West Highlands & Hebrides, Scotland Day 9 - Inveraray & Loch Lomond
The church was supposed to be open at 9am and we were there around 8am. I had thought at least we could see the outside of the church and some loch views. However, luckily the door was open and we were able to see the inside, too! The door was connected with the cloister. According to the church, "the very heavy oak beams in the cloister garth were taken from two famous mid 19th Century battleships, the Caledonia and the Duke of Wellington."
As Walter J. Douglas Campbell was more anxious to achieve beauty than consistency, the interior was boldly decorated with stone and wood works.
The heavily carved, ornate choir stalls feature coats of arms of significant families who are rooted to this part of Scotland. Also there was a cushion (?) on each seat that showed the traditional tartan check for each clan. The whole setting was very artistic!
The Bruce Chapel's large clear-glass window was originally the west window of St. Mary’s Church, South Leith, which was built in 1483. The sign at the Chapel said "The below the figure may be seen a fragment of bone from King Robert the Bruice's tomb in Dunfermline Abbey."
Three lights of the McCorquodale window in the St Fillan’s aisle were graceful. "The first shows the Warrior, the second, the Sword of the Spirit and the centre light depicting angels."
The exterior was as bold and beautiful as the interior.
There was a hare gargoyle, which works as a spout for a drain-pipe. There were actually supposed to be three gargoyles, representing a dog chasing two hares. I think I saw a dog but didn't see another bunny.
The church had so many details to see! The church also offered lovely views of Loch Awe.
Our second stop was the Kilchun Castle viewpoint. From the viewpoint, the castle ruin was seen on the other side of the shore across Loch Awe. Built in the mid-15th century, the castle remained the base of the mighty Campbells of Glenorchy for 150 years, and converted into a garrison stronghold, which is the oldest surviving barracks on the British mainland, but the castle was abandoned by the late 18th century.
Good morning, sheep!
We drove about another 30 minutes to Inveraray, a traditional county town with the ancestral home of the Duke of Argyll, Chief of the Clan Campbell - Inveraray Castle. The castle had a very handsome look. I have never seen a castle in dark blue/green grey color. The castle wasn't too old actually. Although an Inveraray Castle has been located on the shores of Loch Fyne since the 15th century, this castle was built in the 18th century, inspired by a sketch by Vanbrugh, the architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. It took over 40 years to complete. In the late 19th century, the third floor and conical roofs on the corner towers were added.
I included the visit of the castle in our itinerary because it was the castle that was used in Downton Abbey's 2012 Christmas Special, also known as A Journey to the Highlands! It was Shrimpy's impressive home! We watched the episode recently. There were many scenes that showed the rooms and items as well as the outside of the castle that we were able to recognize from our visit.
There were some old Japanese porcelain wares!
There was a bed attached to a murder and ghost story... Every castle should have some haunted and cursed objects, of course!
The Old Kitchen in the basement had seven fireplaces for different methods of cooking - "two stewing stoves, two baking ovens, a hot plate, boiling stove and a roasting fire with working spit." There was a collection of various jelly moulds. I would love to own those someday!
The door to the garden was seen in the Christmas special many times as a front door. We took a walk in the garden. It was raining at that time but we tried to do some woodland walks. However, a trail we took ended up with a dead-end. We didn't climb up to the folly on the hill in the estate, though. We were satisfied with seeing it from the garden.
My starter was a special of the day - hand dived scallops! They were tasty, much better than those we had some days ago! J had potted chicken and duck liver parfait with quince jam, dressed salad leaves, Arran oaties. I believe he liked it. He asked for more oaties, though. Four pieces weren't enough.
J's main was Samphire's seafood stew - lightly poached Loch Duart salmon, cod, hake, west coast cockles and mussels, rich tomato and fennel broth, garlic croutons, served with rouille, Mull cheddar, and warm crusty bread. The dish looked so good and J enjoyed it very much! Why didn't I order it?!
Well, my oven roasted loin of hake wrapped in pancetta with butter beans and garden peas, white wine, chilli and chive butter sauce was pretty good. However, J's stew looked more interesting!
We shared sautéed green vegetable. Yum!
We skipped desserts because we thought we could get some sweets at a cafe in the town or somewhere on our way. Later I realized it was a mistake... We didn't get anything in the town after all, and drove directly to a viewpoint of Loch Lemond, called Firkin Point. It was very much cloudy and dark at that time, it was a quite nice place to watch the water. Loch Lomond is the largest lake by surface area in Great Britain, and the second largest lake by volume in Great Britain, after Loch Ness. From the viewpoint, I could see just a part of the whole lake but it looked pretty big!
We stopped by at Luss, a village on the bank of Loch Lomond. It was a cute little village. We walked to a popular cafe called Coast House Coffee Shop to have tea and sweets...
The cafe was packed and busy. We took-away tea. I didn't see any sweets on the counter that I would like to bite.
There was a nice church at the corner. The church was built in 1875, although a church has been the site since the early 6th century.
More views of Loch Lomand!
Then we drove to Balloch, a village at the south end of Loch Lomond. Before we checked in our last B&B in the village, we visited Balloch Castle, an early 19th country house. Near the house, the original Balloch Castle existed. It was built in the 13th century and the Earls of Lennox used to lived there during the medieval period. The real medieval castle has been ruined and some stones from the walls of it was used to build the Victorian castellated mansion. In short, this was not a castle!
We found a Monkey Puzzle tree nearby! How cute!
This was the last view of Loch Lomond. We drove to the village of Balloch to see what's there. Nothing... Sadly I failed to get any sweets for the afternoon. Our B&B in the village was wonderful. Actually it was the best B&B in our trip. The owner gave us some fresh berries along with other small snacks, which cheered me up!
