Duart Castle

Long before Graham and I actually met, when we were chatting in a chatroom online, he told me he is a member of the McClain of Duart clan. It made the first few Christmases easy, buying him ties and scarves with the clan tartan.

When our plans to visit our chat friends in Russia fell through and Graham suggested we go to Scotland, I knew there was a prime destination.....the McClain of Duart clan castle.

One of the few castles that is completely renovated (in 1911) and habitable, it is the residence of the Chief.

In the castle courtyard and a view from the ramparts. We only were permitted in the area of the castle that was the keep....it had a kitchen and a dungeon on the lowest level, a bedroom and bathroom above with a scullery, and above that the grand hall. Climbing another set of narrow circular steps lead us up to the ramparts.

The chief's West Highland terrier apparently likes to sit outside the door to the tearoom and shop. He wasn't particularly friendly...he did not want to be petted, but he did not try to go in. We had read we could have tea at the castle but it was tea meaning snack, not high cream tea like we had in York. So I had a cheese scone and an apple juice (in a juice box!) and the guys got something also light and inocuous.

Proud to be here.....When we were inside there was a docent in one room and she asked us to sign the guest register. I mentioned that Graham was a member of the clan and she immediately straightened up and said "Well then, you will just have to sign the clan register". She offered to let Sam also sign but we had to explain and Sam and I signed the "regular" guest register instead.

Graham noticed that two lines above him was a signature by someone from Beckley, West Virginia and made a comment about that. Just then, a guy came over and said "Hey! that's me and I'm getting married here in a half hour". I missed my chance to ask if we could come. We went around the castle and as we headed over to the outbuilding which is the tearoom we could hear bagpipes and again when we left the tearoom. Think about it....getting married in a Scottish castle is far above some of the venues people chose in the states....I had a friend who got married at Disney World and know someone else who got married by an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas.

Heading to the Island

The town of Oban is where we caught the ferry to Craignure on the Isle of Mull. There is a good size fishing fleet and by the ferry terminal was a huge sign (right by a couple of food stands) that Oban is the fishing capital of Scotland. I don't know about that but the smell of the fried fish did not grab us and we were planning tea at the castle (more on that later) so we chose not to get our fish and chips there.

There were these two ruins. The tower was near the entry to the harbor and was apparently for defense. The circular building on the top of the hill is still unidentified but Sam has that assignment when we get back to Oban later this morning.

So far this was the only man we saw wearing a kilt, but it sure did let us know we were not in Kansas any more. *G* We plan on stopping at a woolen mill and Graham will have the opportunity to act on something he has always said he wanted.....can you imagine him in a kilt?

Parking on the ferry was not as difficult as I have experienced in the past. Ferries in the summer to Martha's Vineyard off CapeCod were always more crowded. But if you notice the lane lines...our car on the left could have been closer to the wall and there is space for another line of cars in the middle. I was glad I was not first on or off, so I could follow the jeep.

The road to the castle is the road to the Iona Ferry. More in the next blog entry about the Castle Duart.

Into Scotland and in Glasgow

As we headed north from York the terrain began to have more hills and the vegetation started to change. First we noticed evergreens where it seemed that all the trees had been deciduous before. Then we started seeing fewer and fewer trees and more and more sheep. When I noticed a lot of stone walls, we pulled into a "lay-by" to take some photos.

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I was able to find a hotel in Glasgow's West End. I had booked a triple room but I felt that we all needed a little more space, so Sam was able to have a single to himself. The Kelvin is a 2-star hotel and we have decided we will henceforth book into 3s or better. *G* The accommodations are completely adequate but we are preferring a bit more moving space and more comfort.

We came to Glasgow instead of the original plan to go to Edinborough because Graham had heard there was another professor of forensic chemistry at the University of Strythclyde. Her areas of research and his mesh so although she will also be attending the conference in Nottingham in July, they agreed to meet at her lab. They will continue to see how they can do research together....Graham is already scheming how to return to Scotland!

Located on a side street immediately adjacent to a busy thoroughfare, traffic noise was low.
Sam's room faced the street while Graham's and mine was in the rear, facing the tiny carpark.

Once we determined we were going to go to Glasgow, I was very excited to find out that there was a festival going on. This meant that we had 3 choices for that evening for music programs. We used youtube for our research and purchased tickets to see Eddie Reedor. She had a beautiful voice and sang a mix of country, old standards and Scottish songs. The crowd knew and loved her.

The venue, Moran Or, is located in a decommissioned church and we ate in the restaurant located there also. The rest of the building has a huge bar (World Cup on the tvs) and another club.

Desserts with dinner were good. Actually the meal was fine, but service was slow and because of that we missed a chance to get good seats for the show.

Sam got to run twice in Glasgow. We arranged for him to take a "running tour" and a running coach came by the hotel at 4:30 to take him for an hour's run. Sam got to see more of Glasgow than Graham or I did!

