Castles, castles and more castles

Today has been a day of castles.  Before we left Fort William this morning we came across the ruins of Inverlochy Castle, only occupied for 28 years.  It probably took nearly that long just to build.  We also thought a visit to Neptune's Step the series of locks on the Caledonian Canal would be worthwhile after seeing it from the train yesterday.

The eight locks were built in the 1800's and it takes 1.5 hours for a boat to pass through.  Apparently building a series of locks in steps is cheaper than eight separate locks over a longer distance, mainly because you only need nine gates instead of sixteen.  It was operated manually by a team of 12 men until 1960 but is now hydraulic and needs only two operators.

We then started to head south unsure exactly how far we would travel, we're running ahead of schedule so decided to come further and stay for two nights.

Our journey today took us through Glen Coe another dramatically spectacular highland valley with steep hills on each side.  We pulled up and the kids and I climbed halfway up a hill.   We also cross the Rannock Moor before skirting Glasgow and heading back to the west coast at Ayr.

We discovered another castle ruin on the cliffs  at Dunure when we stopped for afternoon tea.  This one boasts having entertained Mary Queen of the Scots for a few nights, as well as roasting the local bishop over an open fire until he gave over his land to the Earl.

Our last stop before the ferry to Ireland on Tuesday is Culzean Castle south of Ayr.  The camp ground is located in the grounds of the castle so we were able to walk through the castle park for an hour and a half tonight before visiting to see the inside tomorrow.  We'll need the two nights as the castle is on 290 acres and has various buildings and gardens over the grounds so it'll fill the day.

It's quite a contrast to the ruins we have seen today but I think it's history is a bit more recent than the others, we'll find out more tomorrow I'm sure.

This area is Robbie Burns country, the Scottish poet, apparently Auld Lang Syne is his work.  I'll have to look up some of his other work to get the full experience.

Here's today's photos:

Camper Day 9