Beautiful Day in Edinburgh Scotland

It looks like spring in Edinburgh in this photo. Wish I were there!!! via

Dunrobin Castle - Scotland

Dunrobin Castle in the Scottish Highlands near Inverness. via

Paul and Linda McCartney - Heart of the Country

Here is another delightful music video with footage of Paul and Linda McCartney doing what they did best.

Heart of the Country. Click here if you can't see the video.

Edinburgh in Autumn

Simply lovely! via

Scottish Garden of Ian Hamilton Finlay

The Little Sparta Trust Website

‘Little Sparta’ a garden created by the collaboration of poet and artist, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Sue Finley, his wife. Based on the idea that a garden is a place for poetry, philosophy, and political thought, words are carved on stone and wood, etc. throughout the garden. It is thought by some to be Scotland’s greatest contemporary work of art. Located near Edinburgh in Dunsyre. source

photo credit

Miniature Portrait of A Dog

On display in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. I'm not sure if it's a miniature on ivory or a micro mosaic. I want it....badly! via

A Dusting of Snow in Scotland

I fully expected to wake up to a dusting of snow this morning but the weather report turned out to be much ado about nothing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining one bit. This probably isn't snow in Scotland either, but a heavy frost. See you later. via

Antique Tartanware from Scotland

I have only owned a few pieces of Tartanware in my lifetime of collecting. I would love to have a grouping like this one to decorate my slant-front desk, wouldn't you. via

The Queen Mum at Birkhall - Scotland

Times spent at Birkhall were relaxed and informal. In her late years the Queen Mum (1900-2002) enjoyed sitting with her corgis and admiring the views of her magnificent sunken garden. She was 99 in this photo. 

Birkhall is an early Georgian house that was the favorite holiday home of the Queen Mother, where she and her husband (pictured below) would bring the young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.

Vanity Fair Men of the Day caricature prints circa 1890 line the staircase wall. They are often called Spy Prints.

The hallway barometer was checked every morning by house guests in anticipation of fishing and other outdoor pursuits and the daily picnic. Lunch, their hostess would explain, is not a meal to be eaten indoors.
The walls are papered in Royal Stewart tartan and carpeted in a Hunting Stewart plaid. This is where the Queen Mum hung her pale blue gardening coats. Dog bowls and dishes and towels were always handy for the beloved corgis.

I found an old (1999) Country Homes & Interiors booklet I picked up on my last visit to England of the 20th century. It was devoted to 7 Royal Homes and Gardens. I'll share more with you from time to time. I used my iPhone to reproduce the photos from the booklet.  

Country House and Garden in Hamilton Scotland

I seem to be channeling beautiful days in Scotland this week :)
via birdsnest. on Flickr

Beautiful Beach Day in Scotland

A beautiful day at Yellowcraigs Beach in East Lothian Scotland photographed by © David Ross

I never think of good weather when I think of Scotland, do you? I always think of cold, windy moors and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights.

Two Cats in Edinburgh

You have to look closely to convince yourself this is not the same cat in two different locations. I guess they can go outside at will through the broken window pane. Nice.

Edinburgh Castle

Just a preview of what's to come. M J Turner photography

Modern Farmhouse built around ruins in Scotland

In Scotland, a Modern Farmhouse Rises From Ruins. A house on the tiny Isle of Coll was built on the remains of one abandoned 150 years earlier. The home is on one of a group of islands known as the Inner Hebrides that has a population of about 200. Constructed on sand, it was abandoned in the mid-1800s when large cracks began to appear in the structure. View the New York Times Slideshow. Read the related article "Warm Respect for a Scottish Ruin"

Loch Lomond, Scotland

"Oh! ye'll take the high road and
I'll take the low road and
I'll be in Scotland afore ye." 

(Hear here -- music, lyrics and bagpipes)

View from the high road 'Bonnie Banks O' Loch Lomond' Scotland via National Geographic.

Balbegno Castle | UK Scotland | Wellies Provided

Balbegno Castle

They even provide wellies, just in case anyone forgets  to bring them. 

Doesn't this look like the perfect place for hunting and fishing? Don't you absolutely love this rolling shelf in the hallway? 

Reflection in the Loch, Scotland

An absolutely amazing reflection captured by ©Russell Snowden. My favorite armchair travel photo of the day.



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Balvaird Castle in Scotland

Balvaird Castle in Scotland photographed by ©Simon Mayson via Flickr. Wonder if it's haunted?



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Iveraray Castle, Scotland

Iveraray Castle, Scotland a magnificent Scottish castle and ancestral home of the Duke of Argyll provides a unique Scottish visitor experience. The Castle is a remarkable and unique piece of architecture incorporating Baroque, Palladian and Gothic ... read more When shall we leave?
Photo via Pixdaus



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Library at Dunrobin Castle In Scotland

The 189-room Dunrobin Castle has been home to the dukes of Sutherland for over 800 years. The sycamore paneled library was designed by Sir Robert Lorimer, a noted Scottish architect, from spaces formerly used as a bedroom and a dressing room. There are over ten thousand books, many of them relating to Scots law and to nineteenth-century Highland development.

I photographed the first two pictures from one of my architectural books. The third photo is from Wikipedia.

I'll copy a bit of the castle's description from my 1990 book: "Dunrobin Castle is the largest house in the Northern Highlands of Scotland, and is the seat of the Countess of Sutherland. Parts of the castle date from the early 1400s, but it is the early-nineteenth-century Clearances, during which five thousand people were removed from Sutherland lands, that made the estate notorious. This mass eviction of small subsistence farmers appalled some Scottish journalists because of the lack of publicity that attended it."

"Today, although Dunrobin is still known as the site of some of the harshest episodes of clearance, it is also a remarkable showplace, filled with important collections and mementos of the family and of royal visits."




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