Additionally, we were able to find a running partner for Sam in Glasgow. Schools do not have teams but there are a number of youth clubs and senior clubs. Sam had found that there was a 10K race in Glasgow but was not allowed to register for it because it was only open to "seniors", runners over the age of 19. The organizer connected us to a "junior" club and when I provided Sam's running stats, they connected us with Alistair. We communicated mostly by email but had one phone call (yeah for Skype) about a week before we left home. The guys arranged to meet at the Botanical Gardens 2 blocks from our hotel, but then the Mom decided to drive all of us over to another park where Alistair knew the 5K route and the guys took off. We had a nice walk and when I determined that she is a GP (general medical practitioner) I asked a lot of questions how the Scottish health care system works. She feels it is a very good alternative, having spent a year in Australia and hearing about our system. She says no doctor in the public system will be rich with "swimming pools and yachts" (how she put it) but the pay is more than a teacher makes.

York, a wonderful surprise

When our original plans to visit Russia fell through Graham immediately suggested we visit Scotland. Since I try not to have us on the road driving more than 4 hours a day on vacation, I wanted to break up the 8 hour drive from Oxford north to Glasgow (more on that in a later blog entry) and, looking at the map, the city of York was just about halfway. Everything fell together so easily and it turned out to be a wonderful place to visit. We could easily spend 2-3 days there.

Our b&b was specially designed with clean modern rooms and local foods. Our host was very informative, providing suggestions for things to do and see and suggested a marvelous restaurant. And so, we were off, walking the rest of the day.

The old city of York still has much of the ancient walls surrounding it and we climbed up at the nearest gate and walked along for a while. The view of the buildings inside the wall captivated our imagination of times past.

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Ian, our host at the b&b, after determining that we had not eaten lunch and of course had a large meal planned for dinner, suggested we enjoy a cream tea at Grays Court, a Class I historic home that was the residence of the treasurer of York Minster from the 11th century until the 1600s and then owned by nobility when Henry the VIII shifted the power of the church during his reign.


The gardens were gorgeous and we could have eaten out here but we chose to go inside and ate instead in a window nook area.

We ordered 3 different teas and each pot was for one person, but realistically we could have shared one pot. As the day was still very warm, we also ordered a large bottle of sparkling water and, of course, some decadent "puddings" as the Brits call desserts.
I had a lavender shortbread tower and I believe I will be able to replicate this at home. Sam had a lemon cream cake which was delightful and
Graham enjoyed a fruitcake with currants and cheese.

We tried to behave our best; some were goofy and some were stuffy...guess who was which.

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Following our tea, we wandered inside the city walls. While this is an ancient city which had a population of about 20,000 in Roman times, it is a living modern city today. The streets are amazingly narrow and I was wondering how people managed to access their garages. We also managed to get a glimpsed into a courtyard and saw that there is green space within.

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We had been told not to miss the Shambles, a narrow street of shops which had been the butcher's street for centuries. There we chanced upon a shop that had vinegars, liquors and scotches to taste and purchase. Graham had fun tasting some scotches and we have a wee bit to enjoy over the next few days.

This sign caught our attention, as most pubs and other hang-out places have large signs indicating that they ARE a place to watch the World Cup meets.

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The York Minster towers over the old city. This was one of our first views as we walked along the City Wall. The exterior is amazing, but the interior even more so. Check out the windows and the ceiling! We made sure we were there to enjoy the Choral Evensong, the evening prayer with the men's choir singing most of the service. The sound was amazing.

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British food has a reputation of being not the best in the world and perhaps several of our meals so far would fit in that "edible but not noteworthy" category. It was with great delight of anticipation that we followed Ian's advice to make reservation at J Bakers. Jeff has been the proud holder of a Michelin star for 10 years at his prior restaurant, the only pub in Great Britain with a Michelin star. But he decided he wanted to make the food a bit more fun and opened this place.

We decided to partake of the grazing menu with seven courses served. The first was an amazing asparagus mousse which I forgot to photograph. This dish was amazingly light and we hope to be able to figure out how to replicate it.

Second was a smoked salmon with warm potato salad with apples and celeriac.

The third was amazing...something we were not sure we would enjoy. The served us lamb tartare with a black olive tapenade, with a quail's egg and olive biscuit on the side. For me the quail's egg was nothing special, but the rest was great and I will try to see if I can find the olive biscuit at least.





The forth course was Jeff Baker's fun twist on Cup Of Noodles....but packaged ramen can never hope to be this good! He starts with a fresh pork belly placed in a cooking bag with all kinds of herbs, vacuum seals it, and then simmers it for 24 hours. To serve he crisps up the pork belly and then serves it up with noodles, calamari and some veggies. yummmmmmmm

Dessert was a HUGE surprise, a tomato sorbet. Together with some pressed melon and served on an olive oil cake, this amazed Sam and me although Graham felt it was not quite up to the high standard of the other courses.

Cheeses were then served, as wel as pieces of a local fruit cake. The final course was coffee with chocolate truffles.

Graham also enjoyed a dessert wine from Spain which was sweet with a strong raisin flavor and a perfect ending to an amazing meal.




We took a cab back to the b&b and easily fell asleep!!