyond
restoration. Preston’s Tower, the
original part of the castle was constructed in 15th century by Sir
Henry Preston. His descendant, William
Forbes, added the rest and wanted to be remembered for such. He had an inscription carved
on the gatehouse: "AL THIS WARKE EXCEP THE AULD TOWR WAS BEGUN BE WILLIAM
FORBES 15 APRIL 1584 AND ENDIT BE HIM 20 OCTOBER 1589". King James VI stayed at this castle. Unfortunately, as happened with many old
castles, financial issues caused the owners to move out. Tolquhon Castle was last occupied in 1718.
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| Tolquhon Castle |
Next stop was Newburgh Beach on recommendation from people
at church as a lovely place to be.
Indeed it was and all loved the white sands and dunes.
Time by the sea is so therapeutic.
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| Tranquil |
We had to drive through a very narrow and low yellow metal frame to park our car at the beach. We couldn't see the beach from the car park but followed the tracks through the sand dunes until we found the water! Wow! Shoes off, white sand, low tide, and summery breeze...
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| Ythan Estuary |
Newburgh is on the
Ythan Estuary near the Sands of Forvie.
There are terns visible on the banks of the estuary and apparently the
largest colony in the world of Eider Ducks also live here. We were charmed by the fur seals coming in on
the tide. We saw forty of more bobbing
along in the water, eyeing us off as we tried to catch them on film. There were many jellyfish washed up on the
shore as well. The water felt rather
cold to our Aussie toes but may have been swimmable if it weren’t for the
jellyfish.
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| Freedom! |
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| Annika's beach hand stand |
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| The estuary |
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| Beach shadows |
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| Temptation! |
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| Fun! |
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| Tricks in the sand dunes. |
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| From the cliff looking over the estuary |
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| "I do like to be beside the seaside!" |
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| A curious seal |
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| The North Sea heading to Norway |
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| Caber tosser? |
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| Beach art! |
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| Beach artist! |
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| Karl and the anti-tank blocks |
During WWII, Newburgh was thought to
be a high invasion threat from German units based in Norway. It was bombed and
there is still a crater nearby. Anti-tank blocks and scaffolding poles can
still be seen on the beach. Landmines were also placed in areas between
Newburgh Estuary and Aberdeen and in December 2012 a landmine was found in the
dunes, a fact we didn’t know before charging through the sand dunes and
cavorting around!.
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| Ythan Estuary and Forvie Sands |
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| Chasing shadows |
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| Seals and terns! |
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| He finally put the stick down before we left the sand! |
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| Idyllic! |
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| Well, the seals looked pretty harmless but you never know! |
The walk and play on the beach did us all good. Luke even finished his day's journal before dinner which meant after dinner he had more time to play! From my point of view, as the diary supervisor, I found it a whole lot easier. Hopefully, Luke will come to see the benefits!
Beautiful!!
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